Volume 1, Number 9 - Fall 1963


CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

Following a suggestion made by a number of our members, we have begun to collect material for a special issue of the Quarterly to be devoted to the folklore of this region. It has been pointed out that there are many books on regional folklore and several excellent ones on Ozarkian folklore, and that thirty pages in our Quarterly would not add much to this area. We agree with that, but we believe they might make interesting reading for our members.

When we get into the customs, traditions and beliefs, the tales told and heard around the chimney corner, the ballads and poems, the sayings, by-words and signs, we are in a never-never land that is illusive and ill-defined. But these customs and traditions were an important part of the past of the people who immigrated to the upper White River Valley.

We hope that many of you will help with the special issue: if you stop and think for a moment, you may remember an old superstition or "sign," a saying, a home remedy, recipe, a courting or burying custom, or an old ballad. If you do recall some of these traditions, write them down and send them to us.

Several people are already helping-we have some material on the Ozark dialect, on burying customs, folkmusic, superstitions, and several poems and sayings. But we need a lot more to fill even the thirty pages we plan. Let us hear from you.

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