Saturday morning, September 28, dawned bright. It was a morning full of promise. No clouds in sight, no rain in the forecast, and pleasantly cool weather. It wasn’t just the weather, though, that made the morning full of promise. Oh no. It was the day when several of us storytellers were getting together in the LaVale library to swap stories. What could be more entertaining than that?!
The first two hours consisted of time together sharing stories informally. Then we caravanned to a local restaurant (Henny’s )where we continued enjoying each other‘s company.. At 2:00 a handful of local people came to hear stories in a more formal setting.
The following storytellers were in attendance: Gil Meyer, Stas Ziolkowski, Mikalena Zuckett, Judith Clister, Jo Ann Dadisman, Cindy Christoffel, Juanita Salazar, and myself (Katie Ross). Otto Ross took charge of setting up the food and beverages. What merriment there was as we got to know each other and as we swapped stories. If I were to describe this group of people, there are several adjectives that come to mind: compassionate, creative, warm, expressive, diverse, and friendly. And that is the short list.
Gil shared a hilarious story about one of his experiences as a WVU college student. We all laughed uproariously as he described the antics of his two friends and himself. He delivered his tale with lots of expression and gestures. I could just see the three of them so young and full of life!
Stas, a former science teacher, spun a tale about how a military man during the Nazi regime hid his gold medals in plain sight with the help of two scientists: Niels Bohr and George de Hevesy. The men mixed together hydrochloric acid and nitric acid and then put the medals into the mixture. Stas then presented an experiment before our very eyes.
Judith Clister presented an autumn story about playing in the leaves when she was just a girl. Because of her vivid descriptions, Judith took us all back to those magical days when we were young and when autumn offered all kinds of opportunities for fun. At the end of the story she pulled out some fall leaves from her pocket, a great touch.
Judith’s story prompted Cindy to tell us informally about one of her own memories of the season. She explained that she (Cindy) was not a storyteller, but the rest of assured her that she was. She had just told us a story, an interesting one at that.
Mikalena’s animated retelling of Jack and the North West Wind brought the character of Jack to life. I would say that most of us were shaking our heads, if not physically at least mentally, at Jack’s mishaps. Of course in the end Jack triumphed.
. Juanita entertained us with an original catchy rap song that she uses as an introduction to the Night Before Christmas. It is entitled “Twas”. It made me want to snap my fingers in time to the rhythm. She continued with an original song assuming the role of Tia Juanita who dispensed a great deal of wisdom with how to live one’s life.
Jo Ann kept us in stitches with her traditional tale about two women who were always in competition with each other. The two held a contest to see which of them had the most foolish husband. The results were hilarious. In our mind’s eye we could just see those two silly men who allowed themselves to be tricked by their two silly wives. As always Jo Ann delivered an entertaining story that captured our attention from the very beginning.
Finally I told a tall tale about a most extraordinary parrot with whom Juan, the main character, could hold a conversation. The listeners entertained me when I had them participate in my story by taking the role of the parrot and repeating the words I fed them. After each repetition the audience was to squawk. I couldn’t help but laugh when I looked at the faces of my audience and listened to them make those bird sounds. Who could have ever guessed that the listeners were such talented squawkers!
Then around 3:00 the story swap came to an end. I can’t speak for the others, but for me our parting was somewhat bittersweet. I was ready to go home and rest, but oh how I hated saying goodbye to my dear storytelling friends. I couldn’t help but hope that in the near future we would be together again to enjoy fellowship, fun, and stories of course.