Celebrating 100 Years of the Texas Folklore Society, 1909-2009
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Celebrating 100 Years of the Texas Folklore Society, 1909–2009 Celebrating 100 Years of the Texas Folklore Society, 1909–2009 Edited by Kenneth L. Untiedt Publications of the Texas Folklore Society LXVI University of North Texas Press Denton, Texas © 2009 Texas Folklore Society All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Permissions: University of North Texas Press 1155 Union Circle #311336 Denton, TX 76203-5017 The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, z39.48.1984. Binding materials have been chosen for durability. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Celebrating 100 Years of the Texas Folklore Society, 1909–2009 / edited by Kenneth L. Untiedt.—1st ed. p. cm. — (Publications of the Texas Folklore Society; 66) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-57441-277-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Texas Folklore Society—History—20th century. 2. Texas Folklore Society— History—21st century. 3. Folklore—Texas. 4. Texas—Social life and customs. I. Untiedt, Kenneth L., 1966 II. Texas Folklore Society. III. Title: Celebrating one hundred years of the Texas Folklore Society, 1909-2009. IV. Series: Publications of the Texas Folklore Society; no. 66. GR111.T4C45 2009 398.209764--dc22 2009025355 Celebrating 100 Years of the Texas Folklore Society, 1909–2009 is Number LXVI in the Publications of the Texas Folklore Society CONTENTS Preface by Kenneth L. Untiedt ix I. What’s the Point: Why the Folk Come in the First Place Clarence Jay Faulkner “Hooked on Texas” 3 Scott Hill Bumgardner “Beware of Folklore Addiction” 9 Vicky Rose “McDade and Me” 13 Lucy Fischer West “Mother Lodes of Mexican Lore” 19 Lucy Fischer West “Bibliography of Mexican-American Folklore Articles” 34 Tim Tingle “Dobie’s Disciples and the Choctaw Five” 43 Jean Granberry Schnitz “The Texas Folklore Society Was Part of My Life, Long Before I Knew It” 55 Kenneth L. Untiedt “The Family Nature of the Texas Folklore Society” 73 II. Books, Papers, and Presentations: Texas Folklore Scholarship James Ward Lee “Collecting and Reading Folklore” 87 Len Ainsworth “Books of the TFS” 105 Al Lowman “Texas Booklore: If It Ain’t Folklore, Then What the He(ck) Is It?” 111 Frances Brannen Vick “How I Came to Be a Publisher of Texas Folklore Society Publications” 131 L. Patrick Hughes “An Enduring Relationship: The Texas Folklore Society and Folk Music” 145 Bruce A. Glasrud “African Americans and Texas Folklore” 157 v vi Contents Charles Chupp “Geococcyx” 177 Charles Clay Doyle “Pecos Bill and His Pedigree” 181 Jerry B. Lincecum “Funerals and Folklore: A Snapshot from 1909” 205 III. The Folk: Who We Are and What We’ve Done Elmer Kelton “How the TFS Has Influenced Me as a Writer, But More Importantly, What It Has Meant to Me as a Listener” 215 Peggy A. Redshaw “Women in the Texas Folklore Society” 223 Joyce Gibson Roach “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Reflections on the TFS and a Writing Life” 245 Francis Edward Abernethy “Back in the Ought ’Sixties” 273 Sue M. Friday “The Alford Homeplace: Deconstructing a Dogtrot” 285 Meredith E. Abarca “Mexican and Mexican-American Folk Healers: Continuing to Nourish Our Sense of Humanity into the Twenty-First Century” 291 IV. Meetings, Memories, and More Kenneth W. Davis “Keeping the Flames Burning and Passing Them On: Hoots at TFS Meetings” 311 Lee Haile “The Texas Folklore Society: Getting There Is Half the Fun” 321 Archie P. McDonald “Folklore Society Memories” 331 Charlie Oden “Confessions of a Folklore Junkie” 337 Mary Margaret Dougherty Campbell “Hooked” 343 Contents vii Sarah L. Greene “1968: One Family’s Folklore Odyssey” 347 J. Rhett Rushing “My First TFS Meeting” 351 Carol Hanson “Looking Back with the Hansons” 355 Robert J. (Jack) Duncan “Under the Influence” 367 Contributors’ Vitas 383 Index 395 PREFACE The Texas Folklore Society celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009, so it wasn’t hard to decide on a theme for this year’s publica- tion. I didn’t want to write Volume IV of the history of the TFS, an undertaking F. E. Abernethy began with the first three volumes that cover the Society’s origin and development from 1909–2000. I wanted this book to examine what makes the Texas Folklore Society unique among other scholarly organizations, and thereby sum up why we’ve lasted so long. I believe the Texas Folklore Soci- ety’s secret for longevity lies in those things that make it different from other organizations—its publications, its people, and its meetings. Those are the features that have not only kept the Soci- ety going for a hundred years, but they have also made it thrive. So, in this book you’ll find some articles that provide a critical, ana- lytical view of what the TFS has produced in folklore research, and you’ll also find some very personal, reflective articles from mem- bers of the memories and friendships they treasure. In the program for the 1935 annual meeting, J. Frank Dobie summed up the importance of the Texas Folklore Society: The Texas Folk-Lore Society is twenty-six years old. It has published nearly 2000 pages of lore per- taining to Texas and the Southwest. It has con- tributed enormously to such books as Lomax’s American Ballads and Folk Songs, Sandburg’s The American Song Bag, Dobie’s Coronado’s Children, and other books. It is by all odds the most impor- tant state organization of its kind in America. That was over seventy years ago, when the Society was practi- cally still in its infancy. We’ve now published well over 14,000 pages of folklore material, in sixty-six regular publications (includ- ing this one). We’ve also sponsored another thirty-six publications, ranging from pamphlets to full-length books on the cowboy life, ix x Preface the lore of Native Americans, and even traditional oral narratives from Ireland. While most similar organizations publish periodical journals, Publications of the Texas Folklore Society are full-length books that contain a balanced mixture of collected lore and schol- arly analysis, as well as many photographs, illustrations, and origi- nal artwork from members and nationally renowned artists. From the beginning, the Society has been filled with people who contributed to the organization and its purpose in significant ways. John Lomax and Leonidas Payne were not only the driving forces behind getting the organization started, but Lomax’s fame also attracted other renowned members such as Dorothy Scarbor- ough and Louise Pound. Other influential scholars who presented papers and held offices, or who contributed regularly to the publi- cations include Walter Prescott Webb, J. Mason Brewer, Harry Ransom, C. L. Sonnichsen, and Allen Maxwell. Current active members include James Ward Lee, Joyce Gibson Roach, Robert Flynn, and Elmer Kelton, all of whom bring recognition through their publications and attendance at meetings. The annual meetings seem more like social events or family reunions than they do formal academic gatherings. Hundreds of members continue to meet each year to fulfill the Society’s pur- pose: to collect, preserve, and share the lore of Texas and the Southwest. We’ve held meetings in thirty-two different cities, from Arlington to El Paso to San Angelo to Wimberley, but the diversity of locations is only one thing that makes TFS meetings memo- rable. From the beginning, working anthropologists, photogra- phers, artists, and ranchers have come to share folklore in their fields, as have musicians and storytellers who make their living on the road, keeping their crafts alive through the oral tradition. These members and many other such lay people—secretaries, police officers, farmers, lawyers, journalists, housewives—are all involved in every aspect of the Society’s meetings and publications. And members who present papers do so to the entire meeting Preface xi body, because we hold only one session at a time, something that is unique among organizations these days. But the papers are only part of the meetings. The hoots are what makes the Society so family-oriented. Many members bring their children (and even their grandchildren), and the kids enjoy taking part in the festivities and performances as much as the adults. In recent years there has been a push to involve more young mem- bers, and several college and even high school students have given papers during the regular sessions. Several of our younger members have “grown up” at the annual meetings, attending their first ones while still in diapers. It is those members who will take the Texas Folklore Society into its next one hundred years. I want to thank the many contributors who wrote articles for this book. I also thank a couple of administrators who have sup- ported the TFS since their arrival at Stephen F. Austin State Uni- versity: Mark Sanders, the new Chair of the English Department, and Brian Murphy, Dean of the College of Liberal and Applied Arts. As always, I thank all our friends at the UNT Press. I espe- cially thank Janet Simonds, who helps me with nearly every stage of the publication of these books. This book does not have a specific dedication, but it is for all the people who read papers, contribute articles to publications, serve on the Board, and even those who just come to the meetings and listen to papers. You’re what keeps this organization alive. Kenneth L. Untiedt Stephen F. Austin State University Nacogdoches, Texas Cinco de Mayo, 2009 WHAT’S THE POINT? WHY THE FOLK COME IN THE FIRST PLACE “Hooked on Texas” postcard, 1986 HOOKED ON TEXAS by Clarence Jay Faulkner [The postcards used as illustrations for this article, as well as those used for “filler pages” and division pages between chapters throughout this book, were collected by Clarence Faulkner and, as he states in his article, donated to the Texas Folklore Society for its archives.