Jane Litty interview with Bill Litty, Mrs. Robert Little, Mary Jone Reuere, Lurline Kerlin, A.J. Hoban, Kathleen Hoban, Marion McKenna

The John Burrison Georgia Folklore Archive recordings contains unedited versions of all interviews. Some material may contain descriptions of violence, offensive language, or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. There are instances of racist language and description, particularly in regards to African Americans. These items are presented as part of the historical record. This project is a repository for the stories, accounts, and memories of those who chose to share their experiences for educational purposes. The viewpoints expressed in this project do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Atlanta History Center or any of its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The Atlanta History Center makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefore. If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. In this recording Jane Litty interviews her brother and friends. She starts the interview with Bill Litty telling a tale about a man who stole golden coins off a corpse that subsequently haunted him. At minute 4:38, Mrs. Robert Little discusses the legend of Paul Bunyan, including the height of the trees in Paul Bunyan country, the height of his house, and a story of him outrunning a bullet. She then tells a joke about Theodore Roosevelt and the Republicans who voted for him. She also retells a humorous story her brother-in-law told her about a funeral and one about a dead body found in Kentucky. She ends by reciting a poem about a preacher and telling a joke about a preacher and a horse. Next, Mary Jone Reuere, at minute 12:48, recalls a humorous folk tale about a minister. She tells a joke about an old man praying and children trying to scare him. At 15:46, Lurline Kerlin tells a story about a hunchback fella who had to be strapped into his coffin and a joke about a man who buried his dead wife face down so she couldnt haunt him. A.J. Hoban recalls seeing his fathers ghost shortly after his death at minute 18:45. Hobans wife Kathleen elaborates on the story, and they discuss subsequent haunting incidents attributed to Hobans father. Next, A.J. Hoban sings a folk song about frogs. Kathleen retells the legend of how the Robin Red Breasts got its name and the origin of the Weeping Willow. At minute 27:02, Marion McKenna tells another version of the story about the hunchback in his coffin. A.J. Hoban recalls a tale about an open grave that men fell into. He concludes the recording with a joke about Irish immigrants laying sod. Lurline Kerlin (1905-2004) was born in Roanoke, Alabama, to Thomas Gunn and Florida Gamble. She married Horace Kerlin (1904-2003) in 1927 and they had one daughter, Betty Kerlin Carter (1934-?). A.J. Hoban Jr. (1936-?) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Augustine J. Hoban. He married Kathleen B. Hoban (1938-?) who was also born in Philadelphia and later lived in Yeadon, Pennsylvania. Mary Jone Reuere (1930-?) was born in Cordele, Georgia, lived in Atlanta, Georgia, and worked as a domestic servant. Mrs. Robert Little (1923-?) was born in Heard County, Georgia, and also lived in Atlanta. Marion L. McKenna (1940-?) was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, but lived in Atlanta, Georgia. No additional biographical information has been determined. TAIE 1 "Mrs. Little do you happen to know any folk tales or something like that, that you've heard from other people?" I asked. "Yes I've heard of this story that's told about uh a tall country. It was told by an old settler. The stories have to grow to match the. tall bUildings and the tall timbers around." 'Why out in Baul Bunyan country, that's the country you know that runs from Michigan through Minnesota clear out into Oregon and the Pa~ificl They tell us that the trees grow so high it takes' a man a whole week to see the top of urn.' TALE 2 "And speaking of Paul Bunyan, the giant lumber jack, 'did you ever hear of the house he built in the North woodsl''' "No, I don't guess so." I answered. 'It was so high that he had to put the last five stories on hinges to let the moon go by.' TALE 3 "Yes sir, and the time Paul Bunyan went hunting is another ,great story." 'He was the surest shot and the fastest runner that ever waded across the Mississippi. They still talk about it, out in the North West. It seems that Paul sighted a big buck a mile away, it was standing on the edge of'a cliff and Paul knew if he shot the buck that the buck would fall off the edge and go down the cliff. So Paul pulled the trigger. As soon as the bullet left the gun Paul ran to ~ where the buck was standing. He ran so fast that he got ahead of the shot. He had to duck his head to let the bullet go by.' "Yes sir, the story goes," Janel the buck,' "Oh yes," 'the " buck waS killed all right but not by the bullet. when it saw Paul standing there the buck was plum scared to death. It died ~lithout waiting for the shot to reach it.' "That's how things happened in Paul Bunyans country." TALE 4 "Do you remember the story that uh Theodore Roosevelt, told during one of hi s campaign speeched?" "No, un-uh." I answered.. -He kept being interrupted during his speech by a heckler and finally Roosevelt realized that he had to do something to stop this heckler. So he ask, 'May uh I ask this gentleman why he is a democrat?' Andt.he man':kept 'standing up waving his hands saying, 'I'm a democrat, I'm a democratl' So Roosevelt repeated and said, 'May I ask why this man is a democratI , And so the heckler said, '~grandfather was a democrat, my father was a democrat, and I'm a democrat too.' And then Roosevelt stopped for a minute and said, 'Suppose that your grandfather had been a jack-ass, and your father had been a jack-ass, what would you be?' The heckler shouted back, 'A Republican7"!, 'Mrs. Little replied this with a laugh TALE 5 liMy brother-in-law, who is a minister tells this story about a friend of his that he had, had his wife's funeral." And so they were riding home from the cemetery he looked over at his friend and said,' You mustn't look so depressed, you and Mandy were married forty years, that's a long time for a man and wife to live together.' 'That'll right minister,' ~ his friend, 'Mandy made me a good wife for forty years but do you know something? Some how I never did learn to like her. '" TALE 6 "This story happened in the state of Kentucky." The night was real derk and two men came to a cabin door and knocked on the door. And this old man opened his door. And this ;Tas what was said; "Joe and me, we found a body down in the hollow and we were afraid it might be you,:,it ,"as too d"rk for us to tell." So the old man said, "What did the body look like?" "About your height they said." And the old man said, "Did he have on a shirt?" "Yep," thy answered. "Was it flannel?" "Yep," they answered. "Was he shaved?" "I think so." The old man said, "Well then it warn't me." TALE 7 "I've heard this poem given by my brother-in-law." 'I never see my preacher's eyes he hides their light divine, for when he prays he shuts his own and when he preaches mine.' TALE 8 "There's a story about a man trying to sell a preacher a horse." Mrs. Little replied with a twinkle in her eye. \(And this man was "the owner of a stable and he was really building un 't.his, horse for sale. :He said. " Preacher, this is one of the most gentle horses and the most well behaved horses I have. He stands any where Vlithout being hitched. He does anything that you lvJ. ask him and he hasn't/la bad trait 'in all the years I',ve had him. He won't kick at all and he listens to everything, verY 'carefully. listens to everything you say." " Ah, said the preacher, if that horse were only a member of my congregation." . TALE 9 "I heard this uh story, recently. It concerns a prominent women, who while traveling was greeted by another woman whose face waS familar but some:how she couldn't place it." 'How wonderful,' this woman said to the stranger, 'it has been such a long time since we visited.' She was terribly embrassed because there was an evidence of intimaey. The first woman tried to recall some connection with which she could reveal this compatnion, as to who she was. But nothing made her remember. And so she thought sll!!d add a little conversation to uh get this woman to say something that would make her remember. And she said, 'Only yesterday I was thinking ' And the woman @, 'Oh probably about my brother.' This seemed to be a promising clue and the woman interrupted, 'Your brother of course, I couldn't forget your brother. .Tell me, what is he doing?' And the unknown said, cooly, 'MW brother is still the President ~ of the United States.' " TALE 10 "Well Mary, do you know any folk tales or any ghost stories or anything that you can remember that you've been told?" I ask her, "Oh yes I know the one 00 I heard at my church one time that this precher told." Says that 00 this minister waS called to a small country church and when he got there, there wadn't but one member at the church and he was setting there looking at him. And he ask him, 00, "Say well brother uh, where's the rest of the folk." He say, "Well Reverne, I don't know cause I don't kno;1 anything about preaching and 00 because I'm a cattle man, and 00, I don't know nothing about preaching, I don't know where the other peoples." So he sat there and he looked at the minister and the minister then turned and looked at him. So eventually he went back and ask him, /Jk'1 said, "Brother, 00 nobody:' shere b;ut you, what, what will you do?" And he looked at him then he said, "Well, I told you in the first place I didn't know anything about preaching cause I'Jll a cattle man, said, if I went to feed my catle and didn't but one come up, said I would fe':?d that one. fI So then the minister got up and he ,.had this, about two hour surmon prepared, and he got up and preached, and preached for about two solid hours and then he came down and he shook the brothers hand and said 00, "\-Iell, said, hm< do you like my surman?" ., 2 TALE 10 He said, "Reverne, say, I told you first place I did.'1' t know any thing abo~t preaching,beacllse I'm a cattle man;said but, if I went to feed my cattles and didn,'t but one say, I wouldn't give that one the 1\ ' whole load TALE 11 With a laugh I replied, It That was a good one, Mary. Do you know another one?" .. Yes, uh I know uh, my mother told me one one time. It Mary nervously replied. ~)"This old man went down to this place he had he called his praying grounds. And every afternoon late he'd go down by the woods and pray. And uh, this particular afternoon when he went down to pray some little devilish boys followed him and they decided to skerr him so when they got there he waS on his knee's praying. And uh they started throwing rocks and at first it didn't frighten him so they decided they'd get a little closer so they threw a rock on each side of him and uh he turnt and looked but didn't see anybody so he started praying again. And they got to throwing rocks a little bit closer, and a little bit closer. So venturely they threw one and hit him on the head and he thought sure then that it was a ghost and he jumped up and there was a ditch between his house~ and the woods>so he felt like that when he got across the ditch he was safe. So as he was running, they were throwing the rocks from side to side and every time he'd look they'd get closer and closer and closer. ~ So eventually he got across the ditch, he looked back and he said, "You might can skerr God's children but you sure can't catch urn." Mary replied with a huge laugh TALE 12 " Mrs. Kerlin. do you know any folktales that your mother or grandmother told you?" I cautiously asked., " Yes I do," she nervously replied. "I remember one 'that my father told that he said actually happened." "When he was a young ~an about 25 this little hunch-back fell in the neighborhood had passed away and at that time everybody came at night and sat up with the corpse. So the room was full of people sitting around , ~/ that night and before this happened) the undertaker had to strap him down into the casket because he was so hunched-back that he wouldn't fit~ . fM ~f),A,' II '1 " "So he had a str.ap acros~ his legs to make him fit into the casket. So the night was kinda'dark and bad weather and everybody was sitting around and talking so all of a sudden about two o'clock in the morning the st~ap across his chest broke so he jumped up straight and sat up in the casket and his eyes were open and it frightened everybody so that people jumped out the windows took the window sash and the pane and everything with them. people fainted and the room was soon emptied by everybody being scared to death," she laughingly replied TALE 13 ''Well, that was a real good one. Do you happen to know any more?" I quickly asked her. "Yes I do. I,remember one about a couple)an old man and old lady that had lived together for quite a while)and he was a miser.- He waS so tight with his money and he didn't want to spend"'it and she and they just had free-for- all fights nearly all the waS rather domineering ))c1" time. One day she wanted to get some money to go shopping and he didn't want to give her any MI' money &e she says "if I d, i,e before you do and you get married again I am II'" r going to haunt you. Ij.F.H:i dig myself our of the grave and I'm going to come back and haunt you.... It so happened that she passed away before he did, and so they had the funeral and in a couple or three months he got married again to a younger person and they spent money lavishly and they were living it .... ~. up and having a ball." So one of his neighbors went to him and sa~~Mr. I ~l' Smit~'You didn't spend money) you were tight when your first wife >las liVing. Aren't you afraid she will come back and haunt you.' He said, 'No, I've taken care of that, I buried her with her face down.' " . , TALE 14 "This is the story of what happened the night that my father died. For a little background my father was very protective of my mother and in her later years they were very close to each other much more so than most people at their age. My mother had a series of strokes before my father died and was convalescing at my sisters home when he died suddenly of a heart attack on the 14 of February 1966. Now after we learned of his death we took care of all the funeral arrangements and took by mother back to her home where she had been living ~th dad before he had been hospitalized. After everything was settled my mother was put up to bed. My brother-in-law was there and I was there resting in a reclining chair and sorta gazing up at the ceiling after a long days activities a little bit tired. My mother was I say was up in bed, the lights in the upstairs hallway were lit. Now, as I lay there I saw a shadow in the hallway. It waS moving from the front room where my father had slept toward the back room where my mother was sleeping at this time or was at least in bed at this time. And I didn't think anything of it because one of my sisters was upstairs taking care of my mother and was moving'to the back room to do, do something for her. But then my sister came into the living room and said, 'Did you hear that upstairs?' and r said, 'No, I thought you were upstairs.' the back room. I I said, 'I saw a shadow I thought you were going into " 2 So we both went up, mw brother-in-law came up and when the three of us got to the back room, mw mother was in bed and she was fine but she wanted something. I don't recall exactly what it was now but she did want something. We all 'kinds felt that it was mw father still taking care of her even after he had died.'" Mrs. Hoban interupted at this point and gave me this information that also concerns this story~ , ' n This was after Gus' father had died and Mrs. Hogan was liVing with F~!>,>ib I~ Rosalee as she was right before the death and possibably it was a a Sunday afternoon when they were going out for a drive. She at the time was using a cane when she was walking. Everyone had loaded into the car ready to go and Mrs. Hogan remembered that she had forgotten the cane. She went back into the house which was locked, went to get the cane and there the cane was on the chair shaking Gack and forth as if pop were there trying to remind her to take the cane." nI~then'ask her, " Did this happen after the shock?" " Yes. she replied, it was over the shock and everything. He was dead maybe t"o or three weeks at the time." Slowly she continued. n They had been looking for an address book to send out thank-you notes for people who had remembered Mr. Hogan in his sympathy. Bobby was looking for the address book and had went all through the buffet and gave up figuring, well I can't find it. At which point the side of the other buffet opened and the book fell to the floor. Cause she had said,' Well come on pop and help me find this book at which point the door did open and it fell to the floor." I then ask her about part of the story that she had told me about before they would allow me to turn on the tape recorder. .. .Didn 't you say something about hearing a clicking?" She then replied, .. Yes, Bobby again "as very close to her father. '!hey had a very nice relationship and to this day when she hears any kind of strange IJ-I;) noise in her home she just figures itts pop~back and sitting in the chairs when they creak and the fact at one point she had thought she heard a clock that they have that was Mrs. Hogan's mothers and she was on the phone speaking with her sister at the time and she had said,~)"Wait a minute, I hear something. It sounds like the clock's being wound up. ' Marjonie, who was the otherSsister, said, 'It couldn't be a clock because there is no one there to wind it up.' It was on another floor. So ~obby said, 'Yes that's just what it sounds like.' It was the type clock that runs dOlm in a day or two. Bobby said, 'Well, we will know whether it was the clock or not ( and here the clock ran another ~ two days where it should have run our that day).' Bobby just chalked it up that Mr. Hogan had come back to wind up the clock again." Folk Song 15 I now ask Mr. Hogan, "You told me you knew a folk song1" He replied, "Oh yes." "Seven frogs were droltising beneath the shallow pool, They were nearly frozen, the day was very cool. Up spoke father frog, 'Spring is on t~e way, Can't you hear the Nightingale rehearse her foolish lay1~'" TALE 16 crucified that the birds were flying overhead and they came to the top of the cross and tried to pull the thorns our of his head. One of the thorns pierced their breast and the dripping of the blood turned their breast red. That is why they are know as Robin Red Breasts." TALE 17 " The same thing goes for the Weeping Willow. When he was going to the cross, to Calvary, that on his journey as he passed by the trees on the wayside that the trees when he went by started weeping. lneir branches turned down in sorrow to see our Lord go by on his way to the crucifixtion. " .. TALE 18 I now turned to Mrs. Mckenna, who had been listening to the various stories that had-been told. and said, " Now Marion it's your turn.' First of all tell us where you heard the story." She then shyly replied, " This stOry came from my father. it actually happened. It happened at a wake, an old Italian type of wake where people would sit around for hours and just Mourn a~ cry like professional mourners. The man waS laying in the casket and everybody was there quite sorrowful and all of a sudden the man sat up. -Everybody started screaming and they couldn't imagine the man had COMe back to life and they couldn't understand it And here the man was a hunch-back and had been strapped down in his coffin and the straps gave way and that was what caused him to sit up." I then ask, " Your father didn't teU you when that happened?" She- replied, " This was when he was, uh, well, I'U say in his early twenties " TALE 19 Continuing the conversation I then ask, " Can anybOdy" else remember anymore 1" Mr. Hogan laughingly replied, " This isn't a folk song ,~ 9l1t this happened one night when a fellow was going home late and he waS trying to get across the cemetary. The easiest was to get across it was just to climb the fence and cut through. So he was going through the cemetary and there was an open grave there and he didn't see it. it was dark and he fell in the grave. He thought to himself. I'll just relax and sleep here until morning and somestarted to climb and he couldn't get oUD and couldn't get out. So he just body will come along and I will be able to get out. ... While he was lY1ng there trying to go to sleep another fellow comes along and stumbles into the open grave~e did the same, ,thing the first guy. He starts to climb and get out and everything. So he got tired of watching him and says, 'you'll never do it like that,fel"~- ., With this the second fellow jumped right out of the grave and got out." \ over to the window room all lavander, TALE 20 " A man came into a woman's house to give her a price for painting her home. They went into the first room and she said to him, " I want the tops of the wall painted green and the bottom all white.' So he went over to an open window and he shouted out, ' Green side up.' They went into the next ~ room and she said I want the ceiling green with-a little green border but }\ the rest of the walls blue. So he went over to the window again and he shouted, ' Green side up.' So she thought it was a little strange but didn't - say anything. They went into the third room and she said, ' I want this the walls} ceilingS and everything lavander.' So he goes ) W<Y;J:-o.~ again and shouts, ' Green side up.' She said, '"What's ) going on'1 I want this whole room lavender, I don'r want ~ green in here.' He says, ' That's got nothing to do with your room lady;, I~e got three Irish immigrants out there-laying sodl' " A PDF transcript exists for this recording. Please contact an archivist for access. Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions. 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