Buck - Where did the word come from?

Today in casual speech a dollar may be referred to as a buck.  

This use recalls pioneer days when deerskins,  called bucks and does were sold for amounts ranging from forty cents to four or five dollars.  Bucks were larger and therefore more valuable.  A buck or deerskin was a common standard value among Native Americans.

Today the average price of a deerskin ranges from $3.50 to $10.00 a square foot!

A Tall Tale From Kerby, Oregon

Most of us who live in Josephine County, Oregon have learned that Kerby was named after an early settler named James Kerby, but have you ever heard the story of how Kerby was founded?

Sketch by Gary Swanson

 In Josephine County's early mining days, an entrepreneur decided to open a billiard parlor in Grants Pass.  He went down to Crescent City, California, where he purchased a billiard table.  Now this guy was transporting the table strapped to a pack mule.  Once the man and the overburdened mule reached the site of where Kerby is today, the poor mule collapsed and died.

This man knew he was pushing his luck to have moved the pool table as far as he had, so he decided that the spot was a good as any other to open a billiard parlor.  He erected a tent over the table and opened the first establishment in Kerby (Kerbyville).

An elderly miner told me this story and several others; I don't know if he was pulling my leg, but it sure was interesting to listen to him!

Christmas Folklore

A little Christmas Folklore... 

It was thought that one who sits under an Evergreen on Christmas Eve will hear angels singing.

If the sun shines through fruit trees on Christmas Day, the trees will bear a lot of fruit in the coming season.

A white Christmas is a prediction of a prosperous year.

May we all have a white Christmas!

Will You Have Music In Your Soul?

In days of yore, Bulgarian peasants ate sparrows on Christmas Eve so that they would have music in their souls and would feel as if they had wings.

The sparrows were caught in wheat fields weeks before Christmas, killed and hung to dry. 

On Christmas Eve they were soaked, broiled and eaten.

Merry Christmas!