Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales

by Vance Randolph, Rayna Green (Introduction), Freank A. Hoffmann (Contributor)

Vance Randolph has long been an undeniable presence on the American folklore scholarship scene. His Ozark corpus is "the best known single body of regional folklore in the United States," according to Richard Dorson, director of the Folklore Institute at Indiana University. And Gershon Legman, the world's leading scholar of sexual and scatological humor, has called Randolph "the greatest and most successful field collector and regional folklorist that America ever had." In Legman's estimation, "We have no one else like him. He is a national treasure, like Mark Twain.
Randolph's reputation rests on the massive accumulation of folksong, folktale, and ballad materials he collected during forty years of living and working in the Ozarks. Unfortunately, in the 1950s when Randolph published several collection of Ozark tales, the material in this volume was considered unprintable.
Pissing in the Snow departs from the academic prudery that until recently has restricted the amount of bawdy folklore available for study. It presents a body of material that for twenty years has circulated only in manuscript or microfilm under its present title.
When placed in their rightful context alongside Randolph's other collections of folk material, the bawdy tales help provide evidence of what Ozark hill people think about their own lives and language. As Rayna Green writes in her introduction, "The entire body of material . . . offers a picture of expressive behavior unparalleled by any other American region's or group's study." Hoffmann's annotations draw parallels between the erotic narrative tradition of the Ozarks and that in other parts of the country and the world, especially Europe.
 

Genres: Folklore, Humor, Short Stories, Anthologies, Nonfiction, History, Southern

153 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1976

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains a great collection of wild and woolly tales about all manner of folksy fornication. Good gawd, those mountain folk sure loved to tell filthy stories!

I was blushing (and laughing) the whole time I was reading.

Here are tales too ticklish to tell your preacher, though certainly more than a few of the stories feature preachers and their rather "unholy" antics. Tsk, tsk!

The title tale is perhaps the cleanest story in the book:

One time there were two farmers that lived out on the road to Carico. They was always good friends, and Bill's oldest boy had been a-sparking one of Sam's daughters. Everything was going fine till the morning they met down by the creek, and Sam was pretty goddam mad. "Bill," says he, "from now on I don't want that boy of yours to set foot on my place."
"Why, what's he done?" asked the boy's daddy.
"He pissed in the snow, that's what he done, right in front of my house!"
"But surely, there ain't no great harm in that," Bill says.
"No harm!" hollered Sam. "Hell's fire, he pissed so it spelled Lucy's name, right there in the snow!"
"The boy shouldn't have done that," says Bill. "But I don't see nothing so terrible bad about it."
"Well, by God, I do!" yelled Sam. "There was two sets of tracks! And besides, don't you think I know my own daughter's handwriting?"

[Joshua Arnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The word "pecker" appears in this book approximately 20,000 times.

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

These folktales were very short, some of them less than a page, none of them more than two, and read as if an old Ozark man was relating them to you on the porch of an old farmhouse, straight-faced as he tells a joke. I cannot BELIEVE that almost every single one of these tales involved a "pecker" (penis, obvs) or fucking, and that I read every single goddamn one of them.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was hysterical. Most of the stories were centered around sex, all of them were defined by this beautiful regionalism that too often is ignored. Hillbillies, people of the Ozarks region, and the people who live in the Appalachian territory are often caricatured by the image of inbred rapists taken straight out of Deliverance. This book goes a long way of combating that image I think, because it offers a second look by showing these people as humorous and at times self-parodying. Pissing in the snow is a collection of folk-tales and funny stories, recorded directly by Vance Randolph who studied folk-tales and regional narratives, and this book then is a fascinating glimpse at the way a people of a region crafted stories that would make them laugh, while understanding sexuality.

This was a great read.

You can read my full review of the book at my site White Tower Musings by following the link below:

https://jsjammersmith.wordpress.com/2...

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the first collections of bawdy folklore ever collected.

You might ask yourself why anyone should collect dirty jokes. They're commonplace enough, after all, and often the lowest form of humor. What sort of purpose does collecting them serve? The truth of the matter is that more is revealed in this sort of common humor than in sanitized stories and legends. Dirty jokes reveal information about the morals and social mores of a group of people, what they find important and what they don't. Even the erstwhile morals of stories reveal more than we might care to admit about what we find important and value.

This collection is further unique in that a good deal of the stories were told by women - something distressingly rare in 50s anthropology. What is revealed by the women's tales are what women focus on in that society - what they think, how they feel. That having been said, these stories are surprisingly progressive in and of themselves. Women are valued, and viewed as savvy if not savvier than men. Women are in control more often than not, and are able to manipulate their partners to get what they want in often non-malicious ways.

Ultimately these stories are revealing values common across America, across people. It humanizes the Appalachian population in a way that is rarely done. I'm looking forward to passing this book along to a friend of mine to see what she makes of it.

[Sara Stuckey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay...my Dad somehow was given this book and he tried to throw it out, but NEVER NEVER try to throw away something you don't want your kids to read in the kitchen garbage and then not take the bag out!!

So there it was, sitting at the top of the trash, and with such an intriguing title to a 13-year-old, HOW COULD I NOT??

Scatological humor abounds!!

[Tracy Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you get book recommendations from the most unexpected places. While visiting my home town in Arkansas a couple of years ago one of my oldest friends recommended this. I was a bit skeptical at first due to the title and the strange looks I received from used book sellers when inquiring about it. I finally found a nice edition online. Sometimes you also learn things from the most unexpected places. That the preservation of American folklore is a scholarly pursuit. (I had no idea) That the author, Vance Randolph, was actually a pretty big deal during the mid twentieth century with comparisons to Mark Twain. That despite what your grandparents told you, the generations and times really haven’t changed that much. There have always been bawdy tales and dirty jokes and if you pay attention there is a life lesson, morality tale, or words of wisdom hidden in each one. Finally, the majority of these old folktales were collected in NW Arkansas in or around Eureka Springs where I spent many a summer vacation as a child. That made it even more enjoyable.

[Sean A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"the widow woman just stared at old Burdick's pecker. "For all I care" she says "you can cut the thing off and stick it up his ass...even when he was alive, Tom wasn't none too particular where he put it."
Wowshit! what a doozy! Nevermind all the scholarly back-of-the-book quotes and introduction in my edition, this is something goddamn else entirely. 101 of some of the most ribald scenes imaginable all about a page long and going straight for the gut! When i read it by myself at a coffeeshop i found myself sometimes laughing a bit but what I would really recommend is reading it aloud with a partner or a friend. That's when i found myself laughing so hard snot came dripping down my nose and farts out my asshole! While this does have a certain way-back cultural value to it it's also an unexpected flat out joke book. Either way it's weird and good.

[Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are jokes, gathered the same way as folk archivists gather songs. This sort of story-telling is as rare today as singing on the back porch with a banjo and a Coleman lantern.

The jokes are really stories. You've heard Travelling Salesman jokes, but these are Travelling Salesman tall tales. They are hilarious and you do learn a lot about how people in rural parts of America fifty years and more ago spoke.

A lot of people who like humorous writing won't find these stories particularly intriguing. There is almost no insult humor as we know it. These are just whoppers that are dirty as get-all.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happened upon this little gem in the library while looking through the folk tale section. I figured I'd better check it out since it's so close to home and I love to hear old tales. This is pretty raunchy downhome stories and talk. A quick, easy read and the title story Pissing in the Snow is by far one of the funniest. This book is not for anyone without a nasty sense of humor.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of bawdy tales collected from the turn of the last century by Ozark scholar Vance Randolph will have you chuckling everywhere and laughing out right at the most inappropriate times. Folk tales as funny as any Chaucer ever told!

[Teresa]

I read this when I was probably way too young for it and should read it again to see what I really do remember of it - the intriguing title is what drew me as an adolescent, of course.

I remember it being very "adults only" so unless you're ok with raunchy, this isn't for you.

[EROCK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read if you have a sense of humor. Folktales from the 20s to the 50s. Outrageous.

[april violet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daaang. There's some filthy folklore in this here book. Twitchet and tallywacker are my new favorite words.

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite possibly the oddest little book I've ever read. If you like bawdy, dirty jokes, you might like this collection of stories.

[Ted]

captivating, best read on bart.
sexy, funny, anthropologic, telling of folktales of the ozarks
a fun read

[Jordan Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Legendary at least in my family, this collection of X-rated Ozark folktails helps reveal some of the true character of the Ozarks. Also, it has really great names for genitals in it.

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of bawdy Ozark folktales is mostly funny and sometimes laugh-out-loud hilarious. Some of them come across as jokes, and a few are familiar to me from growing up in Georgia. Most of them are associated with sex, but there are others that fall into category of bathroom humor. Naturally, some are better than others. I'm glad I live in an age where such tales can be published without censorship, which would have been unlikely in many parts of the country even when I was a boy. This edition comes with an introduction that offers scholarly commentary on the collection, of which I think it is worthy.

[Monty · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is more to this book than 101 bawdy Ozark folktales, which by themselves are brief quite humorous. There are also references to related stories including the location and source of the stories, variations, year(s) they were collected and other informative bits of information. I found this to be a fun change of pace book to read in light of what is happening in our country and rest of the world.

[A]

First line: “One time there was two farmers that lived out on the road to Carico.”

Last line: “You can see Oronogo painted right on the post office window, any time you feel like driving up Main Street.”

[Shawn Robison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was a book specifically on "bawdy" folktales. Also, "folktales" is kind of a stretch. These were basically just dirty hillbilly jokes. I felt like I'd been teleported straight to Branson every time I picked this book up.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't care how you dress it up in academic robes: a book of dirty jokes is only that.

[Sam Legere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dirty old Vance and his dirty old pants!

[Kayla White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this with my boyfriend and had a grand ol time. Some funny stories in here!! Looking for more similar story books to this as this was very entertaining.

[Michael Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the "give me that old time religion" side of Ozark hillfolk. The other side, the fun side. Growing up in northwest Arkansas, I enjoyed this side much more than the other.

[Maryjane Coons · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was there.
The book I had was only 156 pages

[Sunknight · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my cup of tea.

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinarily well researched and funny as hell

[Silly Sadly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could die from laughing this book is so full of tall-tales I love it.

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is easily one of the least politically correct books I've ever read, and that's kind of the point. For one, Randolph, the most avid collector of Ozark stories in history, died in 1980, and collected most of these stories in the 1930's. And this is very much backcountry humor to begin with: most of the stories involve either a man seducing a woman in a very crass and raunchy way or an equally raunchy (or at least profanity-laden) story about the origins of some local tradition or solidarity against damn Yankees and rich people. Most of the characters are either farmers or old people who live in cabins in the woods. It's very essentially Ozark in character, and those of more sensitive dispositions (especially college-educated women) will be offended from the get go. These stories show pretty much the opposite of feminism, and of progressive values generally.

With that said, if you can get past the crudeness, this book offers an interesting, if limited window into Ozark culture in the early 20th century and earlier (many of these stories have notes that say that the original person that Foster heard it from had been hearing it himself since the mid-19th century). The main complaint I have as a reader is that the tales cover such a limited range of subject matter that reading the book from start to finish can really drag. I do, however, think it interesting to find evidence directly contradicting the 19th and early 20th century media's portrayal of all people of those ages as "proper gentlemen"; it's amazingly different from the other cultural artifacts of that era (e.g. Hollywood films, "great literature", and other culture deemed important by rich people) that have survived. In that sense, Randolph did the historical record a great service by dedicating his life to preserving this sort of culture.

Basically, this is a book that has more academic uses today than it does popular uses. While this was somewhat intentional given Randolph's aim to preserve these stories for historical purposes, it's also ironic given the subjects' disdain for intellectualism generally. Because it's not a book that can be read from start to finish in one sitting and is horribly offensive in a non-historical context, it really can only be appreciated in an academic context. However, anyone who is seriously interested in Ozark history or in American cultural history generally might want to give it a look.