Ruff Tales High Octane Stories by Joe McHugh

As Kissy Davin, Ruff Creek’s resident tale-spinner says, “a storyteller is someone who has a good memory - and hopes others don’t.”

The born storyteller, like the born musician, has an ear for a good story. Joe McHugh, a professional storyteller for many years, has gleaned the best of the humorous anecdotes, outlandish tall tales, and eerie ghost stories he has come across in his travels around the country and presents them to the reader in this delightful collection for young and old.

There are stories about Kissy Davin who didn’t mind stretching the facts a little if it helped his story along, about Ezzy Gabbert who was so cheap he’d ‘skin a flea for the tallow’ and about a restless ghost who haunts an abandoned coal mine. Added to these are other tales of hen-pecked husbands, frustrated ministers, and three legged-chickens.

Illustrated by Paula Blasius McHugh with scenes drawn directly from the Ruff Creek General Store, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.