I taught elementary scool for thirty some odd years starting in 1967 and taught this song to every class. I learned it from a NLCR album.

About10 years ago Zeke Mazurek and I played a house concert. A couple of kids asked Zeke if he knew any weird tunes and Zeke started singing Hopalong Peter while playing his fiddle like a mandolin. He was surprised to hear me put on a harmony and play along with him. Neither of us had played it for about 8 years, but we added it to our repertoire that night.