Planting by the signs of the moon. Healing with herbs or by touch. Water and treasure dowsing. Feather crowns. Black cats. Eerie tales of the supernatural.
These and many more subjects were touched upon by Lyle Sparkman, a local Ozarks folklore collector.
Sparkman, who serves as the East Newton School District’s assistant superintendent of schools, was the keynote speaker at Monday’s meeting of the Genealogy Friends of the Library. A seventh generation Ozarker, Sparkman began collecting folk stories from relatives and friends and children in 1964, tape recording many interviews for posterity.
Sparkman related one story from his days as a third grade teacher in the Southwest R-5 School district, where he taught from 1978 to 1983.
Sparkman was reading the children a ghost story from a Vance Randolph collection called “The Slap.” In the story, a McDonald County stepmother had been unkind to her stepchildren. One night, she was slapped by an unseen force. Then a ghostly voice told her “be kind to my children.”
“One little one said ‘That’s true! My granddad told me about that and he saw the red mark on her face!’ “ Sparkman related. “I threw that book down and started talking to the kids instead.”
This 1978 incident led to the collection of 108 stories from his students, many on the supernatural, a subject most adults shied away from discussing.
But Sparkman emphasized he wasn’t a “ghost hunter” or someone whose interest rested purely in the supernatural. Sparkman’s repertoire included the origins of superstitions that continue today, such as tossing spilled salt over your left shoulder and being wary of black cats crossing your path. In the Ozarks, he said, a black cat crossing your path can be a good sign, depending on the direction the cat is traveling.
“If the cat crosses from left to right, it’s not bad luck, only from right to left,” he said. “And if a black cat comes to your house unbidden, that’s a good sign.”
Some superstitions have unclear origins. Sparkman remembered one from childhood. If the grandkids ran into the house, she would make them sit down first before running out again, he said.
He also told of curing through natural means such as herbs like iron weed and dried mullein, and of those reported to be able to cure by touch.
Some superstitions varied from clan to clan, he said. For instance, for some Ozark families, finding a “feather crown” — a ball of feathers nestled in the pillow where a dying relative rested their head — is a sign that person went to Heaven. Other families believe the opposite.
