Tuesday, November 29 on WIOX

The next edition of Catskills Folk will feature a century old collection of folklore from Schoharie County at 7 pm on Tuesday, November 29, on WIOX, broadcast on 91.3 FM and streaming at www.wioxradio.org,  You've heard of this collection before if you tuned into Know Your Watershed on October 18 and November 1, just before Catskills Folk.  On their radio program, the father and son team of Harold and Alex Bartholomew presented ghost stories and ballads collected in the book Folklore From The Schoharie Hills New York,  published in 1937 by University of Michigan Press.and written by Emelyn E. Gardner, recognized scholar, author and professor at Wayne University in Detroit Michigan.

Schoharie Valley with the hill country in the background.
 Photo from SALT by C. Jacobus.

Gardner's collection includes examples of beliefs such as witchcraft, ghost stories, folk tales, songs and ballads, rhymes, riddles and superstitions gathered from 1912 to about 1917 in southern Schoharie County, in the hill country of Gilboa, Conesville, Jefferson, Summit, and surrounding towns.  I am among those who believe that this area is part of the Northern Catskills, not only because of its hilly topography but because part of it is included in the Catskills watershed.

Tuesday's radio program will be an introduction to this rich collection and may give some hints about where the cultural boundary of the Catskills ends on the north.  Does Gardner's collection contribute to our sense of a Catskills regional identity?  I don't promise that this introduction will settle the matter, but it will certainly raise some interesting questions.  --Ginny Scheer, Folklorist, Catskills Folk Connection and host of Catskills Folk, alternate Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on WIOX 91.3 FM or www.wioxradio.org/