Click on blue title to read this post in your browser. Storytelling runs deep in the Ozarks. I grew up in the kiddie pools of it, but always waded over to the adult tables at picnics and reunions. If you ever get the chance, listen to some Ozark stories. Rest assured you’ll be either laughing […]
Tag Archives: Storytelling
“Ode to Billy Joe” is one of the most popular and mysterious stories told in song. It’s Bobbie Gentry’s sad tale about Billy Joe McAllister, who jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge. Here’s the verse that has caused much speculation: Mama said to me, “Child what’s happened to your appetite? I been cookin’ all mornin’ and […]
Approximately forty years ago, my mother and her sister, whose family lived in the close by community of Lakewood, took my brother, cousins, and me to visit The Wren’s Nest in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta. I can’t remember anything about the visit except a general sense of the adventure I always felt […]
Every year when I mention attending the National Storytelling Festival to friends, eyes glaze over, and, I suspect, they pretend interest for a few minutes, hoping I’ll veer off onto another topic. For a long time, I was one of those people—storytelling? Boring, boring – until I actually went to see and hear for myself, that is. For […]
Seems easy, doesn’t it? We do it all day long: Tell the one about the dog who stole the steak, about what grandma told the robber, or the time we ventured into a haunted house all alone. Listening and telling – this is how we know ourselves, our families, what makes us who we are. […]
Readers Unbound 