Jack, Alive and Well on Beech Mountain in Western North Carolina: the Cultural Traditions of Ted Hicks
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
JACK, ALIVE AND WELL ON BEECH MOUNTAIN IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA: THE CULTURAL TRADITIONS OF TED HICKS A Thesis by LISA BALDWIN Submitted to the Graduate School Appalachian State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2010 Major Department: Appalachian Studies JACK, ALIVE AND WELL ON BEECH MOUNTAIN IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA: THE CULTURAL TRADITIONS OF TED HICKS A Thesis by LISA BALDWIN May 2010 APPROVED BY: ____________________________________ Fred J. Hay Chairperson, Thesis Committee Patricia D. Beaver Member, Thesis Committee Director, Center for Appalachian Studies Cecelia Conway Member, Thesis Committee Susan E. Keefe Member, Thesis Committee Edelma D. Huntley Dean, Research and Graduate Studies Copyright by Lisa Baldwin 2010 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT JACK, ALIVE AND WELL ON BEECH MOUNTAIN IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA: THE CULTURAL TRADITIONS OF TED HICKS (May 2010) Lisa Baldwin, B.S., Auburn University M.A., Appalachian State University Chairperson: Fred J. Hay This thesis is the result of fieldwork, research, and time spent with Ted Hicks and other members of the Hicks family who reside on Beech Mountain in Watauga County in western North Carolina. Ted, who was born in 1954 in Avery County, has spent his entire life living with his mother, Rosa Harmon Hicks, and his father, Ray. He learned the Appalachian mountain traditions from his parents. Modernity has not substantially influenced the Hicks family. They have continued to live, work, and play in the “old ways.” Ted has been a subsistence farmer, woodsman, craftsman, carpenter, and herb gatherer. Only recently has he become an active bearer of the oral tradition of the Jack and Grandfather Tales. Ted grew up in the house on Beech Mountain where his father was born and where Ray heard his grandfather, Benjamin Hicks, telling the tales that his relatives had passed down to him. In 1995, Ray received the National Storytelling Association’s first Lifetime Achievement Award, and he received numerous storytelling awards. He was also the only teller who was featured every year at the National Storytelling Festival that is held in iv Jonesborough, Tennessee. Ted has been a passive participant in the oral traditions of the family. He was shy and spent more time alone in the woods and farming the family land than in public gatherings. It wasn’t until after his father’s death in 2003 that Ted became an active bearer of the tradition of the Jack and Grandfather Tales. Due to health challenges, he could no longer farm and gather herbs, and therefore he turned to the oral traditions he grew up hearing in his home. Ted continues private performances in the context of his and his mother’s home, and he has transitioned to public performances in the past few years. His performance in October 2009 was his first delivery of a tale on the main stage in Jonesborough. He sat in the same center spot where his father had performed the tales year after year. The delivery of “Jack and the Doctor’s Girl” transcribed in Appendix B was Ted’s fourth public performance. My research includes Ted Hicks’s private performances and one public performance of the Jack Tales, a genre that has been recorded as a two hundred-year old tradition brought to western North Carolina by the Hicks, Harmon, and Ward families, who came from England and Germany and settled near Valle Crucis, North Carolina in the 1700s. Because of the Hicks family’s long history of involvement with the Jack Tale tradition, there is a need for further documentation of this family, which has taken responsibility for keeping the cultural traditions alive in the Appalachian region. My thesis documents Ted Hicks’s role in maintaining family traditions and his transition to being an active bearer of the Jack Tale tradition as he struggles with health issues and a changing community. A video recording and transcriptions of Ted’s private and public performances accompany my thesis and are central to this project. v This thesis is dedicated to Ted Hicks. Also to Amy Michels, and Rosa, Leonard, Orville, and Rosa Jean Hicks, Kathy Hicks Tribble, Dorothy Jean Hicks Odom, Juanita Elizabeth Hicks Simerly and Eva Hicks, Shirley and Charlie Glenn, and in loving memory of Rosa Jane Hicks Presnell, Ray Hicks, and Stanley Hicks. Also, to those who take time and effort in passing family traditions to their children. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to Amy Michels who first introduced me to members of the Hicks, Harmon, Presnell, and Glenn families. Thank you for the adventures on Beech Mountain and for sharing your memories with me. Special thanks to Ted, Rosa, and Leonard Hicks for allowing me to spend many days in your home and to share in the stories, tales, songs, and good food. Also, all of the Hicks women (Rosa Jean, Rosa Jane, Kathy, Jean, Nita, and Eva) who made me feel like I was part of their special family. Special thanks to Orville Hicks for my first “real” introduction to the Jack Tales. My sincere appreciation to those who agreed to individual interviews and helped to spark a thesis: Amy Michels; Ted, Rosa, Orville, and Rosa Jean Hicks; Rosa Jane Hicks Presnell; Kathy Tribble Hicks; and Shirley and Charlie Glenn. At Appalachian State University, thanks to my thesis committee: Fred Hay for careful reading, input, expertise, and excellent and rigorous coursework; Pat Beaver for suggesting that I consider the Appalachian studies M.A. program, for support from day one until the present, and for my introduction to participatory research; Sue Keefe for expertise, organization, and guidance throughout my research and writing and for introducing me to ethnographic research; Cece Conway for careful reading and conversations about folklore studies and the Hicks family; Debbie Bauer for incredible patience and organization, and for keeping things running smoothly and on time; Thomas McGowan for expertise, careful reading, guidance, and for help with my article in the North Carolina Folklore Journal; Betsy Williams for careful reading, support, enthusiasm, and library assistance throughout my coursework and writing; Chip Arnold for guidance into the culture track, Sandy Ballard vii for locating journal articles and giving me the opportunity to publish in the Appalachian Journal; Katherine Ledford and Ozzie Ostwalt for engaging coursework in Appalachian literature and religion; Georgia Rhoades, Joseph Bathanti, and Neva Specht for writing convincing letters of recommendation to the graduate school; Dean Williams for patience and library assistance; the writing center at Appalachian State University, especially Beth Carroll, Dennis Bohr, and Tonya Hassell; and Bill Lightfoot for wonderful conversation about the Hicks family. To all of you, I express my sincere appreciation for your encouragement and friendship. Also, I would like to acknowledge the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection. Thanks to those with whom I shared classes, discussions, and the Wales study abroad and who gave encouragement and advice, and to Billy Schumann and Ian Willms for patience and guidance during our visit to Wales, everyone at the Dulais Valley Partnership, and to those involved in making my stay and internship in Wales so enjoyable. Thanks to the Graduate Student Association Senate (GSAS) and the Office of Student Research (OSR) for funding support. To my parents, Dallas B. and Lucille Baldwin for passing along their singing tradition, their personal narratives about growing up in rural Appalachia, and for encouraging me in my pursuit of a teaching degree in 1975. To Jim, for sharing a semester on campus with your mom and for your encouragement and enlightening conversation. Special gratitude to Dave Haney for things that are too many to mention here. Thank you for your love, support, and the confidence you show in me each and every day. This would not have been possible without your friendship, patience, and encouragement. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................2 Chapter 2: Review of Literature and Methodology: The Storytelling Tradition on Beech Mountain in Western North Carolina ....................................................................21 Chapter 3: Ted Hicks: Jack of all Trades .........................................................................44 Chapter 4: Conclusion.......................................................................................................77 Works Cited .......................................................................................................................92 Appendix A: Private Performance Transcription of Ted Hicks: “Lucky Jack and Unlucky Jack” .......................................................................................................................97 Appendix B: Public Performance Transcription of Ted Hicks: “Jack and the Doctor’s Girl” ..............................................................................................................................107 Appendix C: Private Performance Transcription of Ted Hicks: “Jack and the Doctor’s Girl” ..............................................................................................................................126 Appendix D: Public Performance Transcription of Orville Hicks: “Jack and the Heifer’s Hide” ....................................................................................................................146 Appendix E: Public Performance Transcription