Cuyler writes:
"Question:  Does anyone know of a tradition of placing a Good Luck =
Horseshoe below the threshold of a new building?
"

No, but I did learn a certian good luck doorway charm from the old Czech
carpenters of northern Nebraska prairie settlement days. (Well, maybe I
actually learned it from their sons.) :

You take a little handful of winter wheat from the shock, soak it in the
stock tank for a few minutes and braid six stocks into a little plait with
three heads of grain sticking out on each end, the whole affair is about
6-8" long. Then you say a little verse as every one at hand touches the
plait and then you tuck it in the space above the door frame header just
before
you nail on the casings. Wish I could remember the verse. It was in Czech,
and the only Czech I remember is what's for dinner.

John Leeke

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