"The Scotch Irish folks up in these mountains have a lot of tales, many gleaned from real life experiences."
Yes indeed girlangler,
I think the experience's that had the most impact on folks back then is when the dying person relayed information about a friend or relative being dead, yet it would be days to come before family members received the news by mail that "yes" that person had died & had died before Aunt Jane died.
One of the tradition stories in my family concerns my grandfather Crouch. He was working in Washington, DC and his young daughter, Caroline, was very sick. a call came to him that he should hurry to where she was because they didn't expect her to live much longer. He hurried to a cab and told the driver to rush him there. While en route, his deceased Aunt appeared to him in the cab and told him to not hurry anymore because the girl was with her. He tapped the driver and told him to take it easy. The story was actually (As I understand it) related to my uncle when the cab arrived. You see, my grandfather had left the office without cab fare and the driver had to wait while PawPaw got the money together to pay the fare, so the driver told my uncle about the lady appearing in the cab. Odd thing was, the cab driver, though visibly excited, wasn't frightened about the incident!
" . . . yet it would be days to come before family members received the news by mail that "yes" that person had died & had died before Aunt Jane died.. ."
Up here in my habitat we always believed you'd hear beautiful singing, like angels, or a bird would try to fly into a house through a window.
If you dream of a birth somebody will die, and if you dream of a death somebody in the family will have a baby.
But hearing the beautiful music is something I believe, because I have heard it.