Saturday, October 26, 2019

Singleton recounts the old legend of the fabled 'whippoorwill storm'

Painting of an Eastern Whippoorwill. 

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Legend of whippoorwill storm” was originally published in the April 20, 1972 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

During the last days of April, according to an old, old legend, we will have a spring storm in this area. The strong winds of this storm are supposed to bring with them the whippoorwills back to the surrounding countryside.

This old legend has been handed down through the years by older generations whose ancestors came into the country and settled. It does not specify the exact time the storm is due, other than it is to take place during the last days of April. It does state, however, that it will come in the nighttime, when all is still.

As of this writing, I have not heard the sound of the whippoorwills in the wooded areas surrounding the county. I have listened, to no avail, for their wailing calls during the twilight hours.

The whippoorwill is a small, brownish colored bird with small white spots mingled in no certain pattern, along the back and breast. This bird is only heard during the late evening hours just before darkness, and during the late evening hours after darkness has fallen. It can be found nested around the edges of the fields, in the thick underbrush bordering the clearings and pastures.

Many stories and songs have been written about the whippoorwill. Usually most of these are sad tales of broken loves and-or tragedies, when the whippoorwill is part of the lyrics. It is probably because of the wailing call of this bird and the hours in which it is heard that people associate it with sadness. Also, the first hours of darkness have always been linked with the passing from this life, just as the dawn has been compared to the beginning.

I have never ceased to be amazed at the closeness of the human race to our surroundings, and most of the time without anyone ever being aware of it.

As the legend has it, soon the whippoorwill storm will come, and upon the winds will ride the sad sounding little birds that have become as much a part of spring as love and flowers. And before you know it the lonesome cry will be heard during the quiet hours of the evening, when work is done and shadows fall.

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)

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