Thanks to everyone who came out to the show last Thursday. Almost half the storytellers were first-timers! I love it when new people get up there so nervous at first and by the end of their story they can’t wait to do it again.

Now that Barb has told us about how she came to Seattle I am now going to drive as slow as I can past that little bridge house and hope to catch a glimpse of her practicing her next story. I can’t believe I forgot to ask her how you get a job raising and lowering bridges. I can raise and lower my hopes and self-esteem about 45 times a day. Does that count?

Zoe told a great story about hanging with Bella Abzug in NYC in the 60s and 70s. She doesn’t know this but I use the name Bella Abzug about once a year in the hopes that someone recognizes it. I heard Johnny Carson use her name once in his monologue and I thought, “What a great name! I have to know who that person is.” Then I found out who she was and was unable to use that information for the next 30 years because I never met anyone else who had ever heard of her. But now I have Zoe and she can fill me in on all the social activists I’ve heard of but never knew much about. See what this show does? I’ve talked to Zoe a bunch of times and had no idea she was such a rabble rouser.

Peter, another first-timer, told about how he got out of his car to talk to find out why this one homeless man he drove by day after day seemed so happy. He was so struck with the man’s story that he ended up making a film about him. Peter promised to give me the link to the film when he’s done with the final editing. I loved Peter’s story about it and I can’t wait to see the video.

Right now I’m looking at a little scrap of paper where I wrote, “Use your pain to do something good.” It’s a quote from Peter’s story. It reminded me of what this show is all about. There’s always at least one moment during these shows where I write something down that I want to remember long after everyone has gone home. Thank you Peter. And thank Shadow for me next time you see him.

Jonathan, that was the best Jewish, vegan, Christmas story I’ve ever heard 🙂 Lleyn, we definitely need to hear more about Miss America. Marjorie, you make me wish my parents had named me Ramon. I’m pretty sure my life would have been a lot different. David, Jill, Taran, Connie, Ginger, Kevin, thank you for all your stories that night. I could write another 500 words about each of them but my doctor says it’s important that I spend at least 20 minutes a day away from the computer so I’ll wrap this up here and see if I can remember where the front door is.

The recording came out fine so I’ll be able to give the storytellers a copy of their performance if they want it. I only give out the audio to the people who told a story and it’s only the audio of their own story. Most tellers don’t want their personal stuff online so that’s why I only give copies to the people who told them.

I’ll be writing up the official invite for next month’s show in the next few days. The theme is Fish Out of Water – Stories of not fitting in.

Thanks again to everyone who shared a little bit of their lives onstage and to everyone in the audience who supported them.

See you on May 28th!

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com