Word: hollerin
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Spivey's Corner (pop. 100), North Carolina, had its big day in history last week. It was there that once and for all they drew the line between hollering and hollerin', in the goldarnedest contest that the village had seen since Dewey Jackson won half a ton of fertilizer for hog calling...
Hollering is making noise. Hollerin' involves a lot more than that. Jackson, now 76, and the community's reigning basso profundo, gave the final proof. Hitching up his overalls before a crowd of 5,000, he launched into a lusty, ear-piercing "whooo," then followed with a foghorn of a tune that sailed clear into the next county. That was genuine east North Carolina country hollerin'. As Dewey told the crowd, "I been hollerin' since my mammy slapped me on the bottom the day I was born...
...event was the first National Hollerin' Contest that anybody knows about, and contestants came from as far away as Louisiana and Maryland to pay tribute to a minor art form that dates back to way before the days of the telephone. Hollerin' is the way folks used to communicate when they lived a mile or more apart. It requires a lot of lung power, and just plain shouting will not do. Traditionally, each farmer had a set of hollers that were recognizable as his own by their beat, melody and style of delivery. Some hollers were based...
...their sorrows in songs like this for centuries. It started, says Mahalia Jackson, who is now 56, with "the groans and moans of the people in the cotton fields. Before it got the name of soul, men were sellin' watermelons and vegetables on a wagon drawn by a mule, hollerin' 'watermellllon!' with a cry in their voices. And the men on the railroad track layin' crossties?every time they hit the hammer it was with a sad feelin', but with a beat. And the Baptist preacher?he the one who had the soul?he give out the meter, a long...