Hi Richie and Q,

I don't think 'tax men' is it. Is there any suggestion that 'tax men' were sending banks broke at the time? I still reckon it is probably a name. I emailed Lyle Lofgren, a knowledgeable oldtimey lover, and he consulted the wordbook of a local expert. I don't think Lyle would mind me reposting his reply here:

Your request is a real puzzler. I consulted Willard Johnson's (our local expert on traditional song words) wordbooks, and he heard "panic" for the suspect word. I listened, and I heard "pannam" but that makes no sense, unless it were someone's name, as you surmise. I definitely hear a "num" sound at the end rather than "mun," though. It could be that Willie was right in going with a word that made sense, assuming that Uncle Dave garbled the word, or it could be there was a bank official named "Pannam" or "Pannum." I could find nothing on the web that might clear the matter up (not surprising). I would pretty much rule out any suggestion about PanAm.
[Lyle Lofgren]

My feeling is that Willie's is the way to go: 'panic' is a real word and it makes sense in the context.


--Stewie.