Thanks to everyone who came out to the show last Thursday. We had lots of tellers and some great stories were shared.

You know I love our first-timers and we learned a lot from them this month. Jonathan admitted that he was possibly the first man on the internet to post a fake photo of himself. It’s a dubious honor but it led to a great story and I’m pretty sure that if I ever see a photo of him online that it will absolutely be the real Jonathan.

Taylor announced during her story that women’s faces are surprisingly soft and I found myself wishing I could remember the first time I realized that myself. Jeff told a great story about how crafty a young man can be when he’s drafted into the service. Turns out if you get in a fight standing in line waiting for the doctor they won’t send you to Vietnam. Good to know! If we ever reinstate the draft I will instruct my son to punch someone as soon as possible.

Captain Jon (an actual captain, not a Love Boat Gavin McLeod kind of captain) showed us that you don’t need peyote to feel connected to the universe. Instead, you can sail across the ocean alone staring at your wake. Jon doesn’t know this but one of my favorite books as a kid was Joshua Slocum’s “Sailing Alone Around The World.” Slocum was the first person to sail around the world solo and to a young man growing up in Alaska it seemed like the perfect way to escape the tundra. So naturally, I was totally charmed by Jon’s story. I’m glad he found us.

The tape recorder did its job so if any of the tellers want the audio of their story just send me an email. I only give the audio to people who told a story that night and it’s only of their own story. Most people don’t want their lives on the web so I never hand out the audio to anyone but the original teller.

Our next show is March 23. The theme is “Unexpected Gifts.” I’ll get out the official invite as soon as I can.

One last thing before I let you go. Every now and then someone tries to talk me into changing the rules or the format of FGS. I do occasionally make small changes to help the show run smoother but I’m not going to change the main rules or basic format. I produce the show that I want to see and if you want something different you’ll have to go somewhere else. Rules on subject matter will remain the same. No politics, sex, music, standup or poetry. There are many reasons for these rules but the biggest one is that I’m simply not interested in running that kind of show. There are many places in Seattle you can go for those things and I encourage you to do so.

That’s all for now. Thanks again to everyone who shared a story or supported those who did. You guys always make this my favorite day of the month. See you on the 23rd.

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com