What's a "Whangdoodle" (Carolina Folklore)

[ralph124c]

I have been re-reading William Least Heat Moon’s road classic (“Blue Highways”). In the chapter where he goes to N. Carolina (to search for an ancestral grave), he decides to sleep in his parked van. Late that night, he is awakened by the sound of something moving against the sides of the van. Later, a state cop tells him it was a “whangdoodle”.
Exactly what is this creature supposed to be-is it an eastern version of “Bigfoot”?

[Johnny_Q]

Is that anything like aWhang Dang Doodle?

[Dr.Drake]

“Whangdoodle” is (1) a regional term for thingamabob, thingamajig, doohickey, etc. and (2) a dragon-like beast from Ozark folklore. That’s Missouri, not North Carolina, but since you’re dealing with fiction and not folklore William Least Heat Moon might not have bothered about the difference.

From Vance Randolph’s article “Fabulous Monsters in the Ozarks,” The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 9:2 (Summer, 1950), p. 69:

@Vance Randolph

The kingdoodle is another big reptile, doubtless related to the gowrow, the jimplicute and the high-behind. One of my old neighbors in McDonald County, Missouri, told his children that the kingdoodle looks like an ordinary mountain boomer, except for its great size. The mountain boomer or collared lizard seldom attains a length of more than ten inches, while the kingdoodle is “longer’n a wellrope, an’ fourteen hands high.” It is strong enough to tear down fences and pull up saplings, but is not bloodthirsty. Near Jane, Missouri, my wife and I stopped to look at a small building which had fallen off its stone foundation and rolled into a ditch. Probably a high wind was responsible, but a little boy who lived nearby didn’t think so. “I reckon the old kingdoodle must have throwed it down, in the night,” he said soberly.

ETA: Clarification: elsewhere he says that the kingdoodle and whangdoodle are synonymous.

[Biggirl]

@Johnny_Q

Is that anything like aWhang Dang Doodle?

That’s gotta be the worst version of that song ever made.
I’ll say this about PJ Harvey. She was hipster before hipster was cool.

[Colibri]

@Dr.Drake

“Whangdoodle” is (1) a regional term for thingamabob, thingamajig, doohickey, etc. and (2) a dragon-like beast from Ozark folklore. That’s Missouri, not North Carolina, but since you’re dealing with fiction and not folklore William Least Heat Moon might not have bothered about the difference.

It’s mentioned in some versions of Big Rock Candy Mountain

O the buzzin’ of the bees
In the cigarette trees,
Round the sodawater fountains,
Near the lemonade springs
Where the whangdoodle signs
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

@Biggirl

That’s gotta be the worst version of that song ever made.

Certainly can’t compare to Howlin’ Wolf or Koko Taylor or Willie Dixon.

[Rhythmdvl]

@Johnny_Q

Is that anything like aWhang Dang Doodle?

@Colibri

Certainly can’t compare to Howlin’ Wolf or Koko Taylor or Willie Dixon.

Pantheonic, to say the least.

If anyone’s collecting versions, here’s a tasty Dead treat: John Popper guests at the Bill Graham memorial concert. Caught enough WDDs to support Maggie’s Farm; loved every minute of them.

[jjimm]

IIRC, a “wangdoodle” is also an unspecified monster in various Roald Dahl books.

[Dr.Drake]

@Colibri

It’s mentioned in some versions of Big Rock Candy Mountain

Interesting! I’d always seen “bluebird,” and looking around online it seems that all the “whangdoodle” versions can be traced to a variant collected by George Milburn and published in The Hobo’s Handbook in 1930. Another version of the song in that same book has “bluebird.” [text here, scroll down to p. 88.]

[BrassyPhrase]

There’s also this, which was one of my fave books as a kid. (Yes, that Julie Andrews Edwards.)

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles: Edwards, Julie Andrews:...

well, one of these days I’ll learn how to post this stuff correctly.

<sigh>

[Biggirl]

@Colibri

Certainly can’t compare to Howlin’ Wolf or Koko Taylor or Willie Dixon.

I think that first link was supposed to go here. The Dubliners were cool, though.

[Hampshire]

Oh, well, then you know all about it (Loompaland) and what a terrible country it is. Nothing but desolate wastes and fierce beasts. And the poor little Oompa Loompas were so small and helpless, they would get gobbled up right and left. A Wangdoodle would eat ten of them for breakfast and think nothing of it. And so, I said, “Come and live with me in peace and safety, away from all the Wangdoodles, and Hornswogglers, and Snozzwangers, and rotten, Vermicious Knids.”