It's a sunny, beautiful, and peaceful (so far) Friday May 13th here in Andover, NY. Historically Friday the 13th is fraught with superstitions about bad luck and what to do to avoid it. Many of those things are typical run of the mill superstitions like not opening umbrellas indoors, avoiding crossing paths with black cats etc. Which got us to thinking about Andover specific superstitions.
Not walking on the lawn in front of Andover Central School is a bit of a superstition for a certain generation. Whether that's just a habit, to dodge bad luck or to avoid the wrath of the spirit of Mr. Kessler is unclear. The present administration doesn't appear to have a strong opinion about folks walking on the grass and yet leaving the pavement still feels a bit risky.
We all know about walking past the Brick late at night is a bad call. Even if you don't believe in bad luck or spirits it's not really worth the risk when you can just choose a different route. At least cross to the Sacketts side of the street if you must go down West Greenwood Street after dark. There are are also other areas in town I've heard tell are bad luck to bother like the grounds of the old silk mill.
Andover baseball and softball players alike know to jump up to slap the dugout for good luck on their way out or touch the top of the fence post at The Grove. Of course that will all be for nothing if you don't wear your lucky purple socks.
Since Andover didn't have enough locally grown superstitions, Steve Walker installed a new door at his shop yesterday with a "wishing stone" for good luck, which is an Iona bloodstone from Scotland. When asked if it was legit he said "Oh yeah! The first couple of people just automatically reached up to touch it the first time they passed through the door. Then Kristy, one of the salespeople, did the same thing the next morning. I can personally affirm that there is a natural and spontaneous energy happening here."
It goes to show you that you can make up...I mean discover...new superstitions to increase your luck just about any day here in Andover.
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