Appalachian History

Interesting post! And great blog. Have you ever heard of a shivaree involving a very long wire attached to a foundational beam of a house (usually a log or roughly hewn huge supporting timber beneath the floor); after the newly married couple get home, the serenading group would approach the house, pull the wire extremely taunt and make it vibrate. Such would create a noise that sounds like the ground itself is opening up --- low vibrations that seem to come from the center of the earth --- and guaranteed to keep folks up and out of bed! And somewhere I've a memory that the procedure is so frightening that some states passed specific laws making scaring folks with a wire attached to the house illegal!

I enjoy your Appalachian History posts tremendously.

Terry Thornton
http://hillcountryofmonroecountry.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the kudos, Terry! It makes sense that a wire pulled taut, tied to a house beam, and twanged would scare the bejesus out of residents: kinda like a gigantic dulcimer. Interesting that states would take it the next step and prohibit it. Must've been an awful lot of pissed off couples somewhere along the line for that to have occurred!

Dave,
Thanks for your quality work.
This entry was particularly interesting because I've been looking for a reference to the tradition of serenading newlyweds. I've used your Rosa Walden reference in my Orlando Stone Soup blog, for the Apr 9 '07 entry
"Virginia McCord of Peterson's Siding."