[AT] Belling

Ben Wagner supera1948 at gmail.com
Sat Sep 24 05:38:08 PDT 2011


I'm too young to know about belling, but I have heard stories on what
happened in my area of VA.  My grandfather and great-uncle were both heavily
involved in belling until it stopped in the mid 60's.  The tricks that some
of those folks played!  The belling would usually end when the newlyweds
came out on the porch and kissed to the cheering of the crowd.

Just to get noise, my great-uncle would find those round saw blades, place
them on a pole, and whack them with a chunk of wood.  Another tool was a
truck which a friend owned.  The truck was an old Ford, and it would
backfire if the right combination of fuel and spark was observed.  They
would back the truck up to a window, then fire it up.  My grandfather took a
shotgun, and fired straight up into the air so that the shot would bounce on
the metal roof.

There are some stories that I've heard about what happens when a previous
belling leader gets married.  The story goes that this character had a house
with a small spring house about a hundred yards away.  He tied a cable to a
light switch in his bedroom, routed it out the window and through the field
to the spring house.  So it happens that when the bellers came, he scrambled
with his wife out to the spring house.  The noise making would go on, and
he'd pull the cable to switch on the light.  Then, five minutes later, he'd
turn it off again.  On and on this charade went, until finally one of the
bellers decided to go check to see whether the man was upstairs.  Somebody
saw the cable, and followed it to the spring house, where the man and wife
was hidden.  The beller's solution was the dunk the former leader in a
wheelbarrow full of water.

There are a few stories more that I've heard, but I don't need to wear
everyone out.  Anyone else have memories of belling?

Ben Wagner

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 11:05 PM, Gene Dotson <gdotsly at watchtv.net> wrote:

>   During th 1950's dynamite was sold in hardware stores in
> our ares. Just had to be 18 years old or have a signed note from your
> father. Most of the dynamite sold locally was only 40 percent nitro
> glycerine, so was pretty safe, even if stored for a while. Never heard very
> many instances of shenanigans with the stuff. one that comes to mind is
> when
> a case was set off in the middle of a bean field to celebrate the belling
> of
> one of the neighbor's daughters.
>


>                    Gene
>



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