Sleep Tight; Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

One of my favorite things about the south is the Spanish moss that grows everywhere near the Gulf Coast and the southern Atlantic coast. The photo above is from Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.

Spanish moss doesn't grow here in Northwest Alabama, but traveling south through Alabama, you can begin to see it long before you get to the coast. The photos below were made at Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama.

I was totally fascinated by Spanish moss the first time I saw it on a trip to Florida. At a rest stop, I collected a handful of it, hoping to start some on our trees when we got home. I stored it carefully in a zip-lock bag. When we got back home and unpacked it, the bag was full of tiny bugs, which brings me to this story.

One of our tour guides in Savannah told us that the origin of the saying, don't let the bedbugs bite, came from people stuffing their mattresses with Spanish moss back in the day before we bought mattresses. I can't find this documented anywhere, but I can believe it after seeing the bugs in that zip-lock bag.

Look and take photos, but don't touch.

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Faith, Folklore, and Friends

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