Many superstitions, folktales and legends surround buckeyes

Buckeyes can be found in Wilcox County, Ala.

One of The Wilcox Progressive Era's readers e-mailed me the other day asking about buckeye trees in and around Camden. While buckeyes are most commonly associated with the state of Ohio, I told him that I was sure that there were a more than a few red buckeye trees in Wilcox County. I also advised him that he might want to put on his snake boots if he planned to go hunting for one of these trees in the deep woods.

I also suggested that he wait a few more weeks until the start of fall. That’s when the buckeye leaves will start to change color and the buckeye nuts will begin to fall to the ground. With that in mind, I also told him that there is no better time to pick up a fine, homegrown good luck charm, or so the old-timers say.

I’ve been carrying a buckeye in my pants pocket for a number of years now for good luck, and while I can’t say that I’ve hit the lottery or anything along those lines, it’s been fun to carry on this neat old tradition. I first learned about the supposed good luck properties of buckeyes years ago when I went into an old country store in our neck of the woods and got to talking with the elderly proprietor about the old days. He was cracking pecans at the end of the counter and there beside him was a box top full of dark brown buckeyes.

I asked him if he was going to sell those and he said no, because if he sold them it would take the good luck off of them. He asked me to take a handful home to the wife and kids, and I grabbed up four or five before buying a Coke and heading on down the road. That old man has since died, but to this day I’ve toted one of those buckeyes everywhere I’ve went.

Not long after I came into possession of my buckeye, I got to looking more closely into the folklore surrounding these nuts and was surprised to learn that there were many superstitions about them. Some say that you’re supposed to rub it for good luck, and this rubbing will change the color and shape of the buckeye over the course of many years. Some say that a buckeye will shrink, but it’ll never rot.

Other folktales say that buckeyes will make you rich or help you win card games and drawings. Other superstitions say that rubbing a buckeye will help cure minor ailments like arthritis, asthma, headaches and rheumatism. I’ve also heard that if you carry the buckeye in your left pocket, it helps rheumatism, and if you carry it in your right pocket, it works as a good luck charm, sort of like a four-leaf clover or lucky rabbit’s foot.

Native Americans had many interesting beliefs about buckeyes, but perhaps the most interesting deals with an experience we’ve all had before, the feeling that you get when you meet a complete stranger but feel sure that you’ve met somewhere before. It’s said that Native Americans carried buckeyes to give to strangers they felt that they’d met before. Traditionally, as a token of friendship, they would swap buckeyes if they both shared the same feeling of having met before, perhaps in a past life.

In the end, if you do find a buckeye, don’t try to eat it because they are poisonous, just not toxic enough to hurt you if you carry it around in your pocket. With that said, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience with their own tales about buckeyes. Do you remember any old wives’ tales about them? Do you remember any old-timers who used to carry them? If so, let me hear from you, and I’ll be sure to pass along those stories at a later date.