Conversation with 17 year old white male, White Pine, Tennessee

…The following is an excerpt from a much longer interview chronicling the daily life and experiences of an unidentified Tennessee teenager as archived in the Library of Congress database:

M She tells me that you've seen Bigfoot.

K Yeah.

M I wanted to ask you about that.

K Yeah. I've been called a fool. I've been called a lot of other things, but really, see, the reason why I don't care to tell it, like if anybody else see it, I, they's been other people besides me. They's a lot of whole people besides me seen it, but uh like a lot of 'em won't admit it, but I guess when, you know, like when I was little, you know, I used to go uptown some and ride a motorcycle, and everybody made fun of me up there anyway because I was littler than they was and everything else. (uh-huh) Somebody always cut me down, made fun of me anyway. So I figure, you know, what the heck? A few more years of being called a fool, that's not as bad as them, you know, up there, but yeah, I've seen it, down there. Well, when we was little, we went walking through the woods, me and my cousin did, and we found two great old big cave entrances. W—-, we walked across, we walked up to one, and it was about yay big around, you know -K encloses a circle of three to four foot diameter with his hands- (uh-huh) and then we walked on out through there, you know. We started to go down in there, but we was just little. We figured, you know, we got down in there, well, Momma had always told us you go in a cave, you know, nine, nine times, out of ten, you find a big old hole that you never get out. So that sort of scared us, and we walked on out there and we found another cave entrance, and it was a straight line, you know, We walked to it. But it was a long ways to them woods. Them woods don't look like they're very thick, but they are. We walked down through yonder a little ways more and found another hole, so we seen the size of it, and it was about as big as the other one, so we decided we'd walk back, you know, and uh, so we walked back to look for the other one, and we walked a straight line just like we had and like I'm, I still to this day know them woods like the palm of my hand, anywhere I want to go in 'em, I mean. You know, I know about every tree in there. I don't know what kind they are, but, you know, I know about where they're located. (uh-huh) And uh we walked a straight line right back to where that other one was first, you know, when we first sighted it, and it wasn't there. Something, it was covered up some way, and we never have found 'em since then, but I've got, I've got, you know, they's, they's a few, quite a few people seen it. Like I said, you know, not many of them'll tell about it, because the people calling 'em Fool and everything (uh-huh) Yeah, I think they is. I've seen it.

M Well, what does it look like and what

K About, I'd say about eight, nine foot tall. It's covered with hair about two inches long, and the face, I, can I, I know, I can see the face in my mind, but you can't really describe it. It's something that you, that you know what it looks like. You'd know it if you ever seen it again, and, but even like, even like I said, if you was to see it and then run back up here and tell me, you still couldn't describe it. It's just that kind of face. It's sort of an old man looking face. That's about the only thing you can think of. (hmm) It looks something like an old man and it's face is, just looks like hide, like raw, you know, real tough hide. (uh-huh). And it stan-, like I said, and it stands about eight or nine foot tall. It's a big ole thing.

M Does it make any noise?

K Yeah. You make it mad, it'll make a, it's a growling, have you ever went in and seen one of these movies? Any of the Bigfoot movies?

M No, I haven't seen any

K Well, before we went to the movies,

M I'll have to tell you though, I just heard about Bigfoot. A week or two ago i just happened to turn on TV Saturday, and there was a adventure series (oh yeah) on there now, Bigfoot and Wild Boy.

K Yeah, they, uh it, see, we heard this growling sound down there one time, you know, and we didn't really know much about, you know, what it was or anything like that. We figured, you know, it was just some kind of, maybe a dog, you know, had a possum treed or something. You know, just anything, (uh-huh) but then we went to the movies and uh, of quite a few other people, but uh we went to the movies, me and I forget who else and uh it, well, you know, I heard the same growl, and I recognized the growl cause that's just something you don't forget. It's not the wailing type of growl that they make, but it's a, it's a growl, and they've compared it with every animal, they said, and they ain't another animal can make a sound like it. It hits certains tones that you just, nothing can e-, nothing else can hit. (uh-huh) It's, it's thowed a stick at us before, for aggravating it.

M You said it was the caves that were no longer there?

K Huh?

M You said that something was no longer there.

K Yeah, it was the caves. Like we just, it was the same day and the same minute. We walked by one minute and they were there, we walked back the next and they're not.

M And you've never seen 'em since?

K Huh-huh, never have. I don't go back up in there much.

M And where about is this?

K You know down here at the crossroads? I can take you to it. It's right down here at the crossroads and you make a right and you go up that away, and then there's this uh big patch of woods right there on the road, on the side of the road.

M Hmm. Is that anywhere near the lead mines?

K No, huh-huh. The lead mines you go straight on down through there. Now, they's weird stuff happened down there. They's one thing that pertains to Bigfoot down there, but I didn't see it. Uh uh, and his girlfriend was down there one time, uh and they went down there, you know, and was talking, and they heard something splashing, and they turned around and looked, and they said it was a real tall thing but it was humped over and the back of its hands was walking through that water and it'd splash as it went. In the world today I don't disbelieve nothing unless, you know, they've got evidence against it. I don't particularly believe everything, but I mean I don't disbelieve everything either.

M Well, yeah, I don't think anybody has disproved that there are dragons in Douglas Lake, but…

K Dragons? That is farfetched right there.

M Yeah, but then again…

K There is a dragon, though. There is a dragon, but it's not like fire-breathing and all this. I've got a book right up here. You want to see it? You ever heard of 'em? See, I'm a wild, I'm a great admirer of all kinds of animals.

M You mean about the Loch Ness kind of thing or what?

K No, huh-huh, it's a, it's a dragon on this island, across the waters. It's not one of them great big tall ones, you know. You know, it's not one of them fairy tale dragons. #60-6 is a discussion of the Kodomo dragons and about other animals that eat their own kind.

…I find it noteworthy at the end of this selection, when the interviewer rather randomly introduces “dragons” into the conversation, the Tennessee teen is having none of it (immediately declaring the idea as “farfetched”). The interview continues with a much longer discussion regarding his schooling and interests, revealing the subject’s knowledge of broader topics in general.

Michael Montgomery/American Folklife Center

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