Date Collected
Winter 12-2017
Place item was collected
North Logan, Utah
Informant
Ashton Reaveley
Point of Discovery/Informant Bio
Ashton Reaveley is my younger brother and he is 13 years old and he lives in North Logan, Utah. He is in the eighth grade and he plays drums and is in his school band. He also plays competitive basketball.
Context
I collected this riddle from my brother when we were in the kitchen of our house eating breakfast at the counter. I’ve heard a few different variations of this riddle before, but not the variation that my brother told me. They all have to do with hands and the lack of something that people have, like being able to clap or having fingers. I knew the answer to the riddle even though I hadn’t heard this specific one because I had already made the connection. You might not tell this to a younger person, depending on who it is, because they might not understand the terminology.
Text
Ashton: What has hands but can’t clap?
Me: A clock.
Ashton: Yeah.
Texture
When my brother told this riddle, he didn’t seem like he thought it was a very difficult riddle because it is pretty common and unlikely that someone wouldn’t know the answer. He treated the riddle more like common knowledge and asked the question like you might ask something with an obvious answer. He had a bored tone and wasn’t enthusiastic in telling me the riddle.
Course
Introduction to Folklore (ENGL 2210)
Instructor
Lynn McNeil
Semester and year
Fall 2017
Theme
G10: Riddling Questions
EAD Number
2.4.97
Recommended Citation
Reaveley, Mayah, "Clock Riddle" (2017). USU Student Folklore Fieldwork. Paper 195.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/student_folklore_all/195