Whistling while you work

Growing up in Texas, WF Strong found that whistling played a important role in his life. But there are many ways to whistle. He explores a few of them. The full transcript of this episode of Stories from Texas is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles […]

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
As a boy growing up in Texas,
I found that whistling
played an important role
in my life.
My father would whistle for us to
come in at night.
This could be with thumb and
forefinger against the tongue or
forefingers if he needed serious
amplification.
All of us whistled for the

(00:20):
dogs to come in, still do,
something like this.
I love the movie, The Good, The Bad,
and The Ugly, for the whistling,
so hauntingly included by
Ennio Morricone.
Mm-hmm.

(00:41):
The Andy Griffith Show also inspired
me with its whistling theme song.
Even now, I want to join in,
and I'm sure some of
you did.
My neighbor, when I was a kid, used
to whistle Christmas tunes as
he put up Christmas decorations
outside.
Jingle Bells was one of his

(01:01):
favorites.
Seems strange to me, given that
we only got snow about once every 30
years in South Texas,
but he was a good whistler.
Cowboys whistled herd cattle and
communicate with each other.
Whistles can be heard at a

(01:21):
far greater distance than speech.
It's efficient, and your whistle
is always with you.
Whistling has vocabulary.
This whistle is
universally known.
It's now called a woof whistle,
and in France you can be fined
700 euros for
woof whistling in public.

(01:43):
Here's a whistle that can be used
for being shocked at a high price,
or even as a compliment for a
brilliant idea.
There are many interesting
expressions about whistling.
Ever heard of whistling past the
graveyard?
When you do that, you're showing
that you don't have a care in the
world about the dangers you're
ignoring.

(02:03):
I like popular songs with whistling,
like Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.
How about patients?
Guns and roses?

(02:32):
or even this one featured in Kill
Bill, but from the film Twisted
Nerve.
There are many great ones, but the
whistling that seems always to
be on a ready loop in the
back of my mind comes from
the spaghetti westerns, like
this one from A Fistful of

(02:53):
Dollars.
I'm W.F. Strong, these are stories
from Texas, some
of them are true.