Hollerin’- Spivey’s Corner, NC is famous for a Hollerin’ contest but that is nothing new. It is so old it seems comical and new to some. Let us say you lived in Hightown or any other Southern community in the old days and up to the 1940’s. You did not have phones much less cell phones and so communication with friends and neighbors might be hard and miles apart. The family patriarch would create a tone, a sound, an inflection all his own. Often upon arising, he would go out and let his neighbors know all was okay with a mighty holler. The tone might be different if he were nearing another person’s home area. It could be different if there were a danger like a fire or storm. Big Poppa’s holler was a Whahoooooooo! Isom Cartwright might use a Whoop- whoop. If you called your stock, it might be Suey pig, sue Red, suc red, or something that fit your bell cow or hogs. Uncle Roy used suc red to call his cows and he got that from Big Pop. I even used it to when I feed for him. There was a purpose for each holler. I use to terrorize my neighbors when I called Ole Bear or Joe Dog. I would scream their names over hill and over dale sometimes from a moving truck. (I kid.) All I know is it was an old Southern thing and it helped communicate so many things with nuances which are lost today and it was not to be silly like today. If I were to step out in my Pigeon forge front yard and let go with Big Pop’s Whahoooooooo, or Ward Rogers’ hallllloooo they have a nice padded room all ready for me.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 11:10:59 +0000
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