[TheForge] Re: old wife's tales

[Mike Spencer]

There's a yarn in Botkin's 1947 Treasury of New England Folklore:

    A strapping young seaman is spending his time ashore sparking a
    sweet young  seamstress.  He goes and sits by her work table and
    chats as she works.  But being a bit nervous in the company of the
    young lady, he fiddles with things and one day he breaks  a
    needle.

    So he soon arrives at the blacksmith shop with the broken needle,
    explains his dilemma and asks if the smith can repair the
    needle. The smith agrees that he'll have it fixed right up by late
    afternoon.  When the sailor is gone, he sends the apprentice
    across the street to the general store for a new needle.  He puts
    the new needle over the fire until it blues slightly and, upon the
    sailor's return, presents it and charges him a cent.

What makes this even funnier for me is that a few weeks ago I was
driving around the back country, finding my way down inconspicuous
lanes to old mills and and secluded farmsteads, looking for an engine.
One old farmer -- and sawyer, woodsman and betimes blacksmith -- told
me the *very same* yarn, save that it was a farm boy with a harness
needle and he omitted the bluing bit. And it was the blacksmith from
whom he'd learned his smithing skills to whom it happened!

Yarns do get around.

FWIW,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^