In the "redd" thread of W&F, wow invoked:
See a penny, pick it up,
All the day you'll have good luck.
OR
Find a penny, give it away,
Luck will follow you all the day.

This made me think of a custom that I wasn't privy to until college... one of my friends would only pick up pennies if they were head side up (although it might be noted here that she'd pick up coins of any other denomination, regardless of the heads or tails issue - obviously this wouldn't even enter her mind if she came across a $20).

Now, wow's first version of the rhyme, which is the one I learned, puts no conditions on the penny/luck correlation. Has anyone else heard of this custom/superstition?

one of my friends would only pick up pennies if they were head side up

Growing up my brother and I also held to this condition. I think we learned it from my father (who grew up in the Boston area, FWIW). I think there was a second couplet after (as we knew it)...
Find a penny, pick it up,
All day long you'll have good luck.
But I can't remember what it was. The heads-up rule only applied to pennies, all other change was fair game, even if it was on its edge (a la Twilight Zone).

I, too, grew up in Boston, and have never heard of this variation on the penny-picking poem.

On a completely unrelated note, there is a little poem germane to Boston, that many Bostonians don't even know (I was once on the local TV news reciting it).

The tallest building in Boston, for those who've been there in recent decades, is the John Hancock Tower - the emormous glass plank near Copley Square, in whose shadow I was reared. Near it is the old Hancock Tower, much shorter, with a tall spire, which contains a long light which can be illuminated in different colors - the colors corresponding to the weather forecast, thusly:

Blue, blue, clouds are few
Flashing blue, clouds are due
Red, red, rain ahead
Flashing red, snow instead
Except in the summer, when flashing red means the Red Sox game is rained out.

Some have argued against the inclusion of the last line, as it breaks the meter, but it is vital to an understanding of the thing.

Are there other such bits of local folkloric poetry where other AWADers live?

even if it was on its edge (a la Twilight Zone)

Ahh, someone else has seen this episode (one of my favorite). Though I'd never commit a heinous crime (I hope, at least), I do sometimes pass away a few moments thinking of how I would do it if I did. There's no better lead-in to such a fantasy than reading News of the Weird to learn how stupid some criminals are.

Brings to mind a favorite Tom Waits line:

So you ask me what I'm doing, here holding up the lamp-post,
Flipping this quarter, trying to make up my mind
And if it's heads I'll go to Tennessee, and tails I'll buy a drink,
If it lands on the edge I'll keep talking to you...

The way we always said it was

Heads up you'll have good luck;
Heads down you'll wear a frown

__________________________________________________________

If it lands on the edge I'll keep talking to you...

Ouch. Then again, I've seen it happen. I guess the possibilities all depend on how hard, and from how high, you toss the coin.

As for Waits, he's wonderful, isn't he? The imagery, the bitterness tempered with hope--

Now I'm smoking cigarettes and I strive for purity,
And I slip just like the stars into obscurity.
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, puts me up a tree,
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, is all that I can see.

Good stuff

>Blue, blue, clouds are few
>Flashing blue, clouds are due
>Red, red, rain ahead
>Flashing red, snow instead
>Except in the summer, when flashing red means the Red Sox
game is rained out.

a local bank used to have a Weatherball, a big light globe on top of a tower on top of the bank (my memory is foggy on the exact wording :)

when the weatherball is red, warmer weather is ahead
when the weatherball is white, colder weather is in sight
when the weatherball is green, no changes are foreseen
weatherball blinking by night or by day, precipitation is on the way

The superstition that upon finding a penny, heads up is good luck and tails up is bad luck has existed in Michigan for as long as I can remember, and I've encountered people who won't pick up the tails up penny for that reason, and I know some people who won't bother to pick up a penny at all, but I will pick up any ol' currency I find.

Growing up in California I learned to pick up pennies only when they were heads-up, but when they were tails-up my mom taught me to turn them over so that the next person who found it would have good luck!