It’s been a week of stories … and it’s not over yet

This has been a week of stories. They started last weekend when my church held its annual Children’s Revival. An outside speaker is always invited for this event. The man who came this year, Reverend Brandon Buford, told a Bible story as his sermon. He was a good storyteller and involved the children in it. He almost acted out the story as he told it.

Tuesday night I heard Debbie Macomber speak at Barnes & Noble. Obviously, as a fiction author, she’s a storyteller. But she spun tales about writing books for us as we listened. Her wit and charm were abundant that night.

The annual Storytelling Festival started Wednesday night. This is the 30th annual running of this event. National and regional storytellers come to tell stories to school children at locations all around the area. A lot of volunteers work to make this event happen. I got involved last year and worked Thursday and Friday at whatever I was told to do.

This year I was stationed at the Old Courthouse. My duties were described to me as “crowd control.” This basically meant getting the children to sit down in orderly rows to listen to the storytellers. When I got to the Old Courthouse yesterday, the two women who were emceeing the performances in that room had already gotten the first group of children seated. They were very well-behaved kindergartners and first graders.

The next group came in an hour later. Trying to get them organized was like trying to herd cats. Finally the storyteller told them to scoot back so she could see their faces and that helped. Otherwise, they would have been clustered around her feet!  She wouldn’t have been able to move.

Today I was assigned to a different room in the Courthouse but doing the same crowd control. Today we had three different sessions of students. The first two were pretty good but somehow the concept of sitting in rows was foreign to the third group including the adults. On top of that, there was an almost constrant stream of children needing to go to the restroom. I felt sorry for the storytellers having to work with such a mobile group of children.

Yesterday one of the storytellers played a dulcimer and sang with the kids. He also played a jaw harp and a nose flute. He had just finished his thesis the subject of which was the song “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” I just wonder what the degree was.   Surely it has something to do with childhood education.

Another storyteller yesterday played an autoharp and sang her stories. The first storyteller today had her husband with her. He was her percussionist and played all kinds of percussion instruments behind her as she told her stories. The next one played a drum which I think she called a jam drum. The next storyteller played the guitar and sang with the children before starting her story.

It was interesting to listen to the various stories and see the various ways the storytellers interacted with the children. The festival wraps up tonight with a concert where the featured national storytellers will perform. I attended this last year and it was a marvelous evening. I expect tonight will be the same.

To reach the Old Courthouse, I had to walk across the grounds of the Gateway Arch. Yesterday as I made the hike, I spotted several red wing black birds. I had my camera with me today, hoping to get a shot of them. They were no where to be seen. I wonder if they are migratory birds and were just passing through. Probably someone could write (and tell) a story about that.