Sunday - Surprise for Jim

Jimmy called Jim at the Festival yesterday asking him if he wanted to go to the Redskins game today. "Yes."
So we shifted gears. No Wintertur this trip. We slept in Delaware with stories dancing in our heads and then headed back home at dawn. Jim had to meet our son at 9:45 am - a bit early - because Jimmy was hosting a tail-gate lunch at the stadium. Significant man-time ahead.

It was a winner of a day Not only was today sunny and unseasonably warm - a great day for football - the Redskins WON!!!!

Saturday - Delaware and Lower Brandywine Storytellng Festival

Wish it were a brighter day for travel. Jim and I are off to Wilmington, DE for the 4th Annual Lower Brandywine Storytelling Festival. Going to listen and laugh. With Willy Claflin, Bil Lepp and Andy Offut Irwin leading the line-up I know we can count on fun and good laughs. It will feel GOOD!!!!!

More about it later and I hope some decent pictures.

Later - the pictures aren't great - but considering that Jim and I were sitting in the balcony - a great view by the way - I was asking a lot of my camera.


This was quite a rich storytelling day. Imagine it, Williy Claflin, Bil Lepp, Andy Offut Irwin, Bill Harley, Ed Stivender and Kim Weitkamp - all in one day - in solo sets and shared sets and in some instances some shenanigans as well.

When storytellers have a fine audience who respond to the stories, get the jokes and just send out love - the stories shine. And there was a lot of shining at the Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, DE today. And can you imagine it - it was all free to the community.

The setting also influences how things go. This church is old - historic. It was first organized in 1720 - 56 years before the American Revolution - we are talking deep roots. The present sanctuary was built in 1860. The Storytelling Festival is part of their annual series of cultural and entertainment programs and is offered to the community as a GIFT.

Members of the congregation volunteer through out the Festival and create a warm and inviting presence.

The small church lends an intimacy to the gathering that is often lost in larger venues. The warm, friendly, story-loving audience welcomes spontaneous shenanigans - - like Willy Claflin, Bill Harley and Bil Lepp sparking some improv by sharing a set and other kidding around. The audience really positively responded to - you could say encouraged - these three colleagues and friends playing together on stage.

Ed Stivender will always be a personal favorite for me because he was the featured teller at the West Virginia Storytelling Festival ten years ago when we experienced a festival of storytelling for the first time. We got bit!!!!! And I am always grateful to Ed Sitvender for spreading so much of the magic that week-end - and every other he is part of.

My take-aways:

Bill Harley's set where he shared his love of Mo Town music and taught the audience to be his back-up for the Foundations hit song "Build Me Up Buttercup" was wonderful. He gave it humor, adolescent memory and emotion and let his love of the music carry the story and tie it all together.

Kim Weitkamp telling new stories which step away from the comedic and move to touching your heart instead of tickling your funny bone.

The stories are a big draw for storytellers when they attend festivals with the PLUS of meeting up with colleagues from all over the place. So other highlights for me were:

Visiting with storyteller Charles Kiernan, Mark Twain of Bethlehem, PA, over a hot dog in the church social hall. I was sorry to miss his set Friday night but having seen him portray Twain at the Lehigh Valley Festival a couple of years ago - I know it was a classy act. He deftly introduces you to Twain himself and his material. Cool.

Chatting with Slash Coleman during supper and talking about the DC Fringe - Slash is a seasoned veteran of the Fringe circuit and NEON MAN was very successful in DC last year. He will be back this year with a new show. He convinced me to get my application in the mail - that the DC fringe would be a good venue for my ERA story.

Slash and I both told at the Exchange Place at the National Storytelling Festival in October so it was fun to tell with him again in the Open Mic line-up. Its fun to use the Open Mic to try out different spaces or test stories in new locations. I told the Tattooed Man - and in the telling experienced first hand what an inviting and comfortable space the church is for storytelling.

Friday - Chance Encounter, Reviving an Old Tone,

A Chance Encounter

About noon Jim and I exited Hwy 15 at Gettysburg, PA toward our house. We pulled into an old-style ice cream and sandwich drive-in before we headed into town. For a cool day, like today, there is an inside dining room with eight tables. While Jim ordered I glanced around the room - and stopped - at a far corner worktable set up with a table lamp and a portable sewing machine. On a near-by chair hung a half finished Union Army uniform jacket with two rows of shiny brass buttons on the front panel. On the table pieces of Confederate grey wool sleeves with gold braid coiled in a decorative pattern where laid out for assembly. Out fits for Civil War re-enactors.

I asked the woman behind the counter, "Are you the seamstress." She nodded." yes, people bring me their fabrics and patterns and I make the uniforms. I have been doing it for 25 years."
"Are you a re-enactor too."
"Yes, as a Gettysburg civilian. We dress in costume for events, we have even been to the White House in Washington, DC. I can't dress with them right now because I have sold all my garments except for my under-garments."
"You mean you sold the clothes off your back?" She laughed and nodded.

We went on talking about the group she belonged to and their monthly meetings and gathering.
"When we meet in costume at period places its like being back there to those days.That's what I love about it. You are living in the period. That's what makes it so great."

I bet it is. Like living in a story. No wonder the huge attraction that brings people to all kinds of "re-enacting".


Reviving an Old Tone
Later - Jim took his new old guitar to a music shop off the Circle in Gettysburg and they restrung itand cleaned it up. He also bought a "How to Play A Guitar" book. Just strumming the strings - it has a nice sound. So, more will be revealed as Jim starts his lessons.

Thursday - Stories for Seniors

Very satisfying storytelling program today with a new group of Seniors. They were wonderful, attentive listeners and really enjoyed the stories. I wove folktales and personal stories together
to prompt the group to tell some of their stories.

After I told my memory-story of how my grandmother baked a cake, one woman called out to the group,

"The kitchen she described was just like my mother's kitchen. I have not thought about that in years."

How great is that? Its what storytellers hope will happen - that we will take the audience some place they have never been or that they have forgotten. Now I hope they will go back on their own and remember more of their stories. I will check on that when I go back. There may be stories brewing.

It was good memory traveling - for me through my telling and for them through their listening.

Over the past five years I tell stories more and more for Seniors because I enjoy being with them and sharing stories. Check out my Stories for Seniors HERE.

My clients are Retirement Residences and Senior Centers in MD, VA, DC and I have recently begun to book program dates in PA as well. I am scheduling 2010 now so if you know anyone who might want to have Stories for Seniors please pass along my website.

Wednesday - Veterans Day and Memories

Last year on Veterans Day I posted a Roll Call of the members of our family who have served in the military. I thank them again.

Today a few things have come together that have me thinking about some story-weaving.

In August we visited the National Museum of Medicine where we saw RESOLVED - - a fascinating exhibit about medical forensics and the process of recovering lost military personnel.

Today I happened on a blog that told a story about the recent finding of a pilot who has been missing since his WWII plane was shot down January 1944. The plane went down in China - "flying over the HUMP." a very treacherous flight pattern.

The connection:

During WWII my father served in the US Army Air Corps. He was stationed at n air base in India -(now Pakistan ) which was the last fuel and repair stop for US planes flying the HUMP. He was a Sgt and a Crew Chief. He worked on those planes. He would still have been there January 1944 when that plane went down.

I remember Daddy talking about those planes and THE HUMP. But not the stories. And I cannot call him.

Damn!

Isn't that part of the story? There are letters. And a few pictures. The search is on.

The Dalmatian Dog

In July I told The Dalmatian Dog at Speakeasydc.
In October I told another version of it on the Exchange Place Stage at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN.

NOTE: Did you notice the bumpy ending as the video closes? I was the first performer on a portable stage. Beware a platform with pop-up legs. As I walked off one of the legs buckled, sending me sliding off. Fortunately I did not lose my balance or fall - so no harm done. Just lost the graceful exit. I did not keep that in the Jonesborough version.

Tuesday

Of our four children only one was a true Tar Heel.
Gretchen Marie Schoettler - b. November 10, 1961, Chapel Hill, NC

Gretchen was the wee one
her red-hair and blue eyes connected her to her Irish roots
she was the birth-wounded hatchling
who warmed the nest only a few years
- - - - but never flew.

Monday -

Another Schoettler steps forward.
Last Wednesday night at the Kensington Story Salon Jim (r) joined Steve Morissey in a short funny piece to open the show.
Is there more to come?????

This was a day to "tape" the TV show, run errands, and meet with Cricket. Jim and I did work in a sandwich at Einstein's. The weather even allowed us to sit outside and that was a definite plus.

Talking with Robin and a really good telephone call with my sister Kathy in Georgia.
All good uses for technology. Talk about technology - Wednesday I am going to be interviewed by a class of Italian English conversation students in Brescia, Italy. Over Skype. Sounds like fun.
I hate to admit it - but I can't remember any of my Italian. Language slips away when it isn't used.

Of course there are the downers - learning more about the heart-breaking and frightening tragedy at Fort Hood -
and around here -
the bulletins about the scheduled execution of John Allen Muhammed. I have hard time wishing for a "stay" of execution for him. I vividly remember the terrify days of the Washington Sniper - one woman was shot at one of our local gas stations. Fear had everyone here by the throat. It was a reign of terror - across the entire Metro area. Just thinking about it I can feel it again. I cannot imagine the shock and pain and grief of the families. This calls for prayers for all, including John Allen Muhammed.