The 1974 Winter Edition of the Foxfire Magazine contains a compilation of newspaper articles written by Harvey Miller. At the time of the magazine’s publication Miller’s weekly column had been around for sixty years and was till being published in the Tri-County News located in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
Here are a few of Miller’s articles published during the month of May. I enjoyed them and hope you do too.
1968
Dewey Hughes, a farmer in the Jake Hollow section of Pigeon Roost, reported that his electric fence stopped working one day last week and he went up the hill checking what the trouble might be only to find that a big black snake had been electrocuted by the electricity on the wire. The big black snake was laying across the wire stone dead and had grounded the electricity causing it not to give any power.
5/2/68
1967
Rev. Harris Street of Pigeon Roost told me a story not too long ago. He said his father, Clingman Street, lived far out on towering Rich Mountain on the waters of Pigeon Roost Creek and one morning in the winter time real early, his neighbor, Charles Webb, who lived not too far down the hollow below him, came to tell him that he wanted him to go down to his barn and help him and another one of this neighbors, Charlie Barnett, lay down his dead mule so he could bury it.
Well, Mr. Street first thought that his neighbor was trying to pull a joke on him but when they went down to the old log barn, they found the mule standing in a cold open log barn stall dead as a door nail.
It took the three men to throw the mule to the ground by putting a “prize” under it with two heavy ten feet chestnut fence rails.
Old timers remark about the words of an old song about the mule is a mule until he dies. Well, it seems that a mule is still a mule after he is dead.
5/4/67
1966
The writer recently observed a spotted sandpiper at a little branch and I would suppose that it had a nest somewhere around there close. I watched it closely as it went up the branch stream and it teeters up and down as it walks. Most people here calls these birds diadappers.
5/5/66
I’ve never heard the phrase diadappers. Please leave a comment if you have.
I bet the first two stories were shared throughout Pigeon Roost when they first happened and remembered by many. I like the two phrases Miller used to describe dead: stone dead and dead as a door nail. Both are familiar to me.
Last night’s video: Matt Planted My Roses and They Look Great!
Tipper
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TIPPER I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT PEOPLE HAVING WARTS ON THEI HANDS. I DO REMEMBER PEOPLE HARVING GOIRTERS THOUGH. ACS
Way back when, I knew a lady that sold Mary Kay cosmetics. She told a story about dead… She was to arrive at a clients house for a Mary Kay party. When she got there the yard was full of cars. She had only been expecting a few, two or three at the most to attend. Well when the lady of the house opened the door my friend said, ” My goodness, how many people did you invite?” Well the hostess replied only four. The Mary Kay lady said why are all these cars here for? The hostess said, ” My father in law died and they’re here for that.” The Mary Kay lady was very apologetic and asked her if she would like to reschedule. The hostess replied,” Oh no ma’am. You come on in. My father in law ain’t gett’n no deader” That Tipper, is a true story!
Sandra-loved the story 🙂 Thank you for sharing it!
I love reading all the old articles from Foxfire Magazine. Thank you, Tipper, for sharing.
Hey Ron, my dad used the term ‘shitepoke’ also. They were really big, long-legged and had a long neck. I called them that as well. I was an adult when I was told they were blue Herons.
I loved reading the May articles.
Re: the dead mule story and old timers quoting an old song, the song is “Go Long Mule, ”
recorded by Uncle Dave Macon around 1927. The chorus, as sung by Uncle Dave, goes
like this: “Go long, Mule/ Don’t you roll them eyes/You can change a fool but a doggone
mule/Is a mule until he dies.” Since I drove a mule pulling a tobacco truck one summer
as a boy, I have a special affection for the song and can personally vouch for the truth
of the sentiments expressed in the chorus
only song I remember is “this old mule she ain’t what she use to be”
Morning Miss Tipper. Since you’ve been back from tending to Granny’s I think I’ve never seen you smiling so much. You have a beautiful smile. Matt seems so much more content with your being home too. Love you both and hope Granny continues to get much better. I’ve heard both terms for dead, but for stone dead it was always “stone cold dead.” That big old mule must have been huge. Being from Missouri when someone was a little stubborn we were always told it this way “ stubborn as a mule, or old mule.” LOL . Have a great day and love your flowers. Beautiful up there in the Holler with all those colors. Matt did a terrific job by the steps. My sweet husband surprised me last night while I was fixing supper. He brought in a few yellow squash. It was a delicious addition to our supper. Yummy!
Great articles!
Diedapper or didapper, spelled various ways, is a handy common name for several small waterfowl. I’ve most often heard it applied to the grebe here in Florida.
I never knew a mule could die and stay on its feet. I do remember a friend being teased in college because she believed you could push over a sleeping cow and it would die. I always wondered if you could get that close to a cow. And why would you want to push over something that much bigger than one’s self. And why would one want to kill a poor cow. The things to think of when procrastinating in the library.
My answer to your question of “why someone would want to kill a poor cow” is Ribeyes or T bones.
My Dad called the kingfisher bird a “didapper”. I also seem to recall him talking about a ” shitepoke” but have no recollection what animal that was. I was also told a story once about a family’s mule that froze to death in midsummer . The mule was standing in its stall and overhead in the loft was stored popcorn that popped and fell down into the stall. The mule thought it was snow …. That was not the same mule they had to put green-lensed glasses on before it would eat dried hay.
I’ve heard both of those figures of speech as well. Yesterday I heard someone say “she was madder than a wet hen.” I thought I’ll need to store that one away for use!
I’ve heard the expression “dead as a door nail” and the other expression I’ve heard it said “stone cold”….
I got a real kick out of these tales this morning and who would ever dream of a mule dying standing up? I know a friend had a horse that died and moving it and burying it was a real feat indeed. Hopefully today and in the next few days I can get my garden bedding plants in. There’s no need to plant green beans til the soil is warm and right now it’s still cold in WV… I’m at the southernmost point of WV and it’s cold y’all for the middle of May. I put a toboggan and jacket on them they come off- all day long I play that game and quite frankly I’m BARKING MAD about it… lol love and blessings to all the usual suspects in a Wilson holler and round the land!!!
The articles stone dead and dead as a door nail are familiar to me also. In fact I say them all the time! I’m sure Archie Campbell read the Fox Fire magazines for the Hee Haw show!
Have a great day.
We had diadappers in Mississippi when I was a kid. I expect we still do. They are a diving bird. You would hear a splash and turn around and see where the bird hit the water. If you watched a few seconds, the bird would come up out of the water not seeming to stop at the surface, but launching upward like a missile and flying away…usually with a small fish in its mouth.
That’s the diadappers I remember! Thanks for waking up that portion of my brain!
I’ve heard the word “diadapper” but can’t seem to equate it with a sandpiper. On the other hand the word “prize” is quite familiar. Just the other day I had to cut a prize pole to help me roll over a log from a tree I had to take down.
I have also heard dead as a door knob.
I have heard the phrase dead as a door nail or dead as a hammer all of my life. Anyone else remember Jerry Clower saying graveyard dead in his funny stories? I have never heard of a mule dying while standing up, but I think they do sleep while standing up, if true I guess it could be said that this one died in his sleep.
Tipper, thank God for you and all you do. I love everything you talk about and all your videos. I can’t wait for the next ones!
I haven’t heard of diadappers, but I thought it would be fun to tell you a few phrases my daddy used to say. We are from Southern Maryland and live on the Wicomico River. On a very still day, when the water looks as still as glass my daddy used to say, “It’s so calm you could see a fly spit!”
When driving down the road if a big old bug happened to hit out windshield and splatter everywhere, daddy would say, “It took guts to do that!”
My grandfather, who owned the first car in our county would sit on the porch and watch for cars coming in the distance. When he spotted one he would say, “Yonder comes a buggy!”
During a thunderstorm sometimes the sun will unexpected pop through the clouds even though it is still storming. That’s when my relatives would exclaim, “The devil’s beating his wife!”
Cindy, your comment about the bug hitting the windshield. I along with some others say we know the last thing to go through the bugs head or mind when it hit the windshield and when asked what was it, we say its butt. I also heard it said the devil was bearing his wife if it rains while the sun is shining.
Good morning everyone. I have always used the term “Dead as a doornail”. I don’t know where I heard it first. I’ve also heard “Stone Cold Dead”. Hope everyone is fine. Anna from Arkansas.
I love the Foxfire books but have never seen the magazine, or heard about diadappers, and I’ve never had a mule but have had to deal with dead cows and draft horses. Nothing easy about those eventualities even with chains and tractors.
I admire people who write stories like this in such an entertaining way.
I have heard these dead phrases as well.