The arts of Courtship in the Carolinas

In the smaller villages of North and South Carolina,
when the town's young men and women reach a certain
number of single eligible bachelors, the available virgins will be invited
to prepare a stew.    Each eligible bachelor then is invited, on a certain
fourth Sunday, to taste test the stews.   When the bachelor finds the stew
most appealing to him, he will sit himself down, in front of it.

If there is a conflict, such as another bachelor also wishes to sit next to that bowl of stew,
He will negotiate with the first to see if they can reach a gentlemanly agreement.
Or, if that fails, both will sit by the stew, and the young ladies who prepared the stews, shall waltz in front of all the seated young men,  and then if a suitable bachelor is observed, she shall extend her hand to that bachelor, seated at her prepared stew.
and escort him to a standard issue bachelor suitability room, where in thick leather clothing, the selected bacelor must swimm 100 yards in ice cold water, reach the other side, choose one of three intellectual challenges, then if he passes both of those, shinny up a greased pole, to obtain a wedding ring placed at the top of the pole.


If a match is found, the pair will waltz from the room together.
However, if a a bachelor that is not selected, sorely wants to be the groom,
He may demonstrate his desire,  by appealing to the lady , thru song.If the chosen bachelor, that has made it past the test, wishes to counter, he also appeals to the lady's heart thru song, poetry, dance, and/ or whatever art of communication he may conjure up, to ward off the other suitor.

Ultimately, the women exit the room, to make a final decision among themselves,
of  how the matches will play out.

Over the years,  a certain amount of scheming has happened.   As some youjng men and ladies, have previously developed fond relations, the stew tradition is a painful ritual, as they sorely wish to be together as husband and wife.  Some have resorted to preparing a very poorly tasting stew, with a particular spice, so that the groom will know ahead of time, what to taste for, and will sit by that stew , and hopefully, no other bachelor will challenge, as the stew tastes soo bad.

Once, though, a young man held a severe crush on a wonderful beautiful young lady, who's interesting view of the world made her his fascination, however, he had observed that she and another young man had secretly been planning to find some way to be wed together.  He watched them through his telescope, and observed her harvesting a bitter weed, which he assumed was going to be put in her stew for him to recognize.  The voyeuristic boy with the telescope, then  secretly harvested that noxious weed, boiled it in water, and placed the liquid in a small flask.

At the stew ritual, as he sat and tasted the stews, he secretly poured in some of the liquid from the flask, however, not before tasting the stew.
The young man who planned ahead to find the right stew became bewildered, at tasting the planned bitter spice in not one, but three bowls.   Not knowing what to do, he chose one to sit at.

the scheming voyeur, then bacame the only one sitting at the stew of the girl of his dreams, who watched the action through a pinhole in the lady's room of waiting.
Exasperated, she cried to the other girls, of her plight. But no other lady in the room, could will themselves to take her place, and claim the strange boy waiting sinisterly at her stew.

What to do, what to do?  She saw no other option than to run to the barn and grab the sheep she knew the strange boy had been intimate with, and quickly put the wedding dress on the sheep, while she carried the sheep, hiding inside her dress. As she approached, she plunked the sheep whose head was sticking out the top of the dress, onto the dining table, where the sheep  promptly began consuming the stew.  She adeptly slunk down, and in her flannels, crawled underneath the rows of tables, until she reached her desired man,  who suddenly felt her company, slithered inside of his great coat.  
Amidst the commotion,  he felt the young lass  pinch his thighs in a familiar way, for him to realize it was she, whereupon the couple  exited the room together.  

Where they would go, in defying the tradition of the stew, to leave the village and set out on their own, is the subject of our next chapter.