In a message dated 8/17/02 10:14:36 PM Central Daylight Time, csa52@bellsouth.net writes: > Sat 14 > > I went to the letting out of the livy > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------------------------------------------------- > > I have no clue what he did on Saturday . It was a letting out of something. > Definitely a 4 letter word. The 1st letter is the same as the way he writes > an l in other words, 2nd letter is dotted so I am pretty sure it is i. 3rd > letter shaped the same as the v in Knottsville , last letter has the drop > and could be a g but livg doesn't make any more sense than livy. So what > was > he up to? > Do you suppose he could be referring to a levee ? There were locks on the Ohio River around that time, I think. Something regarding construction to one of those?

> > > Sat 14 > > > > I went to the letting out of the livy . So what was he up to? The consensus is for levee . I thought of that but in my mind a levee was connected to someplace like New Orleans. The only other suggestion was this "Do you think it had something to do with making public the annual county tax (levy) list??" One of our list members grew up near the old Douthitt home. This is her contribution. Sometimes ,when I am working on the Journal , I hear echoes of the way the old people used to talk so I feel sure that she is right. "I have heard people talking about draining ponds and catching any fish that might come through the hole in the levee. I have heard the phrase "letting out the levee" used in reference to making a hole in the levee to drain a pond. Considering how our ancestors had great talents for turning mundane jobs into community socials, draining a pond or letting out the levee could have been an interesting event to attend." " many people I knew around Scythia referred to the manmade dam of ponds as "the levee" which I suppose could be a levee of sorts since it holds back water, but definitely not the same as one in New Orleans. His words were very close to those I had heard used for the description of a pond draining. I can remember how ponds filled up with silt due to erosion and the farmers would drain them, allow the hot summer sun to dry the mud and then they would remove the accumulated dirt to make the pond deeper again. Repair to the drain area was done and the autumn rains would begin to fill up the pond again." Carol