The 1974 Winter Edition of the Foxfire Magazine contains a compilation of newspaper articles written by Harvey Miller. At the time of the magazine’s publication Miller’s weekly column had been around for sixty years and was till being published in the Tri-County News located in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
Here are a few October excerpts from the magazine.
1963
We have had some frosts, but no freeze yet at this writing.
Carmon Miller showed the writer a potato that he dug this year that growed in the shape of a lug wrench. Miller has the potato on display at his home.
The farmers who has tobacco cured enough are classing some of it when it is in case these foggy mornings.
10/24/63
1964
The praying mantis for some reason no one yet knows has failed to put in their appearance here this year, which is the first time since they was first seen over ten years ago. I believe two year ago was the best praying mantis year when about everybody in this area that had never seen one had the opportunity to do so.
When the praying mantis was first observed here, they certainly was the most talked about topic of the entire country. But they looked so frightful to some folks that they killed every one they seen on first sight. Then the talk got around that they were so good to kill other insects that was a pest, these same people that was an enemy to them wouldn’t kill one at all.
In the tobacco patches was always a good place to find them, but they was not there this year. If the praying mantis was imported there, they have to be again, it looks like, as it favors very much that they are all gone for good. But the people here are still living in hopes that they will again return next year and in great number as they are indebted to kill a lot of insects that are a pest to growing garden and field crops.
The wooly worms that is crawling around here this year has a lot of black color on them which the old timers proclaim that is a good sign that we are in for a very bad cold winter weather, but with some pleasant weather during the middle part of the winter season as the wooly worm is wrapped around the middle ways with a light coat color of brown. The old timers here always looks for the wooly worm in the fall of the year to see what color they are dressed in so that they can speak their opinion as to what kind of winter weather that we will have the following winter.
There is only two brass kettles that we can learn about in all this section and the rest of them is copper kettles but the only difference that we can find out about making apple butter in the brass and copper kettles is that you can’t put the fruit in the copper kettles and let is set overnight, which they say the fruit will turn blue as indigo and get poison in it out of the copper. I have been informed but may not have definite facts that brass kettles no longer can be purchased on the market, just the copper kind. Anyway, the two brass kettles that I know is almost 50 years old while I recently seen a brand new copper kettle.
Ike Whitson of Tipton Hill section reports that he has growed some of the biggest gourds in his garden this year that he as seen in many past years. He said that he fixed a pole scaffold for the gourd vines to trail on and he said there was five big straight-hand-led gourds that growed on one vine. He said he didn’t have any crooked-handled gourds as he said these kinds had to grow on the ground. But he said his big long-handled gourds was about too big to drink water out of at a spring, but these big gourds would be good ones to fix to keep salt in.
10/1/64
Always nice to take a look back to Pigeon Roost and Mr. Miller’s writings.
I first learned of praying mantis when I was in second grade. My teacher Mrs. Sult let them live in one of her classroom windows. She used them as a teaching tool.
We have praying mantis around our house and I’m thankful for their help in keeping pestilence at bay.
Granny paid close attention to the wooly worms. She said the blackest one she ever saw was the fall before the 1993 March blizzard.
Jump over to the Foxfire website and poke around. They are still publishing the magazine and those wonderful Foxfire Books too.
Last night’s video: Supper Straight From The Cooler.
Tipper
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My picture of a praying mantis in amongst my impatiens, made the back of our local paper this past summer. I find them fascinating! We ordered egg sacks many years ago when we lived in town (11 years, 1983-93) to boost the population for our new garden. When we made the move here in Sept of ’93, we captured as many as possible and brought them with us. As I come across them I often tell them how lucky they are to be descendants that got to live in the country lol The wooly worms I’ve seen here (west central IL) are mostly just brown. I’ve got a crockpot of chili simmering and an apple pie in the oven. Got the mowing completed yesterday so it’s time to weed eat, today. Blessings to all who are needing them♡
When I was a kid, we called the praying mantis an eye spitter!!! My brothers would tell me that if you caught one and he spit in your eye, it would put your eye out!!!! Brothers!!!!!!!!!
The female of the species is deadlier than the male, they say, and in the case of the mantis, it’s true. The female cannibalizes the male after mating (not invariably, but often enough that the surviving male can count himself lucky). Although they do stand in a pose that looks like praying, I’ve often wondered if it should have been spelled “preying” mantis, and the word was changed around by someone with a sense of humor.
Hi Tipper, family, and acorns. I haven’t commented in a while but keep up with the blog everyday. Praying for all of the sick and their needs. Enjoyed the read this morning. South Mississippi native. We live about 40 miles from Gulf coast and 30 miles west of Mobile, Alabama; and are getting ready for the Hurricane. Please keep all of us in your prayers. Love to you all!!
I’m praying for everyone! Hope it weakens quickly!
I don’t think I have ever seen a praying mantis, but we do have wooly worms, and my husband was always talking about them ‘predicting’ what the winter would be like by how much black was on them. I loved Matts memory meal video yesterday and having grown up eating deer, I could almost taste it! Such good eats!! My John hunted back in the day, including grizzly, but in later years switched his weapon of choice to a camera. We spent many years in the fall season sitting on a riverbank watching the black bears feed on salmon in readiness for winter & at times have them walk by within 10-12 feet from us – and never had one threaten – they were there for the salmon only.
Good Morning Tipper and Acorns. These excerpts remind me so much of a column that used to be in our local paper, The Tomahawk. Ruth Bowling, born and died in Shady Valley 1938-2024. Shady Valley is an incorporated town, in Johnosn County, TN. It is a community that rests in the valley between the Holston and Iron Mountain ranges. She wrote about anything and everyone that was connected to The Valley. There are 2, 404 articles listed in the newspaper archives for her.
It will be interesting to see if the wooly worms’ color aligns with the weather forecast predictions involving El Niño this coming winter. Last week I opened ten persimmon seeds; half showed images of spoons, while the others showed knives. I’ll have to poke around and see if Mr. Miller ever wrote about using persimmon seeds to predict the upcoming winter weather.
Shirl, my mother in law liked to opened persimmon seed and see if they were a fork, spoon, or knife. She would laugh if she found all three and say at least one of them will be right.
This was so enjoyable to read! As a child, I loved to watch a praying mantis. As far as tobacco patches, I don’t hear anyone say, “patches” anymore, just tobacco fields. My granddaddy grew gourds mostly to make dippers for drinking water. On occasion he used them to make birdhouses.
Continued prayers for Norman and any others mentioned this week.
I just loved reading all of this. I adore the months of September and October. I’ve been noticing that the wooly worms have a lot of brown here this year and we are supposedly in for a mild winter. It will be interesting to see if that actually plays out. So special that you and Matt could have one of his favorite childhood meals. I try to make my hubby’s favorite meals and dishes that his mom would make and I know it also takes him back. I’m so thankful Papaw Tony is able to go hunting this year! I’d like to try making pickled corn sometime. I have quite a few jars of Granny’s kraut working right now. Thanks for all you share with us. 🙂
These articles are always interesting. One year when my boys were small we left our cedar Christmas tree up while we drove to Nashville for family Christmas. When we returned there were hundreds of baby mantis in the windows! Later I learned what the eggs look like and tried to find them. If you have never seen one look them up so you know what to look for. I had seen them but didn’t know what they were. As for wooly worms, several years ago I realized that when I see one it’s always going across a paved road at a perpendicular angle, never in the direction the road goes. Has anyone else noticed that? Maybe there is no particular reason this happens but it’s fun watching nature. Thanks for this post.
I enjoyed Paul’s trip to Branson. He sounded great on stage. I’m happy he was able to go and that he shared his experience.
I’ve had lots of people to laugh and scoff at me when I mention woolly worm forecasts. Many times later in the Winter some would come back to say, “You and your woolly worms got it right this time.” The next year they are with the doubters again.
Jackie, in past years we had a local weatherman that would have a wooly worm with him when he would give his long term winter forecast in the fall of the year. It was sort of a joke for him to do this.
Thank you for those October notes and your praying mantis and wooly worm memories. A friend recently said she had seen this year’s wooly worms here but couldn’t remember the saying about the stripes. I will share this with her.
I wanted to thank you all again for all your prayers and love. I wish I could tell each of you how much it meant to me to know I was being lifted up in prayer during trying times. I felt God’s love and help so much the last few weeks. Thank you for being the wonderful people you are and bringing God’s love to all you do, even your internet replies and posts. Miss Wendy sends her love too as she is gazing around her world this morning here in my arms. Somehow I managed to type one handed and hopefully no big errors! : )
Praying for all in need! Barbara, we will pray for Ed and you about all you have going on.
Tipper- can you please correct my spelling of a wooly worm? Thank you so much. I thought I proofread it better than that.
I love these excerpts you print of Mr Millers. We went on a picnic and a hike with our three youngest grandchildren yesterday. They are homeschooled and spend Wednesdays with us as their Mama works on that day. The oldest found two wooly worms on our hike, and we were teaching her about the old-time predictions about winter weather. The first one had lots of black on each end with brown in the middle, but the second one was almost all black. It could be a big blizzard winter this year! We have a very old copper kettle that my hubby’s grandmother used to make apple butter. We have never tried it. I always make my apple butter in the crock pot. Your supper looked yummy last evening. I most usually make my deer steak by rolling it in seasoned flour too. We love to use the drippings to make gravy.
My chicken peck finger hit the wrong key – I was trying to write pecans and black walnuts from my trees.
My Granddaddy Kirby would watch his chickens and the birds and could predict bad weather on the way about as accurate as today’s weathermen. One of our local weathermen likes to brag about his Doppler Radar and say his station has been certified as having the most accurate weather forecast- my son said he was on Facebook this weekend trying to make excuses for badly missing last weekends for rain. I think he had many commentators “giving him down the road.” Many of us today don’t think or realize the generations of the past did not have today’s technology to predict the weather, they had to look for other ways. I don’t know if it is any prediction of a bad winter, but the squirrels have been busy storing up
Hmmm can’t recall having heard before that the colors along the length of a wooly worm was a time series of the progress of winter. I just knew of it as the amount of black or rust was a general indicator of the winter overall. Good to know of a more specific interpretation. About praying mantis – the will bite if you get too close and their jaws are more powerful than you might think them being so stick-like. I rarely see them here for whatever reason. I look at that date 1963 and recall I turned 10 that year. Seems so far away now and in a different world. As my Dad would say, “If I had known then what I know now…” True for most folks I guess.
I learned about praying mantis in elementary school. Our teacher explained to us what they were and showed pictures of them. She also explained how you could find their nests on twigs in the open fields, break off the twig, put in a jar with holes in the top, put the jar next to a warm vent and they would hatch. So one day I ventured outdoors and found a cocoon looking object on a twig and completed the steps. It wasn’t too long one morning when I was awakened by a scream from my mother downstairs. I ran down the stairs and before I could speak mama said, “you get those bugs outta here, put them in daddy’s garden.” There were a million tiny praying mantis in and out of the jar. I said,”Oh they hatched.” I picked them up, ran out the back door and deposited them in daddy’s garden. He had a beautiful garden that year. I think it was because of the praying mantis.
Interesting stuff, Tipper. We are fortunate to have all but a few of the Foxfire books. I do, however, forget we have them til I am lazy in the afternoon to realize there are there to be read til I am getting sleepy in the evening….keep on reminding me of forgotten things, GF.