Counting Crows

One for sadness, two for mirth;

Three for marriage, four for birth;

Five for laughing, six for crying:

Seven for sickness, eight for dying;

Nine for silver, ten for gold;

Eleven a secret that will never be told

I finally got to the point I could sacrifice my treasured 3 Black Crows tobacco tag.  It must have been when I remembered the wonderful old Oaxaca pottery crows stashed away in the corner of a box; everything seemed to flow from that point.

Tobacco tags were used at auctions to mark the purchases of agents, and since it was tobacco, you know it had to be a southern thing.  The name "3 Black Crows" may indeed come from an old Appalachian song, "Three Ravens," a descendant of a medieval Scottish song, "Twa Corbies."

That's just a small example of the fascination of working with sweet old things like tobacco tags -- they come with a story to tell, if you can suss it out.