Old Pike

DESCRIPTION: ""I once knew a man by the name of Pike, B'longed to the family of Riggins." Buying a mule, he heads to California to seek gold. He loses his mule trying to cross the Platte, and his supplies are lost. He turns around and goes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: gold travel home humorous return
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 47-49, "Old Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (form)
NOTES [52 words]: The form of this says it is derived from "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" or one of its by-blows, but the plot is from "Sweet Betsy from Pike" or similar. I wonder if someone didn't hear "Sweet Betsy," but couldn't remember it, and so fit what pieces of it he could recall into a "hard road to travel" setting. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: McIn047

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