DOG TALES

An introduction to DOG TALES.  Following the PREFACE there are 57 more episodes.  Each episode contains one tale.

Notes: ALL IN ONE BREATH was collected from Bill Hartsock, a Berea College student who got it from his girlfriend’s grandmother, Margy Riddell of …

Notes: TAILIPO was collected from my wife, Risse Faye Layne Ramsay who heard it from her mother, Rilda Chandler Layne. Rilda was raised in Broadhead, …

Notes: THE FEUDING DOGS was collected from Kris Slank, a Berea College student who got the tale from his grandfather, K. G. McDaniel. The story has …

Notes: RUNAWAY HORSES was collected from A. D. Harrell of Tipton Hill, North Carolina. A. D. told me this tale in 1956 when I was spending an evening …

Notes: THE DEAD DOG was collected from Joan Randall, a Berea College student who got the tale from Don Sauders of North Carolina who remembered it …

Notes: THE DOG TAX —by permission. See Humor of a Country Lawyer, by Sam J. Erwin, Jr. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1983, p 132.

Notes: THE DOG LICENSE was collected from Loyal Jones of Berea College in 1982. The event took place in 1960 or 1961 and was by telephone. (see also …

Notes: BANJO DOG was collected from David Morris of West Virginia. David shared this tale during the “World’s Fair,” i.e. Expo-84 at the Stokely Van …

Notes: A BRITISH TRAIN RIDE was collected from Henry Besuden, Vinewood Farm, Winchester, Kentucky in June 1975. March 2019, Alan Branson sent me …

Notes: AN UNWELCOME GUEST was collected from Beatrice McLain at Berea College Christmas Country Dance School, 1979. Mrs. McLain claimed that Readers …

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 …

Notes: DRUMMER JOINS THE BAND was collected from Linda Brewer of Jackson County, Kentucky in 1978 during a Berea College Extension Course in Folk …

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 …

Notes: LARIPIN, RARIPIN,SKOONKIN HUNTING was collected orally from a tenth grade student in my class in Micaville, North Carolina in 1956. Printed …

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 …

Notes: MYSTERIOUS TWINS was collected from Anna Hobbs, native of Madison County, Kentucky. Told by her grandmother, Maggie Odell of Possum Kingdom in …

Notes: RIFLE TOTING MONKEY was collected from Loyal Jones and Michael Doane Moore in 1978. Jerry Clower’s humor and stories have had widespread …

Notes: WALKING ON WATER was collected from Loyal Jones, Director of Berea College Appalachian Center, 1975. This is one of the most widespread dog …

Notes: THE PICKUP TRUCK was composed by Ruby Altizer, a Berea College student in 1977.

Notes: USELESS’S OLD DOG was aired on Kentucky Educational Television in a program of a video tape interview with Ulysses (pronounced useless) Vanover of McCreary County, Kentucky and aired on January 5, 1977.

Notes: NO TRESPASSING was collected from Bert Killian, Murphy, North Carolina in 1969. (see also FASTEST DOG IN THE WORLD)

Notes: OLD HOUND DOG was collected from Mona Coleman, a Berea College student in 1976.

Notes: FLEA BIT was collected from Lewis Lamb of Paint Lick, Kentucky in 1980. I transcribed the tale from a recording of Lewis’s telling of a true …

Notes: HONEST SAM was told by Samuel Clemens in his autobiography.  Twain concludes Chapter 30 with these words, “Now then, that is the tale. Some of …

Notes: SOUND SHOOTING BACKFIRES was collected from a Berea College student.

Notes: ZIG ZAG LIPS—see Johnson, F. Roy, How and Why, Johnson Publishing Company, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, 1971; source T. K. Warren of Hereford …

Notes: THE VENTRILOQUIST  I failed to note where I heard this tale but it is fairly well spread.

Notes: ANNIE was collected from Marshall Roberts, a Berea College student in 1981. He heard the story from Alan Tench of Banks County, Georgia who …

Notes: QUISLING was collected from Gwen McVicker in 1980 who has it from Andy McMahan of Louisville, Kentucky. David Macemon of Woodford County, …

Notes: IN THE LEAD BY A TAIL —see A Treasury of Southern Folklore, ed. by Botkin, New York, Crown Publishers, 1949, pp 128-129. Also in The Old Time …

Notes: HOT ROD HOUND was collected from SANDY COPLEN SMITH who got it from her roommate, Susan Adams who got it from her father in Coal City, West …

Notes: SS-FF was collected from Lewis Lamb of Paint Lick, Kentucky in 1975. Lewis learned this story from a co-worker on a construction project in …

Notes: RABIES SHOTS was collected from Lewis Lamb of Paint Lick, Kentucky in 1980.  I transcribed the tale from a recording of Lewis’s telling of a …

Notes: TRAINING YOUNG FOX HOUNDS was collected from Mark Rector of Madison County, North Carolina in 1981. This is a true event according to Mark.

Notes: THE BILLY ROUGH was collected from Dear Rathbone, a Berea College student from Haywood County, North Carolina in 1980.  Dean learned this from …

Notes: COUNTING DOG was collected from Lewis Lamb of Paint Lick, Kentucky in 1980. This tales is widely known and is one most likely to be told when …

Notes: RABBIT IN THE WELL was collected from VELNA KEY, a Berea College student in 1980. Velna heard the story from the father, John Key in central …

Notes: MAIL DOG was collected from Coreen Brewer of Jackson County, Kentucky in 1979. Coreen learned this from her mother, Eulalia Foutch in about …

Notes: THE FASTEST DOG IN THE WORLD was collected from Bert Killian of Cherokee County, North Carolina in 1969. I swapped some dog stories with Bert …

Notes: THE DEER HOUND was collected from Jimmy Elrod, Berea College student from Washington County, Virginia in 1969. Jimmy says of this tale, “I met …

Notes: CITY SLICKER AND BIRD DOG was collected from Judy Hamilton in 1979. Judy, a student in my Folk Arts Class at Berea College, heard this tale …

Notes: A FRESH TURNED TRAIL see Botkin, Treasury of Western Folklore, p 512, rev.ed., New York, Crown Publishers, 1975, “The Smart Coon Dog,” ed. By …

Notes: RING AND PEPPER was collected from Coreen Brewer of McKee, Kentucky in 1979. Coreen learned it from her husband, Eugene Green, also of Jackson …

Notes: A TALE FROM EGON MOUNTAIN was collected from Etta (Bolton) Gulley of Clairfield, Tennessee in 1979. Etta heard this story from George Mallicot …

Notes: OLD COLD NOSE was collected from Genevee Marlow of White Oak, Tennessee in 1979. Mrs. Marlow learned this from Lou Mallicoat of Duff, …

Notes: SNAKE BIT was taken from Bob Terrell, columnist for the Asheville Citizen, daily newspaper of Asheville, North Carolina. This particular …

Notes: ROVER IN THE NANTAHALA GORGE was collected from Karen Solesbee Boll of Franklin, North Carolina in 1977. Karen composed the tale as an …

Notes: THE DOG AND THE BUZZARD was adapted from Foxfire Book, ed. By Eliot Wigginton, 1972, pp 228-229, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1972 as …

Notes: A COLD TRAIL was collected from J. P. Fraley of Boyd County, Kentucky in 1979. I met Mr. Fraley at a May Day festival at Hindman Settlement …

Notes: WHEELCHAIR CASE was collected from Karla Thomas of Ashland, Kentucky in 1980. She learned the tale from Albert York who learned it from his …

Notes: WHEELCHAIR CASE was collected from Brenda Russell of Lexington, Kentucky in 1979. Brenda got the story from her father, Clayton Russell who …

Notes: THE ACCORDION DOG was collected from a Berea College student in 1976 and has since been heard in Strasburg, Virginia and a couple of other …

Notes: THE SPIRAL CHASE source is unidentified. However, H. K. (Bud) Rayfield, my wife’s cousin’s husband of St. Charles Missouri, told me this same …

Notes: COOKIE was collected from Bobby Fields of Hyden, Kentucky. This is a true story.  

The use of the word trotline is available on Wikipedia. …

Notes: ON A SATURDAY ONE SPRING was collected from Tommy Anderson of Brasstown, NC in 1967 (see also episode 1.  THE SKINBOARD). I have not heard …

Notes: THE SKINBOARD was collected from Tommy Anderson of Brasstown, NC in 1967. It was The Skinboard and On a Saturday One Spring of this collection …