Gee Haw

The World Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Competition will be held Saturday, Sept. 18, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. It features country music, and of course, whimmy diddlin’. This year will mark the introduction of a new competition, the Whimmy Diddle Dance. Contestants will whimmy diddle while dancing to the Chubby Checker song “The Pony.”

The competition is held as a part of the Folk Art Center’s Heritage Weekend 2004, a three-day celebration of traditional craft, music and storytelling featuring the 24th Annual World Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Competition. Call 828.298.7928 for more information.

The Folk Art Center

The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 of the Blue Ridge Park-way, just north of the U.S. 70 entrance in east Asheville. The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a non-profit organization established in 1930 and is authorized to provide services at the Blue Ridge Parkway’s Folk Art Center under the authority of a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

So you want to make a whimmy diddle

1. Go out and cut you off some rhododendron wood and scrape it real good 2. cut some notches in the top of the stick
3. Make you a rubbing stick that’s smaller and about the same shape as your whimmy diddle
4. Make you a propeller
5. Drill a little hole and put the propeller in there with a nail (loose to where it spins good)
6. Start diddlin’

The remnants of hurricane Francis have swamped Western North Carolina, and it leaves residents with few options. Some watch the Weather Channel, others read books and listen to the rain’s perpetual pitter-patter on the rooftop. Lyle Wheeler practices his whimmy diddlin’.

“I’m up to practicing twice a day. The nearer it gets the more I practice.”

Whimmy diddlin’ is serious business for Lyle Wheeler. In fact, it’s serious business for a cadre of professional whimmy diddlers hoping to take what Lyle likes to talk about, his world champion whimmy diddiler braggin’ rights.

But those braggin’ rights didn’t come easy, or overnight. Wheeler has been whimmy diddlin’ for years, ever since he met Frank Cupp at a craft fair. Cupp is an old-time woodworker who makes everything from walking sticks to Appalachian children’s toys, one being the Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle.

“Frank and I used to fool around with whimmy diddles at all the craft shows. He would hand carve all the pieces for them, he’s one of the few who still hand carve everything. And I would sit there carving with him and playin and eventually I entered the competition and started winning,” said Wheeler.

“Why Lyle, that old buzzard,” said Bob Miller, whimmy diddle maker and judge of the 24th annual World Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Competition to be held at the Folk Art Center on Sept. 18. “He gets so dang serious about that thing that you don’t breathe. I’m sure he’s done been ‘a practicin’.”

Practicing he has, and with good reason. This year’s competition promises to be intense. Not only will the 2002 champion Tony Rizzo be there with whimmy diddle in hand, a diddler fresh out of the amateur division named Will Hines is looking to challenge Wheeler’s title.

Before we get too wrapped up in the competition, perhaps it’s time to clarify the question, “Just what is a whimmy diddle?”

“Well, I’ll tell you the story I tell the kids,” said Miller. “You know yourself that gee and haw is horse talk, for drivin’ horses and mules. Gee means right and haw means left. Well, I make my whimmy diddles out of rhododendron, cause it’s a real smart wood and it trains good, like a horse. So if you want to make a whimmy diddle, you go out and cut you off some rhododendron wood and scrape it real good, and then you cut some notches in the top of the stick. Then you make you a rubbing stick that’s smaller and about the same shape as your whimmy diddle. Then you make you a propeller, then drill a little hole and put the propeller in there with a nail pretty good and loose to where it spins good, and you’ve made you a whimmy diddle.”

The construction of the old-time Appalachian children’s toy seems simple enough. A piece of wood about as long and thick as a pencil, into which several notches are carved and a propeller attached to the end. Playing with the whimmy diddle is a bit more complicated.

“You lay your forefinger up on the left side of the whimmy diddle with a crook in it, and you rub that stick over of the notches and it goes gee. Then you move your arm to the left, let the finger come off of it, but keep you a crook in that finger cause it helps hide what you’re a doin’, then you move right quickly and let your thumb rub the other side of it, that dulls the vibrations on the side that you’re rubbin’ on and it pulls to the strong side and it goes haw. And that’s really it,” said Miller.

This all sounds simple enough, but in the world of professional whimmy diddlin, there are no simplicities.

“The competition is to see how much you can make it gee and haw in 12 seconds,” said Wheeler. “Last year I made it gee and haw 34 times in 12 seconds.”

“You see, making it go is pretty easy, but getting it stopped so it’ll go in the other direction is a whole different game,” said Wheeler. “It has to do with starting momentum and stopping momentum. And personally, I think the size of the propeller has a lot of do with it. The smaller it is the less momentum. But Mr. Hines thinks the opposite. He’s got a real long propeller. So you see, there are quite a few different schools of thought on this.”

No matter what school you fall in with, the World Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Competition will be a whimsical combination of Appalachian and southern traditions. The top whimmy diddlers will receive moon pies and T-shirts. The champion is presented with a certificate, and of course entitled to all the bragging rights.

“It’s like Outlaw dirt track racing once you reach the professional competition, there ain’t no rules. It could be anything,” said Wheeler. “And that’s what makes it so fun.”