A Storyteller's Day

I wrote this last night as a post on a storytelling listserve; then I thought it would make a good blog post too:

 

Wednesday was filled with gigs of all kinds and sizes. Some things stand out: the tiny library where the audience was one 3-year-old and her granny, a teenager and the librarian. We had a good time, talking and sharing stories. The grandmother said that her aunt once came back from the beach with sun poisoning; at the doctor's she sat next to a lady who kept reapplying her lipstick and powder. "Why are you here?" the make-up woman asked. "Itch," the aunt replied. The make-up woman moved to a chair across the room and sat beside the aunt's cousin. "Did you hear what she said? She said she had the itch!" "Yep," said the cousin. "Got it from me." 

Outside of the car repair garage next door was a 1959 GMC pickup with Colorado tags and a 5-gallon bucket for a seat. I know there has to be a story about that.

Another program was another small library where about 30-35 people crowded in to hear stories; all ages again and all good listeners. Prior to the show a boy told me that a groundhog had gotten into his preschool classroom and made a terrible mess, even in the bathroom. "We have NO IDEA how he got in there and made that mess," he said, with perfect storyteller emphasis, facial expression and body gestures. His mom tried to hush him; I was happy to hear more.

At the third program of the day, we had a large room and a large crowd. Rushing because the traffic and road construction on the 2-lane highway delayed us, we managed to plug the same cord into both speakers but not into the amp--frustration and sweat ensued and I ended up working without the amp. We had to laugh after the program when we discovered what we'd done.

The last performance was for a church youth work group; young adults from all over the US gathered at a camp to work on the homes of low-income people in the area. There were also 3 Russian girls in the group. They wanted Appalachian stories so that the kids could understand more about the culture of this region. They were a great audience, even though we were outside and the temperature was still in the 80's at 7 in the evening. I learned afterwards that a translator translated all my stories and ballads into Russian for the three girls. How I would have liked to hear that!

Today was a simple, straightforward library program. Tomorrow I tell stories to Toyota plant staff as part of their cultural diversity training program (the employees who will attend are not from the Appalachian region) and then hustle off the perform at the WV State Folk Festival later in the day. 

It's all in a storyteller's day.


Copyright 2007 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A Storytelling Day

It started early. The alarm went off at 6:00 am, time to hit the floor and get ready. Shower, breakfast, animals taken care of, emails sent, lights off and a few more things loaded in the car. We were out the door by 7:30 and on the road to West Virginia's Northern Panhandle.

The quickest route is around the ridge and down Trace Fork, nine miles of beautiful twisty road until we reached the 2-lane highway that took us to the interstate. Now I know that it takes 2 1/2 hours to get to Moundsville; I've driven it many times. It's a little less if we go out by Trace Fork so I knew we had plenty of time to get to the library and set up by the 11 am showtime. Just to be sure I checked the GPS. And she said it would take 3 hours! I tried to recall--was that really true? Surely not; it takes 3 hours to get to Wheeling, another 30 miles up the road from Moundsville. Still, I was nervous. Maybe I didn't remember correctly? I did remember one time when I was hurrying to get to Moundsville and got pulled over for speeding! (A warning only, thank goodness.) Was I mistaken about the time?

Then the heavens opened and rain poured like an open hydrant. For miles. We slowed to 40 mph and I worried some more. The rain stopped, traffic picked up. It seemed to be taking forever. But we reached one of my mileposts (Sistersville) in only 5 minutes more than the usual time. Was the GPS wrong? Could that be? I turned her off and trusted my memory. Sure enough, we pulled into the library's parking lot only 10 minutes behind schedule at 10:10 am, with plenty of time to unload, set up for the program, visit with the library staff, prepare the craft and greet the audience. We started at 11 am, right on time. Yep--the GPS can be totally wrong.

We had a blast at that program. I say we because there is so much audience participation in my programs that it feels like we create the stories and the fun together. I also say we because Larry is usually with me, usually driving, unloading, helping me set up, taking pictures and just generally being indispensable. I remember the days of doing the programs without his help and am so appreciative of all he does to smooth my path. It's a team effort.

Today's programs included a craft activity--making a blue dragon. I had all the parts cut out. The librarians put all the parts into the main puppet body (a blue paper bag) so it was easy to hand out the craft and give instructions. Two small daycare groups took the craft back to their centers to complete. My blog friend Jessica was there too! One day I will not have to rush off and we can really visit.

About 35-40 blue dragons later, Larry and I packed up and headed to the next library about 20 minutes up the road. We set up again, got the craft ready and were ready to greet the audience by the 1:00pm showtime. This group also included a daycare group and I was impressed by the expert childcare management skills of the leaders of the groups at both libraries. One of the librarians from Moundsville came over too and helped with the craft activity. This was a smaller library, and the meeting room was packed. A sign of good publicity and public faith in the library's activities!

Stories today ranged from Africa to Tibet to Mexico to the United States to China, with a welcome song in Arabic and a closing song from Africa (both from Ella Jenkins' recordings). We also sang the days of the week in Spanish and learned Spanish words in La Hormiguita. Chants, movement, puppets, and more songs rounded out the action-packed 40-minute story sessions. We used rhythm instruments with the closing song, talked about rainsticks and matryoshka and daruma dolls and just had a great time.

As we drove home through Moundsville, I remembered that our friend and fellow storyteller Tom Tarowsky worked at the Cockayne house, a historic restoration project that includes an Indian mound in the back yard of the house that had been in the same family for 150 years. We stopped in on the chance that Tom was there; he was and we had an unofficial tour of the home. Never have I felt so strongly the presence of a person no longer living. It seemed that the home was infused with Sam Cockayne's presence. Should you ever be in Moundsville, WV, do stop by this fascinating piece of history. The Grave Creek Mound and the old West Virginia State Penitentiary tours are the main tourist attractions but the immediacy of history really comes alive in Sam Cockayne's home. Perhaps it was Tom's depth of knowledge that made it so?

We had two more stops to make: the Goodwill in Moundsville is one of the best :) I found a lovely kerosene lamp for $1.99, two small handcarved wood faces for $.49 each, white linen placemats for $.49, a black tin tray for $.49, and a few other neat things. As we drove south, we passed many barges on the Ohio River, heading north with their loads of coal, and this train with its many empty cars, probably getting ready to load that coal and head off to power plants somewhere.

Next stop: the Wells Inn in Sistersville for dinner.

We arrived too early for the prime rib dinner, a real deal at $12.95. We ordered from the lunch menu and Larry's Mad Cow Angus burger would have to be seen to be believed. I opted for Cottage Pie. The food and coffee was excellent, and the waitress was just superb. It did my heart good to see so many people in and out of the Inn. A Red Hat Society group was there for dinner as were quite a few other people, and gas drilling men who stay at the Inn were in and out. It was a bustling place. If you've read my blog for a while you know I love this old Inn and its history, and was ecstatic when it re-opened in the past year. I hope it continues to thrive.

As we cruised down the interstate toward home, the gas warning light came on. We'd been having so much fun we hadn't even noticed we were low on gas. We pulled off at Rockport, and since this happens to be Thursday it also happens to be auction day, so of course we stopped in at Blosser's Auction after getting gas. The place was packed. Good sofas and chairs were selling in the $20-$50 dollar range while we were there. We didn't see anything we wanted to stick around for so we left and continued homeward. As we pulled into home, the rain caught up again, but not before we unloaded.

Now it's quiet, the rain is gone, the car is resting and we're recuperating from a very full, fun day. Tomorrow is the West Virginia Folk Festival. I'll be in the Singing Tent at 3:30pm. I hope I see you there!

Conferencing with Librarians

Today was the WV Library Association's spring mini-conference. My proposal to present a session on this year's summer reading theme was accepted so I've been busily working on stories and other things for the workshop.

Can you see the shakers and other rhythm instruments everyone is holding? (And the big Aiken Drum flannelboard story behind me along with bits of a flannelboard story from Korea?) The instruments went with a chant we were doing in an African story; the lady standing with me was a great story volunteer. I shared stories from China, Japan, Turkey, Africa and England along with songs from Chile, Africa, and China and a movement activity from Antarctica. Yes, Antarctica--I couldn't find a story for that cold continent so I rewrote a penguin fingerplay to include movement. In the photo we are doing the song from China--on the back of their animal pictures, I put the words to the song so it was easy to do.That little trick can be used at their storytimes for other stories and songs.

This year's theme One World, Many Stories is custom-made for storytellers. My presentation explored each continent through story, song, craft and even snack foods. I can well remember when I was a branch library manager and presented many children's programs. Finding time to research themes, find crafts and all the other activities to go with a program could be daunting--and I had the luxury of being part of a large library system with lots of resources. I know how it can be for smaller libraries with limited resources and staffing so I wanted to offer them program materials that could be used to create quality programs easily and inexpensively.

Along with program ideas, I brought many items for display--cloths and scarves from many lands that I've collected over the years (most from thrift stores), a paper umbrella from Japan, puppets, Chinese health balls, beads, matryoshka and kokeshi dolls, flags, etc. With an international theme like this one, the displays can be rich with color and texture. I could not bring all of the items I've collected because I think Larry would have gone on strike. Bless the man, he totes my stuff uncomplainingly in and out of so many places.

One of the ideas shared today: cut open a stuffed animal toy and remove some stuffing to make a good puppet. I needed an elephant, and this little fellow works quite well with a cut in his back and a handful or two of stuffing removed.

One craft idea I shared today was a zen garden. I discovered these while researching Japan and became intrigued with the concept of a waterless, plant-less garden. I thought about how much children would enjoy placing the stones and raking the sand, and came up with a miniature zen garden that is easy and inexpensive. All it takes is some sand, a paper plate, some smooth stones and a fork to use as a rake. Put the sand on the plate, place the stones and rake the sand into wave patterns. It's surprisingly hard to rake the waves evenly. The plate can be shaken slightly to erase the waves; then they can be re-done over and over again. Each librarian got a baggie of sand and stones, a plastic fork and a square black paper plate to make their own gardens. It's a little difficult to see the waves in my garden, but you get the idea. I found it so relaxing to do this; now I want to make a better one to keep on the coffee table.

I loved being with children's librarians again. Their energy, imagination and enthusiasm translates into the work they do with children every day. It's a lot of hard work, but each day brings new rewards. I was glad to be able to share some of my ideas with them, and I hope it makes at least a little bit of their work easier as they plan their summer programs.

The Last of Summer Reading Programs

This week was the end of my summer reading performances at libraries, and also the end of the Stories at the River's Edge summer programs. A few pictures of this week's programs:

At West Union, we told stories at the Lions Club building to about 50 children and adults. Here raccoon tells his story once again. This puppet is such a ham! He loves an audience, that's for sure.

Raccoon was joined this summer by Pirate, who helped me tell the story of Jean LaFitte the Gulf of Mexico pirate who helped the US win the Battle of New Orleans, and whose gold is supposedly still hidden in the bayous and swamps of Louisiana. My father often told us about the ghost ships of Jean LaFitte; apparently the pirate isn't resting easy and still comes in search of his gold.

The West Union library is housed in a former opera house and librarian Cathy Ash makes optimum use of the space available to her. Programs at West Union are always well attended. It's a pleasure to see some of the same children from past years, growing up and getting taller than I am.

Raccoon is getting in trouble at Center Point Library! This small, very rural library is really a community center, and the programs usually attract a diverse age range; everyone participates and has a good time.

Later we all got moving with the song "A Sailor Went to Sea." Can you do the oooo-wash-y-wash?

At Moundsville Library, the last sand dollar necklace crafts were made. One little guy, the son of one of my online friends, actually bit the sand dollar, thinking, I suppose, that it was a cookie!

The kids worked hard on their necklaces and I was glad to see the last of the beads being used up. Vicki and Susan at the Moundsville Library made me so welcome. Thank you, ladies!

I was thrilled to meet fellow blogger and friend Jessica of Country Whispers, who came with her daughter Katie for the program. What a pleasure it was to finally meet her in person. And she is just as nice in the flesh as she is online. I wish I had thought to get a picture of us together, but I was so busy getting the program going and finished that I did not even think of it. Next time, Jessica!

So summer reading wraps up. Next week I'll be gone all week to Elkins, WV to learn all about Irish ballads and how to sing them, I hope.

Tomorrow, though, I will be working hard to make pickles of the latest batch of cucumbers and salsa from the very ripe tomatoes I haven't yet had time to deal with.  What if more ripen while I'm gone? I hope friends and family enjoy them!

Crafty Ladies, and Kids Too

Two of my sisters came to visit over the Fourth of July weekend, and Theresa even brought along her son, his wife and their three children. After the race on Saturday and the evening cookout and fireworks (more about both later) we were ready to settle down and be quiet on Sunday.

Both sisters have gardens and both love lavender, so we decided to make lavender wands. My lavender was a little past its prime but still fine for making wands so we cut a lot of stems and set to work. The concept was new to Susan, Theresa's daughter-in-law, but she was willing to give it a try. In the end, she outdid all of us, making a wand that was braided with three different color ribbons.

Hope, her granny Theresa and her mother Susan all work on wands.

I had some large glass beads in a bowl on the porch that I'd been thinking about using to make suncatchers. The beads were leftovers from a craft project I will be doing at a couple libraries this summer--the smaller beads in the packages I bought were fine but the big ones were just, well, TOO big. With so many willing hands available, it felt like just the right time to make the suncatchers. We used electric fence wire to string them and everyone picked out whatever combination of beads they wanted on their suncatcher.

Hope and her little brother Cade look hard at work, don't they?

My sister Maggie made the prettiest one, I think, in "ocean" shades, as she called it, and indeed the soft turquoises, blues, greens and clear beads were reminiscent of the ocean's colors. I wish I had taken pictures of the finished products because they were both imaginative and colorful. And all my beads were used, which made me happy. Maybe I will remember to post a photo one day of the ones I made myself. I bought the beads from Fire Mountain's online clearance sale and got a great deal on them; I made up over100 craft packets for my programs and still had about 50 or more of these big beads left.

When we were looking for ribbons for the lavender wands, Hope spied my box of supplies for spoon puppets. Of course we had to make those too!

Theresa was a good sport about helping with the finer bits of work--Garrett's puppet was colorful, with a metallic green dress and purple-pink hair. According to him and to Hope, they were making puppets to go with my story "Gracie's Cabin"--Garrett's puppet is Crazy Gracie, he told me.

Hope managed to do most of her puppet by herself. She made Annie Rose, I think, from the same story.

And here's Hope's finished product. To make these silly puppets, you only need a wooden spoon, some fabric about the size of a man's handkerchief, scissors to cut a tiny hole in the exact center of the cloth, some tape to hold the cloth around the stick after you put the stick through the hole, some glue (fast-drying is best!) to hold yarn hair in place, and markers, stickers, etc to make the face. In this case, we used peel-and-stick foam shapes. You can add ribbon, sequins, and all sorts of other things to decorate the puppets. To use them, just slip your hand under the cloth, hold the spoon handle with three fingers and stick out your thumb and index finger to make "arms" under the cloth. Simple, simple and yet I have seen children make the most amazing creations with these simple supplies.The spoons can be found at dollar stores, 4 or 5 in a package for $1.

It was a fun Sunday afternoon and evening, and when we were finished the kids had something to play with and the ladies had cool things to take home. And I had a little less stuff in my house, which is always a good thing.

If you need better instructions for making spoon puppets, try this book. It's the one I learned from and it has lots of other great ideas for making puppets with things you might have around the house. With the heat wave we're having right now, finding things for the kids to do in the house might be a good way to keep them occupied since it's too hot to be outdoors.

(Blogger has evidently made some big changes over the weekend, so please excuse any oddities about the placement of photos and text, etc in my recent posts. It's been a weird experience!).

Tonight's post is a photo blog of yesterday's journey to two libraries for storytelling, and a few things in between. It's not a complete picture of the day by any means; I'll have more to post. But this is a sampler of my day:

First stop was West Union, West Virginia, county seat of Doddridge County. The town sits high on a a hill and the lovely courthouse is on the highest point in town. The brickwork is stunning.

We were sad that we could not get back to West Union this evening for--I kid you not--the Outhouse Parade. What is an outhouse parade? I have no idea but I most certainly want to see one. Tomorrow they will have a bed race down Main Street, all part of West Union Fest; three people can push the bed and one can ride. I love this town!

Raccoon came out to play, even though he was still grouchy from being up all night in my corn patch. The tried and true story of Mud that I tell with him continues to work with audiences. And I continue to thank Don Leonard, the Florida storyteller from whom I learned the story. Over the years of telling it has become a good bit different from Don's version, but I owe this successful story to him.

The crowd of 60+ parents and children had a very good time making fingerpuppets. More photos of that later too.

At the Center Point Library, we had storytelling and then made wooden spoon puppets. This puppet is especially delightful. About twice as many children showed up as expected, so we had twice as much fun.

I have wanted to take my husband to Berdyne's Store for years; finally yesterday we were in the right place at the right time. We drove a little out of our way to Harrisville to visit this unique shop. Above is a photo of just a tiny bit of the amazing variety of items for sale at Berdyne's. I will do a complete post on the store this weekend. It's one of my all-time favorite places to visit.

At a rest area on the interstate, we met this gentleman from North Carolina and his "new" car. Isn't it gorgeous? The car, a 1953 Chevrolet station wagon, was in immaculate condition. He'd just bought the car in Ohio and was driving it home to North Carolina.

Then another truck pulled in, this one hauling a 1963 Willy's Army jeep. Larry loves these things, always wants to look at them wherever he sees them. Imagine his delight when the owner offered to let him sit in it! This jeep is in pretty good condition, even had the axe mounted under the drivers side, a shovel on the other side, the original gas can, roll bar, frame for the roof canopy, and a spare tire. The owner had bought it over the Internet from someone in Ohio and he was one happy man.

I didn't think we'd ever leave the rest area, but Larry finally (reluctantly) got out of the Jeep and we headed home after a full and completely interesting day.

Always there is more to storytelling than meets the eye--or ear.

End of the Puppets and Summer Reading Trail

Today was my last performance for this year's Summer Reading Program at West Virginia libraries. I am sorry to see it end. There were so many highlights:

• about 300 fingerpuppets were made, and about 20 wooden spoon puppets
• at least 700 children attended events at 9 programs
• 100 children attended writing workshops
• at least 300 parents were delighted that their children enjoyed the storytelling and puppet-making
• about 2000 pompoms, sequins, fake jewels and google eyes were attached to puppets
• about 500 feathers adorned puppets and/or library floors--ditto felt pieces, foam pieces and other assorted craft odds and ends
• 20 or more different stories were told, crafted, improvised and enjoyed
• one storyteller has a pile of craft supplies to sort and memories to hold

It was a great summer in West Virginia libraries, and I am sorry to see it end.

However--more storytelling is on the way:

• August 1 at Clifftop, along with an incredible array of old-time music events
• August 5 at Camp SummerFUNdamentals for WV Rehab

Then a long break until October. In the meantime, I'm prepping for next year's library programs. Arrggghh, Matey! 'Tis pirates, sea creatures and more on tap for next year!

Photos and more tomorrow. Tonight I feel rode hard and put up wet. See you when the sun is high!

On the Storytelling Trail: Moundsville and Benwood-McMechen

Today I presented two entirely different programs. The first was a creative writing workshop, as part of the Get Creative! Summer Reading theme that is being used at many West Virginia libraries.


For this program I created small journals with writing prompts. We used some of the prompts today, and the rest are for students to take home and write whenever they feel the urge. We wrote list poems, acrostics, flash fiction and a nonfiction piece about how we got our names.

I also had some "five senses" items on the tables--the participants could touch, smell, taste, or see the objects; the hearing part was our discussion of each item. The items included a glass ball that belonged to my parents, a small Navajo pin that was my grandmother's, a jar of cinnamon, one of dried dill and one of pickling spice, a velvet burnout scarf, an appliqued dishtowel from the 50's, a small wooden vase given to me by my sister Theresa, and several kinds of candy.

There were some talented writers in the group, and I hope they continue to use the journals and find opportunities to write.

We left Moundsville and headed up the Ohio River to the communities of Benwood and McMechen. These little towns adjoin each other so closely it's difficult to know where one ends and the other begins. The children at the program could tell me quickly, however!

This program included storytelling with puppets, including my two Create-A-Puppets that make the most bizarre monsters. Two boys made monsters prior to the program and we used them in a cracked version of City Mouse/Country Mouse. (City Monster/Country Monster!). We told two other stories with puppets, and almost every child in attendance was able to be part of at least one of the stories.

After the stories, it was puppetmaking time! We made a grand and glorious mess with felt, yarn, pompoms, sequins, feathers, jewels, peel-and-stick foam sheets, and other craft supplies.

Look at them working!

And here are a few results of their efforts: these, I was told, are a chicken and a squirrel. Who am I to argue?

The group of middle-school-age kids got crazy with the yarn and made "hairy" puppets, with lots of feathers. Creative? Absolutely.

So now I'm home again and getting ready for the next performance Friday night. I'm excited about this one too, a program of Celtic-Appalachian stories and songs with two musician friends for a Celtic Festival at Prickett's Fort State Park. Stories and music--can there be a better combination? (Well, kids and puppets come a close second in my book.)

Telling in St. Mary's and Sistersville

Monday I was in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, telling stories at libraries in Sistersville and St. Mary's. For Sistersville, it was a return performance. I've been to this library several times for Summer Reading and more recently to present a book talk about my books to the library's book group. I've posted many photos of Sistersville in previous posts, along with information about the town and its history, so I did not take new photos on this trip--mostly because of the time crunch I was facing.

The day presented a time challenge. The program in Sistersville started at noon, and included a craft. I needed to be in St. Mary's by 1:45pm to set up for my program there. So I was focused on keeping everything on track and on time to meet the time limitations.

The program I presented this time was a little different: I told stories with puppets and audience participation for the first half of the program, and then the children made finger puppets. I brought all supplies, including the 330 (count 'em!) finger puppet blanks that my daughter-in-law Jennifer and granddaughter Jordan prepared for me (I owe a huge thank you to them! I'd have been cutting and gluing for most of the weekend without their willing help).

Since the audience was mostly 5 and under and since most of them were unfamiliar with storytelling, it was an interesting event. Some wanted to talk; some wanted to participate all the time. The program was 100% improv as I worked with a two-year-old who wanted to be the puppy in one story, and two teens in another. We had a good time. It was noisy, a little chaotic, but we had fun. As any storyteller reading this can tell you, a program like this can take a lot of energy as you are not only telling stories and controlling action on the stage, but also doing audience management.

Making the finger puppets was next, and we had messy, creative fun. Some very excellent puppets were made by very young children. Since the Summer Reading theme is Get Creative, the stories and the puppets were both a good fit. We finished in time (the gods must have blessed me!) and packed up and headed to St. Mary's.

This was my first performance at the Pleasants County Library. Although I've driven through the town many times, and remembered my late friend, the herbalist Dot Griffin each time, I had yet to be invited to tell stories there, so I was excited to perform for their Summer Reading program.

I have no pictures of the storytelling in St. Mary's because my husband was off browsing the books, but I do want to share photos of the town with you.

Yes, it's true. George Washington visited here in 1770, during his surveying trip in the frontier region prior to the Revolutionary War.

The oldest house in Pleasants County, according to our informant "Tom."

The railroads play a major role in St. Mary's, as evidenced in the photos below:

Train coming! The tracks run right up Main Street. The locals know to expect the train every 1-2 hours. Obviously we weren't local: we took pictures of the train, coming and going.

A friendly wave from the engine made me think these guys are used to tourists like me.

The train continues its journey down Main Street,

and we follow along, entranced by the idea of a train that rolls freely through the business district of a town and causing little hubbub except a couple of camera-wielding tourists.

There is more to know about St. Mary's, like the nature preserve on the island beside the town, ghost stories and railroad stories. I hope I have the opportunity to visit again and learn more about another of West Virginia's unique river towns.

Storytelling and the WV State Folk Festival

Unknown musicians performing in a doorway at Glenville.

A big weekend coming up: Storytelling all day Friday, the WV State Folk Festival Oral Traditions tent (not to mention lots of good music!) in Glenville, WV on Saturday, my birthday AND Father's Day on Sunday, and storytelling all day Monday. Whew!

First is tomorrow morning, storytelling at the two libraries in my county. I've thought about what stories to share, worked on some new ones and I think I've got a good program ready to go. This will be the same program I will be using at several libraries this summer:

Since this summer's theme is Get Creative! , I've got lots of room for...creativity! Here are my choices:

Swapping Song-- this is a fun, interactive song that comes from the British Isles and was shortened a bit in the Appalachians.

Magic Paint Brush--a story from China. I will tell it using a whiteboard to draw the various parts of the story--not a draw and tell story, but more a story with illustrations. It teaches the benefit of helping others instead of serving your own greed, but like all good stories the message doesn't beat you over the head.

The Perfect Pet--this is an original story I wrote to go with my three dragon puppets, fairy puppet and king and queen puppet. I think it is going to be a lot of fun to tell. There is a participation chant and of course children from the audience will use the puppets to help tell the story.

How the Dog Chose its Master--a simple tale from India that allows audience participation and again, audience members using puppets to help tell the story.

The Tug of War-- a comic trickster tale from Australia. This story will again be audience participation and the only prop I need is a rope.

Bar the Door-an old British ballad that traveled to the mountains, this is funny and fun, with a lesson about being stubborn.

Fill Bowl! Fill! --a Jack tale from the Appalachian Mountains, and like all Jack tales great fun to tell and to listen to.

How the Vulture Got its Color--a tale from Burma that makes a point about vanity and gratefulness. This is the story I prepared as a flannelboard story, so children can help with the telling.

Aiken Drum--from Scotland, a story and a song about a funny little man. The original ballad was a political statement, but became a nonsensical children's song over the years. I tell the story of the brownie Aiken Drum who came to help out but was insulted by the gift of new clothes, then close the story with the song and a flannelboard. It's good fun and lots of participation in the song and flannelboard.

Of course, I may mix it up with a few alternate stories. I keep a ready supply to be sure what I tell is right for the audience in front of me. But I like this mix of world folktales, Appalachian stories and ballads, flannelboard stories and participation stories. I think it's going to be a lot of fun for all of us, listeners and storyteller.

Saturday is Glenville and the West Virginia State Folk Festival! Traditional mountain music, crafts, country people in town to celebrate, friends, and a lot more at the oldest folk festival in West Virginia. Click here and here to see my posts about last year's festival in Glenville.

So what does the festival have for writers and storytellers?

Plenty! The Oral Traditions Tent at the WV State Folk Festival in Glenville, WV this weekend will feature some of our state's best writers. Here's the schedule of presenters, and remember, the festival is free!

Fred Powers, telling last year as a coal miner. Powerful.

Friday, June 19th:
11am:Kirk Judd (poet)
12:00 Laura Treacy Bentley (poet)
2:00 pm Marc Harshman (poet, storyteller, writer)
3:00 pm Mountain Echoes (storytellers)

Saturday, June 20th:
10 am Fran Schmetzer (local Gilmer County author)
12:00 Susanna Holstein --that would be me :-) (storyteller, poet, writer)
3:00 pm Cat Pleska (storyteller and writer)
4:00 pm Suzi "Mama" Whaples (storyteller)

Here's a link to the festival: www.wvfolkfestival.org/

Will I see you there? I hope so!

Oh, and the birthday/Father's Day? I think we'll see in the summer solstice with a fire in the firepit and a few glasses of wine, then on Sunday morning we'll make pancakes with homemade strawberry syrup, drink coffee on the porch, and maybe get those cabbages in the freezer--and who knows? Maybe I'll get the kraut made too.

If that doesn't sound like a real celebration, remember that I work away from home most of the week, and for me this kind of day is a perfect celebration of why we live in the country.