DOG TALES

Notes: A BRITISH TRAIN RIDE was collected from Henry Besuden, Vinewood Farm, Winchester, Kentucky in June 1975. March 2019, Alan Branson sent me this, “It was sent to me by my good friend, Don in Pompano Beach, Florida.”

Notes: AN UNWELCOME GUEST was collected from Beatrice McLain at Berea College Christmas Country Dance School, 1979. Mrs. McLain claimed that Readers Digest picked up the story and published it but I have not been able to find it.

Notes: THE SPLIT DOG by permission from Richard Chase. See Chase, American Folk Tales and Songs, Signet Key, 1956, pp 97-98. Chase heard the tale somewhere in eastern Kentucky. It appeared in Fisher’s River (North Carolina) Scenes and Characters , by “Skitt” published in New York, Harper & Brothers, 1859. See also Botkin, A Treasury og American Folklore, Bonanza Books, New York, 1954, pp 593-594.

Notes: DRUMMER JOINS THE BAND was collected from Linda Brewer of Jackson County, Kentucky in 1978 during a Berea College Extension Course in Folk Arts. See also Sourwood Tales by Billy C. Clark, Putnam, New York, 1968, pp 218-224.

Notes: DOGGONE BOOTS was collected from Doc McConnel of Rogersville, Tennessee in 1984.

Notes: DOGHIDE SHOESTRINGS was collected from Margorie Mallicoat of White Oak, Tennessee in 1979. Frank Profitt, North Carolina musician used to tell a tale about his uncle using the hide from his wife’s “bitchy” dog to cover his banjo.

Notes: LARIPIN, RARIPIN,SKOONKIN HUNTING was collected orally from a tenth grade student in my class in Micaville, North Carolina in 1956. Printed sources are: Roberts, South From Hell-fer-Sartin,  tale number 78a; and Chase, Grandfather Tales, tale number 15, page 137. Roberts source was Charles Holcomb on Big Leatherwood who said he had heard this tale on a talking machine record when he was a boy. Chase cites an Alabama source in his compilation of Uncle Remus.

Notes: RIDDLE was collected from Loyal Jones, a native of Clay County, North Carolina. He knew the riddle ‘all of his life.’ (see also WALKING ON WATER and RIFLE TOTING MONKEY)

Notes: MYSTERIOUS TWINS was collected from Anna Hobbs, native of Madison County, Kentucky. Told by her grandmother, Maggie Odell of Possum Kingdom in the 1970’s. I checked the story out with Anna’s mother, Geneva Jennings.

Notes: RIFLE TOTING MONKEY was collected from Loyal Jones and Michael Doane Moore in 1978. Jerry Clower’s humor and stories have had widespread audiences and much of his material, like this tale, has entered the folk process. Clower’s first recording, “Jerry Clower from Yazoo City, Mississippi Talkin,” a Decca recording, was number 11 on national country album charts (see article, Knock ‘im out Jay-ree! In Sports Illustrated 38:17.pp 75-84, April 30, 1973. Clower heard the rifle toting monkey tale while in high school, perhaps from his cousin Johnny. Used by permission.