[TheForge] Re: old wife's tales

[Jerry Frost]

I think we should reinvent this Yarn. Wouldn't a 
knitting needle fit in better?

I'll go back to my corner now.

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.


From: "Mike Spencer" <mspencer at tallships.ca>



>
> 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\