PA Fireside Tales — Volume 5

Although four other volumes of Pennsylvania folktales and legends have already been presented to the public by this writer, I feel that my task is not complete until I’ve published all the tales I’ve collected over the last thirty years that seem worthy of preservation for the enjoyment of future generations.  If nothing else, these old stories, some of whose roots may span back to the dawn of story-telling itself, show how little some of humankinds’ basic thoughts and desires have changed over the centuries, and conversely, how far we’ve come in discarding the yoke of ignorance and superstition that held back our ancient ancestors.  Taken together, these human foibles, and the qualities that offset them, produced the many enjoyable anecdotes that now form the fabric of Pennsylvania’s oral history and legendary lore.

It is this human-interest side of the stories that I like to explore and emphasize in my books and which never seems to get emphasized enough when the tales are normally presented to the public by folklorists and by the entertainment industry.  Likewise, these dispensers of such material don’t seem to make a whole lot of effort to explain to the general public where the tales came from in the first place, and that’s the other thing I like to explore in my books. I’ve always felt that there’s something mystical about the Pennsylvania mountains, and that’s probably why I’ve always had the same opinion about their folktales and legends.  The state’s mountains have never ceased to stir my sense of wonder, and the old tales that cluster around them hold the same allure.  For me these mountains have always been a place of superstition and romance, and no other experiences in my life have been as uplifting as the hikes and drives through some of the most picturesque mountain regions of the state.