Then at Thanksgiving, my brother mentioned the Kingston Trio, a folk group from the late 50s early 60s and the song Zombie Jamboree popped into my head. I actually sang at the table, something that just is not done...but we were all in a merry mood and I think I was forgiven, or ignored.

Zombies...reanimated dead. Not vampires...those undead who have been changed by a sire to have the vampire curse to be alive but not alive, dead but not dead, to walk among the shadows, drinking the blood of the living to survive. Zombies are just dead who don't know enough to lie down, pull up a dirt blanket and sleep the final sleep.
Zombies somehow through voodoo (another interesting but fake phenomenon) are dead and then get up and walk. And don't talk much. And their movements are jerky because they're, well, they're dead. Voodoo curses make them moveable. They don't do anything, they don't eat or drink or much of anything but do the will of the voodoo person who reanimated them. I guess they're good for killing people or hauling heavy loads, but other than that, they're just scary as all hell, on account of their flesh is rotting.
Without the vampire curse, well, the zombie is pretty much doomed to a night of the living dead existence.

Short.

Necessary to perform a task, then they drop down and disintegrate slowly.

I would imagine they stink.

Much like the Giants.

(Bigfoot lore later)