I must apologize to my loyal readers for the delay in posting this week. I was once again forced to travel, this time to Youngstown, Ohio. Now if you've never been to Youngstown, you're not missing a lot. It's not a bad place. But on the other hand, it's not a great place either.

If you happen to be from Youngstown, well… that's the breaks.

I was trying to decide what to write about this week, and felt it was a great time to introduce Blind Blake. Now, I'm not really sure what you might think of the Blues, but we love it here at the Huntington home and we have an extensive collection of (public domain) blues songs which we always enjoy listening to. We hope you enjoy Blues as well.

Blind Blake, born "Arthur", was a late 1920's artist who recorded some 80 tracks for Paramount. Not a lot is known about Blake. It's guessed that he was born about 1893, and drank himself to death sometime in the mid 1930's (presumably, 1933). And that's about ALL that's known about Blind Blake.

He had a distinct guitar sound that has been stated is similar in style to a ragtime piano.

Here's the only known photograph of Blake. No others are known to exist.

In August of 1929 he recorded Diddie Wa Diddie, and we're going to give you a chance to listen to it. I think it's a great, representative, example of Blakes style, while Mrs. Huntington thinks it's a cute name (she's a sick woman). But anyway, here it is below, and as usual, we're going to give you the lyrics so you can sing along!

[See post to listen to audio]

Lyrics

There's a great big mystery, and it sure is worrying me

This Diddie Wa Diddie

This Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

The little girl about four feet four, come on papa and give me some more,

of your Diddie Wa Diddie, your Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

I went out and walked around, somebody yelled, said, "Look who's in town"

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

Went to church, put my hand on the seat, lady sat on it said, "Daddy, you sure is sweet"

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

I said, "Sister, I'll soon be gone, just gimme that thing you sitting on"

My Diddie Wa Diddie

My Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

Then I got put out of church, 'cause I talk about Diddie Wa Diddie too much

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

That's pretty much what Blind Blake was doing on August 17, 1929. And, oh yes, he recorded that in Richmond, Indiana, which is not Youngstown, so that's probably a good thing. 

Phineous Zivick Huntington

July 18, 2007

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Things must be pretty boring around here, as we seem to be wasting time looking at some old U.S. Patents.  Which brings us to a Mr. Harry M. Bigelow, a citizen of the United States and a resident of the City of Milwaukee, County of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin.

 At first glance over the patent, I thought it was a paper trimmer.  It’s unrecognizable from any Ouija board I’ve ever seen, and Mrs. Huntington and myself are avid Ouija Board users.  I personally think it’s a lot of bunk, but she seems to like it so I humor her.  Which is fine, as I enjoy the occassional appearances by Theodore Roosevelt.

Now if you’ve never seen one, a Ouija Board is a pretty simple thing.  It’s just a board with a bunch of letters and numbers on it.  You sit with other people and place your hands on a pointer.  You ask questions of the spirit world, and they supposedly answer by causing the pointer to move to the appropriate letters.  They’ve been made in dozens of themes and styles, but here’s a picture of one to give you the general idea if you’ve never heard of them.

 Apparently, these things evolved over time.  The pointer, called a planchette, was originally marketed as a cheap and popular toy and was designed to hold a pencil for the spirits to convey written messages.  It was approximately 1886 when somebody came up with the idea for the “Talking Board”.  And as it evolved, millions of Ouija boards have been sold since, as well as millions of stories which have added to the folklore about demons, curses and other mysterious traits attributed to these, so called, spirit boards.

And now back to Harry M. Bigelow and his improved Ouija.  His thoughts were to place the planchette on a permanent rail, allowing it to slide along a dovetail.  It seems like it would be a bit boring to me, but that’s what Mr. Bigelow was up to in 1920 and who am I to think poorly of him for it?

Here’s one of the patent diagrams for you to have a look at.

I’ve never heard of an example having ever been manufactured, so hopefully Harry didn’t mortgage the farm on this device.  If anyone’s using their Ouija anytime soon, try to let Mr. Bigelow know that Phineous said “Hello”.

Phineous Zivick Huntington
April 28, 2007

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