My Harding County Home

DESCRIPTION: "Not so many years ago I left old Buffalo, The place that I have always loved the best.... I'm yearning today For my Harding County home out in the west. The singer recalls the beauties of home; "As I wander down Broadway," he hears a coyote call him home
AUTHOR: Tex Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (recording, Tex Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: home travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 67, "My Harding County Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Tex Fletcher, "My Harding County Home" (Flint 1782, 1948)
NOTES [122 words]: "Buffalo" here refers not to the city in New York State but to the county seat of Harding County, South Dakota.
Although this began life as a commercial recording, it does have some oral tradition behind it; the author's son tells me of a "kitchen table" recording he has of his father singing it.
The mention of the coyote, while hardly South Dakota-specific, is certainly fitting for the state; according to Robert F. Karolevitz, Challenge, the South Dakota Story, Brevet Press, 1974 (I use the eighth printing from 2004), p. v. "In the past, South Dakota has been semiofficially nicknamed for the coyote, the environmentally adaptable but not universally appreciated official state animal with inhabits all 67 counties." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ohr067

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