Zora Neale Hurston

Make your own copy of this Google Doc and follow the directions. All of the clips you need have links on the doc and they are also below.

READ If you have access to the book Lies and other Tall Tales, read it! The full text is at the bottom of this page.

2. WRITE on your Google Doc:

What are your first impressions of the tall tales?

Which ones were the funniest?

Which ones made no sense to you?

3. WRITE on your Google Doc

Zora Neale Hurston collected tall tales about Southern African American culture, write some (at least five) tall tales about your own culture. Yours should sound like you and be about things in your own life. Example “ I once saw a 5^th grader so small…” or “I once saw an 8^th grader so tall…”, “I knew a sixth-grader so smart…”. You can write about iPads, Fortnite, cafeteria food… anything from your culture.

4. SHARE your Google Doc with Mr. Morse.

Lies and Other Tall Tales

-Once I seen a man so ugly they threw him in Dog River and they could skim ugly for six months.

-You think he was ugly? I seen a man so ugly he can go behind a jimson weed and hatch monkeys.

-What is the tallest man you ever seen?

-The tallest man I ever seen could stand knee deep in hell and shake hands with Gabriel.

-Hmmmm, that’s tall. What’s the biggest man you ever seen?

-That drives over me. I know a man so BIG that when he went to whip his boy, the boy runned under his stomach and stayed hid under there six months.

-Well, I didn’t know any man that big. But I seen a man so short he had to get up on a box to look over a grain of sand. That man had a wife and she was so small that she got in a storm and never got wet because she stepped between the drops.

-That’s a little woman. Woman like that leave a man hungry, cooking with them little pots. Reminds me of a man I know who was so hungry that he salted and peppered himself and swallowed himself and left nothing but his shadow.

-That reminds me of this one man. He was so mean he greased another man and swallowed him whole.

-You need to run fast from a man like that. I seen a man run so hard that he lost his feets.

-You need to be some kinda smart to know how that happened. But I knowed a man so smart he had the seven-year itch and scratched it out in three months.

He was dark skinned too. That man was so black till he could spit ink.

-Naw, he wasn’t that black. I seen a man so black till lightening bugs followed him at twelve o’clock in the day – thinking it’s night.

-One time when it was night, I was lost in the woods, and I was lost teetotally. I heard a racket over in the thicket. I looked behind a log. It was the moon changin’!

-That’s a strange sight to see. A man I know, he went hunting and saw three thousand ducks in a pond. Just as he leveled his gun to fire, the weather turned cool and the water in the lake froze solid, and then ducks flew off with the lake froze to their feet.

-The weather do make some strange sights, I agree. Like once I seen it so dry, the fish came swimming up the road in dust.

-When the earth is dry like that, you can’t grow nothing. Ole Mitchell Field was the poorest land I ever seed. They built a church on it – had to use ten sacks Commercinal to fertilize de ground befo’ they could raise a hymn on it.

-I don’t have that problem.I have ground so rich until one day my father’s mule died and he buried him out in the field. The next morning, guess what happened? The mule spouted little jackasses.

-You is sho’nuff strowin’ it. But I believe you, cause I seen some unbelievable things in my day. Once I seen wind so hard till it blowed a man’s nose off his face and onto the back of his neck, and if he got a cold, every time he sneeze, he blow his hat off.

-Speaking of the cold, I have known it to get so cold, the words all froze up and fell to the floor like hail. You would have to carry a bucket along so when someone talked to you, you would put the words in the bucket and carry them home and out the bucket on the stove and let the words melt.

-That wasn’t cold at all. I seen it so cold til the fire was goin’ somewhere to get warm. Even the sun was froze and the ice just melted today.

That time a flea asked me for a shoeshine—so I left.

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Zora Neale Hurston

Make your own copy of this Google Doc and follow the directions. All of the clips you need have links on the doc and they are also below.

READ If you have access to the book Lies and other Tall Tales, read it! The full text is at the bottom of this page.

2. WRITE on your Google Doc:

What are your first impressions of the tall tales?

Which ones were the funniest?

Which ones made no sense to you?

3. WRITE on your Google Doc

4. SHARE your Google Doc with Mr. Morse.

Lies and Other Tall Tales

-Once I seen a man so ugly they threw him in Dog River and they could skim ugly for six months.

-You think he was ugly? I seen a man so ugly he can go behind a jimson weed and hatch monkeys.

-What is the tallest man you ever seen?

-The tallest man I ever seen could stand knee deep in hell and shake hands with Gabriel.

-Hmmmm, that’s tall. What’s the biggest man you ever seen?

-That drives over me. I know a man so BIG that when he went to whip his boy, the boy runned under his stomach and stayed hid under there six months.

-Well, I didn’t know any man that big. But I seen a man so short he had to get up on a box to look over a grain of sand. That man had a wife and she was so small that she got in a storm and never got wet because she stepped between the drops.

-That’s a little woman. Woman like that leave a man hungry, cooking with them little pots. Reminds me of a man I know who was so hungry that he salted and peppered himself and swallowed himself and left nothing but his shadow.

-That reminds me of this one man. He was so mean he greased another man and swallowed him whole.

-You need to run fast from a man like that. I seen a man run so hard that he lost his feets.

-You need to be some kinda smart to know how that happened. But I knowed a man so smart he had the seven-year itch and scratched it out in three months.

He was dark skinned too. That man was so black till he could spit ink.

-Naw, he wasn’t that black. I seen a man so black till lightening bugs followed him at twelve o’clock in the day – thinking it’s night.

-One time when it was night, I was lost in the woods, and I was lost teetotally. I heard a racket over in the thicket. I looked behind a log. It was the moon changin’!

-That’s a strange sight to see. A man I know, he went hunting and saw three thousand ducks in a pond. Just as he leveled his gun to fire, the weather turned cool and the water in the lake froze solid, and then ducks flew off with the lake froze to their feet.

-The weather do make some strange sights, I agree. Like once I seen it so dry, the fish came swimming up the road in dust.

-When the earth is dry like that, you can’t grow nothing. Ole Mitchell Field was the poorest land I ever seed. They built a church on it – had to use ten sacks Commercinal to fertilize de ground befo’ they could raise a hymn on it.

-I don’t have that problem.I have ground so rich until one day my father’s mule died and he buried him out in the field. The next morning, guess what happened? The mule spouted little jackasses.

-You is sho’nuff strowin’ it. But I believe you, cause I seen some unbelievable things in my day. Once I seen wind so hard till it blowed a man’s nose off his face and onto the back of his neck, and if he got a cold, every time he sneeze, he blow his hat off.

-Speaking of the cold, I have known it to get so cold, the words all froze up and fell to the floor like hail. You would have to carry a bucket along so when someone talked to you, you would put the words in the bucket and carry them home and out the bucket on the stove and let the words melt.

-That wasn’t cold at all. I seen it so cold til the fire was goin’ somewhere to get warm. Even the sun was froze and the ice just melted today.

That time a flea asked me for a shoeshine—so I left.