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  Praise for Sitting Up with the Dead

  “The origins of Southern literature are its folktales and local stories, and the South is full of storytellers. Pamela Petro has found the best of them, recounting their complete stories and the detailed circumstances of her journey in search of them. This book is both important as scholarship and great fun as a trip.”

  —Paul Theroux, author of Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads

  “An innovative and entertaining mapping of an area of the country that is, well, storied for its stories. … Petro has a journalist’s eye for detail and a good professor’s way with exegesis and that makes Sitting Up with the Dead much more than just an anthology of colorful stories. This is a book that honors stories and storytelling and reminds us that we all have our tales to tell.”

  —Raleigh News & Observer

  “Pamela Petro is an adventurous, inquisitive writer who brings a perfect balance of reverence and scrutiny to her subject, and in Sitting Up with the Dead she has created a literary feast that is both delicious and nutritious.”

  —Associated Press (reprinted in forty-two papers)

  “Petro has a confident narrative voice, a wry sense of humor, and a gift for description. Reading Sitting Up with the Dead, is like joining friends around a campfire, savoring each tale like a sticky, gooey s’more.”

  —New Orleans Times-Picayune

  “The genius of Sitting Up with the Dead is the sense of riding shotgun on a road trip with someone smart and funny. … Pamela Petro proves herself as gifted a storyteller as any of her subjects.”

  —Women’s Review of Books

  “Petro drops most pretensions or analysis, staves off most stereotypes, and simply allows herself to sit on the porch and listen to the cultivated storytellers. … Her journey and recounting of selected stories from traditional ghost characters like Ray Hicks to hip African-American recording artist/story-tellers like Veronica Byrd form a map to a South beyond our imagination.”

  —Bloomsbury Review

  “The result of Petro’s journeys is this delightful sampling of folklore and an introduction to the many voices of the South today. … the book is like a trip back home for those who grew up in storytelling families. For those who never experienced that pleasure, it’s an eye-opening look at an oral art form that is still alive and well.”

  —Library Journal

  “[A]n impressive piece of cultural conservation … In searching out these speakers, Petro discovers her own voice.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Ms. Petro has captured the essence of the Southern oral tradition and renders it faithfully for the uninitiated.”

  —Richmond Times-Dispatch

  “Pamela Petro offers a richly layered view of the American South, refracted through the region’s great tradition of oral storytelling. Her chorus of voices cuts across centuries and continents, knitting together time and space, Europe and Africa and these American States, into a most unusual and fascinating narrative.”

  —Andrea Barrett, author of Servants of the Map,

  Ship Fever, and Voyage of the Natural

  “With a fresh perspective and rich sense of humor, Pamela Petro takes the reader on a journey that maps the South with many of the distinctive voices of the region. Her writing has a sense of immediacy and adventure that makes you feel as if you’re taking the trip with her, and you’re glad for such company.”

  —Shay Youngblood, author of Black Girl in Paris,

  Soul Kiss, and The Big Mama Stories

  “Don’t be misled by the title: Sitting Up with the Dead is a very lively book. Pamela Petro combines her curiosity about the South with her ability to look, listen, and remember as she records a refreshingly different tour of the South using native storytellers as her guides. She doesn’t just write about storytellers—she is one!”

  —Kathryn T. Windham, storyteller and author of

  13 Ghosts and Jeffrey, Twice Blessed, and Encounters

  “Essential reading for anyone who loves stories and storytelling. Pamela Petro has collected a whole gamut of wonderfully told Southern tales capturing the spirit of oral storytelling. Seeking out some of our most colorful storytellers in their homes, she offers, through her portraits of them, insight into their lives, their stories, and the rich cultural heritage of the South.”

  —David Holt, storyteller and musician

  For Marguerite Itamar Harrison

  who introduced me to the American South

  and the Southern Hemisphere

  Copyright © 2001 by Pamela Petro

  Foreword by Jimmy Neil Smith copyright © 2017 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

  First Arcade Paperback Edition

  First Published by Flamingo, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, U.K.

  The author and the publisher express their gratitude to the following: Louisiana State University Press for permission to quote from Black Shawl by Kathryn Stripling Byer (copyright © 1998 by Kathryn Stripling Byer); Copper Canyon Press for persmission to quote from Deepstep Come Shining by C.D. Wright; Vintage Press for permission to quote from “Eheu Fugaces” from Collected Poems 1945–1990 by R.S. Thomas; and Universal Music Publishing Ltd. for kind permission to quote lyrics from “Sweet Home Alabama” (King/Vanzant/Rossington). Although we have tried to trace and contact all copyright holders before publication, this has not been possible in every case. If notified, the publisher will be pleased to make an necessary emendations at the earliest opportunity.

  Arcade Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or [email protected].

  Arcade Publishing® is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.

  Visit our website at www.arcadepub.com.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Cover photo: iStockphoto

  Print ISBN: 978-1-62872-703-6

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62872-774-6

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Map of the American South

  Foreword

  The Prologue

  FIRST JOURNEY

  Akbar’s Tale

  TAR BABY

  Colonel Rod’s Tale

  THE MULE EGG

  Vickie’s Tale

  Rosehill’s Tale

  The Kudzu’s Tale

  GRANDFATHER CREATES SNAKE

  Orville’s Tale

  JACK AND THE VARMINTS

  David’s Tale

  ROSS AND ANNA

  SECOND JOURNEY

  Veronica’s Tale

  A POLAR BEAR’S BAR-BE-CUE

  TAILY PO

  Kwame’s Tale

  THE STORY OF THE GIRL AND THE FISH

  Alice’s Tale

  Cornelia’s Tale

  THE PLAT-EYE

  Fouchena’s Tale

  THE FLYING AFRICANS

  Minerva’s Tale

  Tom’s Tale

  THE STORY OF LAVINIA FISHER

  THIRD JOURNEY

  Ray’s Tale

  FOURTH JOURNEY

  Ollie’s Tale
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  Kathryn’s Tale

  THE GRANDFATHER TALES

  David Joe’s Tale

  THE PEDDLER MAN

  Karen’s Tale

  ROSE AND CHARLIE

  The Tale of the Farmer’s Smart Daughter

  Oyo’s Tale

  Mitch and Carla’s Tale

  HOW MY GRANDMA WAS MARKED

  WICKED JOHN

  The Bell Witch’s Tale

  Annie’s Tale

  SHUG

  MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH A FLUSH COMMODE

  Angela’s Tale

  Rose Anne’s Tale

  THE SONG IN THE MIST

  Granny Griffin’s Tale

  THE DEAD MAN

  Index of Stories/Storytellers

  Acknowledgments

  Writing can be a lonely occupation, but no book is ever written alone. More people contribute to its formation than can possibly be named and thanked: the waitress who called me “sugar” and made me laugh after a grim and sleepless night; the gas station attendant who told me dumb jokes about Boston; librarians who found countless books for me at Brown University’s Rockefeller Library that were reputedly shelved, but actually were not. I can, however, thank all of the storytellers who appear in the following pages for sharing their tales and their wisdom with me. I have rarely met people happier in their profession, and their good humor — not to mention their kindness and generosity — made this book a pleasure to research. I reserve a special thank you for Vickie Vedder, who thought through the South alongside me, via e-mail, and who is one of the most insightful and generous people I have ever encountered.

  I am also indebted to my wonderful friends such as Richard Newman, for the depth of his knowledge about African-American history and the civil rights movement, and his willingness to share it; to Mary Diaz and Tom Ferguson, for hounding me to store my manuscript somewhere safe, for their enthusiasm and encouragement, and to Tom, especially, for the title; to Laura Pirott-Quintero, who thought of Chaucer when I said I was going to the South to collect stories; to Nancy Levitt-Vieira for sharing her aunts inspiring storybooks with me; to Michael LaRosa, for his hospitality and Caladryl; and to Stella de Sa Rego for her knowledge of Louisiana. I am grateful as well to Tim Huebner, of the Department of History at Rhodes College in Memphis, for his insightful comments and bibliographical recommendations; to Debbie Dunn, for her intimate knowledge of the Bell Witch legend; and to the many state arts organizations that keep records of the storytellers in their midst (thanks especially to Cydney Berry of the South Carolina Arts Commission, John Benjamin of the Kentucky Arts Council, and Wayni Terrill of the Canton, Mississippi Welcome Center).

  My deepest thanks also go out to my parents, Pat and Steve Petro, for their ceaseless encouragement, and for selflessly looking after Tenby, the canine terror, while I took a short break. I would also like to give thanks to the many Harrisons who helped me throughout the summer: to Randy and Heline, for their gracious hospitality and depth of biblical knowledge; to Nat and Tina, for the use of their beautiful house in Chattanooga; and especially to Marguerite, not only for staying home and caring for Tenby — and dealing with computer glitches and serving as a telephone clearing house between me and countless storytellers — but for joining me in the heat of August and making the final part of my journey so much more fun.

  There are a few final thank yous to extend. The first goes to Adele Nelson and Sara Schaff, for inspiring this idea at a party in the summer of 1998.1 would also like to mention Georgina Laycock, whose encouragement and hard work have meant so much to me, and my editor, Philip Gwyn Jones: without him this book would not exist. I thank him for his good humor, patience, keen judgment and diplomatic demeanor, and especially, for his friendship.

  “In America, perhaps more than any other country, and in the South, perhaps more than any other region, we go back to our dreams and memories, hoping it remains what it was on a lazy, still summer’s day twenty years ago — and yet our sense of it is forever violated by others who see it, not as home, but as the dark side of hell.”

  WILLIE MORRIS, North Toward Home

  Foreword

  When people across the world settled in America, they brought with them their most treasured possessions, their keepsakes, lovingly packed in trunks, bags, or whatever they could muster. They also brought their stories—the folktales, legends, and personal anecdotes—some of which have survived even to today. In our complex world, those stories give us grit, grace, and wisdom for life’s journey. Nowhere is this truer than in the American South. Acclaimed folklorist Benjamin A. Botkin was right when he said, “Never were land and lore more perfectly suited and wedded to each other, for in the South, folklore is truly a way of life, and the way of life naturally breeds lore.” At the heart of our lore are our oral narratives, the stories of the soil and soul of the American South.

  There is no greater acknowledgment of this irrefutable truth than in Pamela Petro’s Sitting Up with the Dead—a collection of stories gathered during her journey across America’s Southland. Yes, her book is comprised of stories, but it’s more than that. She chronicled her journey, step by step, giving context to each tale and its teller. “The Southern storytellers I asked to tell me tales didn’t tell them in a vacuum,” Petro explains. “They told stories to me, and I told stories about them—what they looked like, where we met, where they were from, what they did for a living, what generation they belonged to. All of this mattered.” Mattered it did, indeed. Not only do we hear the voices of the storytellers, but we become intimately acquainted with the tellers of the tales, these torch-bearers of Southern oral storytelling.

  The spark that ignited Petro s love for the storytelling of the American South was a visit to the National Storytelling Festival, an annual celebration of the art and tradition of storytelling, and the oldest, most respected storytelling festival anywhere in the world. It was here that Petro heard Ray Hicks tell stories during the early 1990s. A simple man with profound wisdom, Ray personified the storytelling of the Southern Appalachians. Ray was telling an ancient tale from the mountains of western North Carolina with a curled-up smile, flashing eyes, and language that dates back to Elizabethan times. And, as Petro says, she “was hooked.”

  The National Storytelling Festival was born on a warm, sunny October afternoon in 1973, almost two decades earlier, in the tiny Tennessee town of Jonesborough, in the heart of the southern Appalachian Mountains. My neighbors and I rolled an old farm wagon into Courthouse Square, and around that wagon we told stories. Ray was among the half-dozen diverse storytellers—a cobbled-together assortment of politicians, afterdinner jokesters, and children’s librarians. There were only sixty listeners at that first festival.

  Ray was a tall, lanky mountain man who lived in the same unpainted frame house on the slopes of Beech Mountain, in western North Carolina, where he was born. Ray climbed aboard the old farm wagon that day and told “The Heifer Hide,” one story in a series of Jack tales that originated centuries ago in Europe.

  Throughout his lifetime, Ray earned a reputation for telling stories. Perched on his grandfather’s lap, Ray heard these old mountain folktales—tales handed down generation to generation—and even as a child, he began sharing them. His friends, Ray remembered, would beseech him, “Git the blues off, Ray. Tell us a story.” He was the living history, traditions, and culture of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Even today, he is affectionately called the patriarch of traditional American storytelling.

  Ray told stories until he died on Easter Sunday in 2003, sharing them annually with audiences at the National Storytelling Festival and with anyone who would travel the narrow road that snaked up Beech Mountain to his home. You will have the chance to meet Ray in Sitting Up with the Dead, where his voice lives on.

  While stories have been told since the beginning of the human language, the National Storytelling Festival was the first public event dedicated exclusively to showcasing the world’s stories, storytellers, and storytelling traditions.
During that first festival, around that old farm wagon in Courthouse Square, the Storytelling Revival was born—a cultural renaissance that has, for more than four decades, rediscovered the power of our stories, propelled the storytelling tradition into the mainstream consciousness, and placed it squarely at the heart of the human experience where it belongs.

  But today, the Storytelling Revival is over, for now we have passed into a new narrative order and a new Age of Storytelling—a story revolution. Twenty-first-century technologies have transformed our world and reshaped how information—and our stories—travel. With the click of a mouse, our stories have become more accessible, more abundant, and more democratized. Yet, despite this, oral storytelling remains our most essential and effective form of communication. Where storyteller and listener are present together in a genuine, intimate sharing of their lives, hopes, and dreams for the future, there is a special intimacy through the story and there is no substitute for that.

  The stories that Petro encountered in her travels were conveyed without costumes or props, memorization, or reading aloud. Instead, they were told with only facial expressions, gestures, and voice. Sitting Up with the Dead serves up an entertaining array of humorous and heartwarming portraits from the American South, both real and fictional. It shines a light on our incomparable storytelling, giving the told story the place of honor it deserves, and encourages people across the South, and around the world, to mine, make, and tell their own stories.

  Jimmy Neil Smith

  Founder of the National Storytelling Festival

  Founder and President Emeritus of the

  International Storytelling Center

  Jonesborough, Tennessee

  The Prologue

  Chaucer said it was in April that people long to go on pilgrimages. I was two months late; the desire didn’t come upon me until June. His Canterbury-bound pilgrims were moved “to seek the stranger strands/Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands.” A nice idea, but again, my journey differed in the details. No sundry lands for me. Like a contented lodger taken in by a big, unruly family, I lingered in just one place, or one household, you might say, within the United States: the American South. And I wasn’t seeking saints.