Thanks to everyone who came out to the show last Thursday. We heard a bunch of great stories including ones from five new first-timers. It was one of those shows where it seemed like half the audience came prepared to tell 🙂

I don’t even know how to describe the range of stories we heard that night. Do I tell you about David’s beautiful moment as a college vigilante and what he’s not afraid to do with a chocolate cream pie? Do I try to summarize the uncomfortable confrontation on the #47 bus between the World’s Sweetest Bus Driver and an angry Navy SEAL? What about first-timer Lauren and her adventure as a teacher abroad where she looked into the eyes of a stone-cold killer while sitting on the potty?

I wish you could have seen 91-year-old Claire tell us how her husband proposed to her in New York City on their first date. So charming! Sadly, there’s also no point in trying to recreate Elliot’s story of his time in Iraq and where he quietly whispered to himself over and over throughout his tour, “This is how I’m going to die.”

There’s one story, though, that I do want to talk about. I first heard it three years ago in Tacoma and it’s stuck in my heart ever since. Last Thursday, the woman who told it showed up unexpectedly and I got to hear it again. It hit me just as hard. It was about the time she traveled to Ireland and what happened to her when two strangers came into her life on the same night. It was a night where good and evil met up in the same place at the same time. I’m not going to say what happened but no one at Roy Street will ever forget the image of that young woman on a dark street in Dublin.

As I got up to the microphone after she told I saw her moving quickly through the crowd toward the front of the coffee shop. I wanted to thank and tell her what that story had meant to me over the last three years but she was gone before I could do that. I’m not going to say her name because I don’t know her personally and I don’t know if she wants her name and that story together on the internet. But I do want to say here how grateful I am that she came out and shared it with us.

Lots of love and thanks to everyone who told a story that night: Ginger, David, B, Chris, Lauren, Robert, Kat, Carol, Elliot, Kath, John, Keith, Nathan, Kenji, Erin, Claire and Carl. Apologies if I forgot anyone. It was a new record for number of stories told at FGS and I may have lost some of the slips of paper with names on them.

Thanks also to everyone in the audience who showed such amazing support for the people who got onstage. It takes a lot of courage to share some of these stories and we couldn’t do it without all the kindness and patience you give us.

The recording came out fine so if any of the storytellers want the audio from their story just send me an email. I only give the audio to the people who told a story and it’s only of their own story. Most of them don’t want their stories shared online so the only way you’ll get to hear them is to be at the show.

Our next show is Thursday, Sept 22. The theme is “You can’t always get what you want.” I’ll get the official invite out as soon as I can.

Take care until then.

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com