A Time to Sow and a Time to Reap: How People Use the Signs to Live By

Creator: Eastridge, Deanna

: Brown, Clyde

: Fain, Linda

: Turner, Clyde

: Fain, Edna

In this project, Deanna Eastbridge interviewed family members and friends, Clyde Brown, Linda Fain, Clyde Turner, and Edna Fain to learn more about how her family used and still uses natural signs to indicate when to do things such as planting vegetables, killing hogs, going to the doctor, going to the dentist etc. This interview is among projects created by students enrolled in English 446 (initially English 452), “Appalachian Folklore,” 1981-2019, and in graduate level counterparts English 548 and 648 “Appalachian Folk Culture(s)” offered 17 fall semesters between 1987 and 2009. Minimally contain collector’s introduction and analysis, transcribed informant interviews, and excerpted and labeled examples of oral, customary, and/or material folklore/folklife collected primarily within the Appalachian region. Most include also tables of contents, informant information, indexes (outlines) of interviews, photographs, miscellaneous paper items, and indexes of informants, genres, and geographic locations. Accompanying audio recordings (several minutes to 2+ hours). Transferred to McConnell Library Archives & Special Collections from Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, Fall 2013.