Note: This is the type of tall tale that is not about a hero of superhuman size or strength, but describes a highly exaggerated incident about objects and animals, told in a deadpan way as if it really happened in the daily lives of ordinary people. Folklorist Alan Lomax says that exaggerated fishing and hunting tales reflect the "delight of hungry pioneers at the game-rich woods" they found in America (Appalachian Journey, see below). There is a species of catfish from southeast Asia that can wriggle across land when food is scarce. It is an invasive species found in Florida. (See the video Catfish Walking on Land in MSN Encarta.) "The Walkin' Catfish." Told by Doc McConnell. In Jimmy Neil Smith, Why the Possum's Tail is Bare and Other Classic Southern Stories. New York: Avon, 1993. 73-74. McConnell opens by saying he was born on Stony Point, near Tucker's Knob (NC), where he did a lot of fishing as a boy. One day after fishing, one of his catfish stayed alive. It became a fine pet he named Homer, and followed him everywhere. When school started, Homer tried to follow him to school but fell through a hole in a bridge and drowned in the water. Smith notes that this tale is from McConnell's family tradition and is one of many variants. "A Land-Loving Catfish." Told by Doc McConnell, Tucker's Knob, TN, 1986. In a section of tall tales in American Folktales: From the Collections of the Library of Congress. Ed. Carl Lindahl. Vol. 2. Armonk NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004, pp. 475-78. The introduction discusses McConnell and others at the National Storytelling Festival. The tales is similar to the one above, except that McConnell names the catfish Old Homer and includes a joke about teaching the catfish to do in two weeks what took two million years of evolution. "The Walkin' Catfish." Told by Doc McConnell. In Tales of Humor and Wit. Cassette tape. Jonesborough, TN: National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, National Storytelling Press, and August House Publishers, 1991. c. 50 min. Also includes Obedient Jack / Elizabeth Ellis and Gayle Ross -- How the Rhinosaurus Got his Skin / Carol Birch -- The Hog-o-phone / David Holt -- Cinderella / Ed Stivender -- The $50,000 Racehorse / Hannah McConnell Gillenwater -- Sketches of Nostalgia / Gamble Rogers (Worldcat).
"The Pet Catfish." Told by Stanley Hicks, 6 July 1981, on field tapes in Cheryl Oxford Collection, Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Also "Pet Catfish" in this collection, 16 Nov. 1985 (FS-6159). See Inventory of Cheryl Oxford Collection, 1981-1988. ("Other hunting and fishing tales" are listed as FS-6153 Stanley Hicks, Vilas, N.C., 6 July 1981, Tape 1 of 2). Appalachian Journey. Film by Alan Lomax. Association for Cultural Equity, 1991. 58 min. Available at Folkstreams.net with background materials. Lomax presents video clips and discussion of Appalachian history in relation to storytellers, musicians, dancers, and makers of toys and instruments. He talks with members of the Hicks family: Stanley Hicks tells a tall tale of a catfish that lives on land for a while as his pet, until it falls back in the creek and drowns, and Ray Hicks tells a tall tale about hunting with Jack. Lomax says that such tales reflect the "delight of hungry pioneers at the game-rich woods" they found in America. He calls this growing storytelling tradition a "main source of American imagination." They sing songs and talk about toys and courting traditions in their youth, as well as the creation of recreation areas that shut them off of land they were used to traveling on. Frank Proffitt, Jr. sings on the film and Lomax tells the history of the song about Tom Dula (Dooley), which begins with Proffitt's father singing it. He discusses John Henry and other influences of African Americans on Appalachian music and dancing. People "played their misery out" in ballads related to poverty, making moonshine, mining and black lung and unions, floods, etc. McConnell, John Ed. (Frankfort, KY). "Truthful's Tragic Fish Tale." In Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler. More Laughter in Appalachia: Southern Mountain Humor. Little Rock: August House, 1995, pp. 110-11. Truthful Dawkins hung out at a blacksmith shop at the Forks of Elkhorn, KY. He told the other tale-tellers there that he rescued a bass from a snake and then it kept trying to jump out of the water when it saw him, until he carried it home, where it learned to spend time out of its tub of water, eat with the dogs, and follow him everywhere. One day it fell through a slat in the same swinging bridge where he found it, and it drowned. See also these Appalachian tales and resources: "Lantern" is another tall tale about two girls fishing told by Connie Regan-Blake on Dive-Into Stories: A Telling Performance. CD. Asheville, NC: Storywindow Productions, 2006. The narrator claims she caught fish with no hook, line or bait by giving them chewing tobacco and hitting them over the head when they came up to spit. Appalachian Picture Books: Tall Tales "Twelve Tall Tales from Wilkes County." by Jerry D. Joines. Commentary on Being A Joines: A Life in the Brushy Mountains. Study Guides for the Film. Reprinted from North Carolina Folklore Journal, vol. 20, no. 1 (Feb. 1972): 3-10. The son of NC storyteller John E. Joines (b. 1914) records twelve tales his father told in 1971. In tale no. 3, a hunting dog points to a catfish because, the tale-teller discovers, there are seven partridges inside that the catfish has eaten. Variants of the tale from an 1852 Northern newspaper and from Indiana are mentioned. The film is available at Folkstreams.net. AppLit's Tall Tales and Jack Tales: Literature and Writing Activities Compare these Appalachian tales with: "Fishing." In Alvin Schwartz. Whoppers, Tall Tales and Other Lies Collected from American Folklore. Illus. Glen Rounds. New York: Harper Trophy, 1975. pp. 34-35. A man in Maine catches a trout that he trains as a pet out of water, but it slips in a brook and drowns while following him around one day. Schwartz cites sources in Farquhar, Samuel T. "The Tame Trout." California Folklore Quarterly 3 (1944): 177-84; and Goodspeed, Charles E. Angling in America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1939, pp. 315-16. "The Legend of Ol' Blue." By Margot McMillen. Illus. Mark Raithel. From Outside In Dec. 1997 (magazine for children). Missouri Dept. of Conservation Online. "A tall tale about winter coming to Lake Ozark." "Tall tales about Old Blue were first written down by Earl A. Collins, a teacher and writer from Cape Girardeau [MO]. His stories were published in the Kansas City Times in the 1930s. Like all tall tales, this version has parts from other reports, many heard years ago. Some of the details are true. We think you can tell which parts are true and what parts turn this into a tall tale!" Ol' Blue is a huge, mysterious legendary catfish suspected of stealing pumpkins. Day, David. The Walking Catfish. Illus. Mark Entwisle. New York: Macmillan; Don Mills, Ont.: Maxwell Macmillan Canada, 1991. 31 pp. "A tall tale [by a Canadian author] about a Big Lie Contest at which a tale about a giant catfish becomes true and swallows its teller. The walking catfish is so big it swallows a man." Tabloid Tales is a language arts lesson about exaggeration, for grades 3 and up, that explores tabloid stories as modern tall tales. One of the writing suggestions is "Walking Catfish Eats Farmer." By Gary Hopkins. 2002-2006. Education World web site. Top of Page |
|||||||