Flunky Jim (Gopher Tails)

DESCRIPTION: Jim, the son and "flunky" of the farm, has shabby clothes, but intends to get a new ones with money from gopher tails. His father says his clothes are too small, but he has almost enough tails to buy new clothes, after which he will hand down his old ones
AUTHOR: Words: Dan Ferguson
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Mel Bowker)
KEYWORDS: poverty clothes farming hunting hardtimes family father animal
FOUND IN: Canada
Roud #4555
RECORDINGS:
Mel Bowker, "Flunky Jim", also listed as "I Am the Flunky of the Yard (Gopher Tails)" (on Saskatch01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [32 words]: During the Depression of the 1930s, the Canadian government offered a bounty on gopher tails to encourage trapping them. Mel Bowker, who recorded this song, was the grandson of Dan Ferguson. - PJS
File: RcFluJim

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