House of Asher Podcast - Prison Lore and Superstitions

Even spent a night in jail or longer in prison? What were some of the stories that you heard do's and don'ts?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Good day to you all. This is Steve Asher, your
intrepid researcher, folklorest and just paranormal freak. I want to
welcome you back to the House of Asher. It's not
too long till the Yule Tide Christmas, all those warm,
fuzzy halcyon remembrances of our youth. But strangely enough, I

(00:39):
had visited a local jail recently. I've also been visiting
some other local places at tie in with the paranormal
and tie in with prisons and whatnot, and I've been
gathering some pretty strange superstitions and bits of lore you
might be interested in hearing. I probably should also mention

(01:02):
before I get too deeply into that, thank you guys
for supporting me. As always, I thrive on feedback. And
if this is either on a spreaker or if this
is on Facebook, YouTube all those other podcast carriers, please

(01:22):
feel free to leave a comment. I thank you so much.
If you're wondering why I kind of forego the music
for whatever reason, Spreaker's not digging that, so I'm kind
of stepping away from that till I can figure out
what's going on. But do check out Steveasher dot studio
dot com. That's where you can find out about this podcast,
House of Asher. Another thing that I am getting back

(01:42):
to working on history from the Dark Side and my
books which recently funny enough, you should ask one just
come out about near death experiences and reincarnation. You can
find that along with all my other books on Amazon
dot com just look under Stevie Asher Steve E. Asher. Okay,
enough of the shameless plugs. Let's get into some of

(02:04):
those weird superstitions, especially about returning to prison or anything
like that. The first one is, don't look back when
leaving the prison gates. It's not good. It's an omen
you're almost like guaranteeing yourself that you will return in

(02:27):
this life or in the next. Do not write or
carve your name on any jail or prison wall that
I've seen that. I've seen it a lot, and I've
seen a lot of guys return. That's kind of a
no no. You know, sometimes somebody put their girlfriend's name,
or you know, something kind of grody. Ye'll throw out,
I don't know, Frank burns, each worms, something weird like that,

(02:49):
or some you know, gang related junk or whatever. But yep,
don't do it, don't run on the walls, and don't
leave a book unfinished when you're released. Okay, if you
start a booking there, finish it because you'll come back
to finish it. That's the old superstition, that's what they believe.

(03:11):
And some of these are pretty pretty old, you know.
It's just one of those things that ye know, these
have hung on for a long time. Don't take anything
out of the prison that you acquired while inside, except
for maybe like clean underwear. Obviously if you get a
tattoo or something that's going with you. So that's another one.

(03:36):
Do not keep the clothes you were arrested in. It's
best at they're thrown away. If nothing more, just for
the memory of a mugshot or something. I could see
that it makes sense. Now. This kind of ties in
to old Southern almost back to old probably African early,

(03:59):
you know, like in the other way of saying it,
kind of slave mentality. If anyone sweeps over your feet
with the broom, you will go back to prison. You
must spit on the broom to avoid the fate. Now,
I've also heard the old adage, just someone sweeps under
your feet, you'll never get remarried. So you best believe
I went jumping over about five of them at home

(04:21):
depot when I got divorced. Now I'm kidding. We're still friends.
So anyway, make sure to eat your final breakfast on
the morning of your release. Make sure that you do.
This will ensure that you will not return for a
future sentence. Now, if you leave it, you're kind of
setting yourself up. Try not to cross off your calendar

(04:44):
the very last day of your sentence. I don't know
exactly why you'd want to do that. That means, hey,
you're done, You're going home. But who am I to ask? Now,
here's something else that ties into jails, lock ups, asylums,
anywhere ever. Somebody's holding the keys between you and going home.
If someone like an officer drops their keys, someone will

(05:08):
be going home that day. Now, I don't know if
that means, sue the gates are over the fence or
in a body bag on a gurney. I don't know. Sorry,
I got a little darth their kids. Now you want
to say, run, rabbit, run on the first of every month.
I've heard this. I've heard this for a long time. Man,
I didn't even know this was a jail house. Thing
shows you how deeply that runs in my family. Basically,

(05:30):
on the first day of every month, if you say run, rabbit, run,
the month will pass quickly. Well, look at that. If
you paint your nails and jail I mean, and who doesn't, right,
I guess this is for the ladies or whatever, you
will be there until the paint chips off. Huh interesting. Okay,

(05:52):
now we're getting into some kind of dangerous waters here,
so don't freak out dropping the soap. Yeah, I know,
I can already. I can already hear the wheels and
your head's turning. It's not just a warning about assault,
but it's also a belief that the soap will become
covered and nasty stuff, making it unusable and a sign
of bad luck picked up. Yeah, bad luck like hepatitis

(06:14):
and aids and other you know, viral iky's iki poohs.
You don't want cooties tagging graffiti now the Joe house
walls is widely believed to ensure the inmate you will
see that mark again by returning to prisident at some
point in the future. I don't know how that works.
When people are tagging trains and subways, maybe they're going

(06:37):
to ride the train soon. I don't know. Now, some
people say find your religion. Now, this is a common thing,
you know, even if you're not in jail. You know,
I've seen lots of stuff happen with friends and family
that changes your outlook on faith. But here it says
it's a common phenomenon, often viewed as a search for

(06:59):
hope and spiritual assistance in a place of despair. Now
it doesn't say not to do that. It just says
it's that's what it is, and it could be good
or that, depending on how earnest you are about it.
And also avoiding certain individuals, those who are considered to
bring trouble, and this is this is they're wordy, not mine,

(07:21):
sex offenders, known snitches, anybody who maybe has a drug problem,
gambling problem, any kind of money on their back that
they might trade up information for a fix or anything
like that. It's the practical rule that they have a
aura of bad karma or the heat they bring. Nowadays,

(07:45):
you will hear certain terms like smoke. You know, I
don't want that smoke. Sometimes you'll hear people make jokes
and go, don't put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby,
which of course, is a taladaka Knights reference, which I
absolutely adore. So I thought that was kind of neat.
And you know, we all know people that have been there, friends, family,

(08:12):
loved ones, and I'm sure we know some people who
deserve to be there. You know who you guys are, anyway,
But for real, I never knew some of these. That
is very strange, very strange. Indeed, i'd heard something about
when people were putting up prison walls, when you put

(08:36):
the first I think it's the first. I think it's
the first brick down, or the last brickdown. You spit
on it and cross it with an axe. I'm not
sure what that means. That's kind of different. There's a lot,
you know, there's a lot of different little things like that.
If you guys know of anything, let me know. Because

(09:00):
some of this ties in too with military. Now. The
thing is that the military is I support the troops
and I back all that. But there's also certain people
who in the old days might have went to the
military to avoid jail, and so they would bring some
of that criminality and convict mindset to their own forces. Now,

(09:22):
I know that you don't like three on a cigarette,
which is a good way for them someone to triangulate
your position and shoot you up, you know, with guns.
But a lot of that again ties in with that
whole kind of mythos. It's really strange. I've heard people, well,

(09:45):
when they drink at night, they'll turn their cups out
to the bars that way, if there's any ghostly inmate spirits,
they can have a drink. But of course you don't
want to drink, don't drink off your side. They'll take
that as an insult. But there's more things like that
that I'm going to come out with, but at this
point I'm going to shut her down. I hope you
enjoyed this episode, and please let me know how you

(10:08):
like it, what you think, suggestions and whatnot. And again,
thank you guys, God bless you. I appreciate all of
you guys so much more than you can even realize.
But I do want to say, I know the days
are short, but if you can go out there and
enjoy a little bit of that sunlight on your face,
soak up much of that vitamin E as you can.

(10:29):
But as the sun sets behind the pines and the
shuttles grow long, make sure to check under your bed
in your closet, in your back room, maybe check under
your jail cell if you're listening to this in lock
up and if you are, stay strong, brothers and sisters.
You will get through this. But always make sure that

(10:52):
you stand on business and don't be afraid, because there's
learning in fear, so beyond that, my dear friends and listeners,
please remember to stay scared.