All my life, I´ve read the "Betsy-Tacy" books, which is this fun series set in the early 1900s about a girl very much like me. When the girls are freshmen or sophomores in high school, they´re at a party and they play a game to reveal how a girl feels about a guy, or what´s going to happen between a certain girl and guy.
For the game, everyone eats an apple down to the core. Then you break your apple core (or a friend´s apple core) and say the name of the male to be explained. You count the seeds inside and recite this rhyme:
One, I love.
Two, I love.
Three, I love, I say.
Four, I love with all my heart.
Five, I cast away.
Six, He loves.
Seven, She loves.
Eight, They both love.
Nine, He comes.
Ten, He tarries.
Eleven, He courts.
And Twelve, he marries.
If you have more than twelve apple seeds in your core, you start over.
I love, love, LOVED playing this game with my apples when I was twelve or so. The apple was never wrong. Yes, I did love my best friend´s older brother, but did I really need an apple core to tell me that? Who knows. I guess I thought I did. I can´t remember ever getting any readings that were a revelation.
In the past couple of weeks, I´ve become obsessed with apples. I eat them all the time. They are my snack of choice, which is a lot better than chips. Unless, like, I want chips. Then I eat chips. But apples appeal to me surprisingly more often now.
Early into this college round of apple-eating obsession, I bit all the way into the core and saw some seeds and remembered this rhyme. I thought I would share it. It always makes me smile, and my stomach flutter if I ever break a core for anyone.
I did go ahead and play the game, and have been playing every time I eat an apple since. Still no revelations.
The apples know.
- Stephanie
WHOA!! I think getting 12 seeds is difficult there are generally 4 to 6 seeds i guess but it'll do coz 4 (Four, I love with all my heart).and 6( Six, He loves.) are good enough for me =)
ReplyDeleteI need to go eat an apple now ;)
ReplyDeleteReally fun post :)
ReplyDeleteSadly, Catholicism and British invasions have wiped out most of our archaic/folk-sy traditions, but however, we do still have a few that remind me of the psychic apples.. Legend has it that one can find out the initials of their true love by coating a a dinnerplate with flour, placing a snail on one side, and leaving it covered overnight. By morning, the snail's path through the flour should reveal the initial of your true love..
Also, if you sleep with a slither of wedding cake under your pillow (1900s couples would routinely mail "slices" of their wedding cake to family members who were ill or otherwise engaged on their wedding day), you will dream of either the initials or the face of the one you will marry. I don't know anyone who believes these aren't pathetic, but they're fun for the culture geeks amongst us, which must be someone, because you do see the odd slither-cake-box for sale!!
Apologies for the long comment, again, great post :)
Ayesha: Yeah, I can't remember how, but I feel like I've gotten all the way through the rhyme and had to start over before... Not sure how that could have happened though.
ReplyDeleteAlana: Do itttttt. They don't lie.
Ginger--wait...Whoa. I really thought that's one of the names you've had...um...*feels hesitant*: First, I never mind long comments. I've never heard of the snail one! I love that. The cake slice thing is actually in the Betsy-Tacy books too! I feel so cultured XD
~Stephanie