Fortune Teller (was Cootie catcher)

[Jessie Emerson]

The device, if we are talking about the same thing, in the '70s in North
Alabama was also "fortune teller" and had nothing to do with catching
cooties.  A very intricate series of physical descriptions and professions
(for the potential mate--a very sexist game) was written on the segments of
the fortune teller, and you chose numbers (written on the outer segments) to
determine what segment you landed on.

Jessie Emerson
---
Johanna wrote:

>Oddly enough, though I remember these devices perfectly from the mid 1980s
on, and I do remember them being called cootie catchers, I don't remember
them being used to catch cooties.  We used them mainly to tell fortunes, and
we might have snapped at each other with them, but I think the snapping was
just a secondary use and not necessarily intended to catch vermin.  Could
the cootie catching have lessened and using them to tell fortunes increased
with time, or was my school an anomaly?