"Yahooty" - Origin and definition

[Laurence Horn]

>Can anyone help Mr. Caraway?  DARE has only one bit of anecdotal
>corroboration.
>
>  >>>>
>>X-Sender: jcaraway1 at pop-server.austin.rr.com
>>X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.5 (32)
>>Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 19:48:48 -0600
>>To: jdhall at facstaff.wisc.edu
>>From: Jim Caraway <jcaraway1 at austin.rr.com>
>>Subject: "Yahooty" - Origin and definition
>>Cc: lvonschn at facstaff.wisc.edu
>>
>>Hello.
>>
>>Since I retired in 1993 I've been writing on a Journal at the
>>request of my family, in which I've tried to set down all the
>>recollections I can remember growing up in Mills County, Texas
>>during the depression as a boy. One of the things I remember was
>>the use of the word, "yahooty", pronounced "yea" (as in, "Yea shall
>>know the truth, ...") "hooty". It was used in the context of a
>>fictitious or imaginary person, like under the following
>>circumstance: Someone says, "Who took the last piece of pie?" And
>>I'd say "Yahooty took it." when in fact it was I who took it. A
>>sort of scapegoat. Then, recently I was watching a rerun of an
>>episode from the TV series, "The Waltons", and the name, Yahooty,
>>came up again. This time it was used in the context of the name of
>>the little man in the refrigerator who turns off the light when the
>>door is closed.
>>
>>My question is do you have any information on this word, or do you
>>have any idea where I could get a true definition of its use and
>>origin? I've searched the internet without success.
>>
Interesting.  Looks like most of the google references use "yahooty"
as a filler for someone unknown (= Whats{his/her}name), but without
the specific scapegoating sense cited by Mr. Caraway.  A couple of
sites have it as some sort of generalized cheer, a kind of reinforced
"Yay!".  There's even a www.yahooty.com site, but I couldn't get any
info from it.  And then there was this one outlier, from a "Humour in
Slash Fiction" chat group archived at
http://www.squidge.org/~adsoffice/logs/20000716_2.html:

      <ahnon_e_m> I bet Q has a yahooty this long.....
      fuzzicat giggles

larry