My 82-year-old neighbor rolled up to me tonight in his electric wheelchair. He saw me sweeping out the carport and stopped by to say hi. It’s always a treat to talk to him because he’s full of stories no one else in my life could have. Last summer he saw me scything the tall grass in the backyard and told me about how he used to scythe fields as a kid in Austria. Tonight, he told me about being in Pakistan in the 60s and witnessing the Pashtuns on horseback play buzkashi in a great stadium filled with thousands of people. It was such a joy to see him describing that moment in his life from 50 years ago. When he was done explaining buzkashi to me, I asked what brought him to America. He seemed to have such an exciting life in Europe and I couldn’t imagine what would make him leave.
“Paul,” he said in the thick German accent that always makes me lean in to make sure I’m understanding him. “When my first wife left me I cried four weeks straight. Four weeks!” He was inconsolable. Nothing could pull him out of his grief. It was only by moving to America and immersing himself in another world that he was able to move on. A few minutes later he laughed and said, “I don’t know why I am telling you my life story tonight.”
I knew why. He was telling me because I needed to hear it. Lately, I’ve been thinking about an old love in my life who I didn’t think I could live without. It was many years ago that we broke up but every now and then I think back to that time and try to have compassion for the young man who confused love with desire. There’s a big difference between loving someone and needing someone. If you’ve ever spent time drinking cheap coffee in church basements you know that there’s also a big difference between loving something and needing that something. One thing I know for sure is that the path to forgiving yourself for confusing those two is to hear others talk about how they’ve done the same thing.
It meant so much to me tonight to hear another man share his own story of going through that. When he was done sharing his story, he looked up and saw his wife down the street waving at him to come home. Tonight was their 33rd wedding anniversary. He smiled at me, waved to his wife, and rolled back down the street toward a life that I one day hope to have.
Our next show is May 19th at 7 pm at the Olive Way Starbucks. The theme is “Cravings – Stories of desire.” Come tell a story about a time when you craved something. How did it start? How did it feel being in it? Did you get what you wanted? If you did, was it worth it? Was it a job? A person? A physical item? A feeling? Was it everything you thought it would be? We’d love to hear what you learned from that time and if it changed you in some way.
Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. If your story goes long, someone else who practiced for weeks might not get a chance to tell theirs. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email or give me a call if you have any questions about that.
I’m also happy to help anyone on a story. Send me an email through Meetup or directly at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com and we can set up a phone call.
Thanks to everyone who came out to our first post-pandemic in-person show! We had a great turn out and heard some fantastic stories.
I’m not able to do my usual wrap-up this month because my asthma has kept me in a pollen-induced coma for the last few days. Today is the first day I can breathe right and that means you can see me tell a story tonight at the Fremont Abbey at the Locally Fameless show!
They have a great show lined up for you and, as always, they invite three people from the audience to tell stories too. I hope you can come out and see me wheeze through my story. Special bonus if I have to bring out my inhaler at the 4-minute mark 🙂
Emily Pitts, who was the final teller at the FGS last last week, will be hosting.
I’ll get each teller’s audio from last week’s FGS show to them in a few days when I have energy to do the editing. Next month’s theme is “Cravings – Stories of Desire.” It’s on May 19. I’ll get the official invite out as soon as I can.
I hope you’re looking forward to our show this Thursday! It’s going to be the first in-person show we’ve had in approximately 200 years 🙂
The good folks at the Starbucks on Olive Way are happy to have us back and I’m doing what I can to make sure I remember how to run the PA system.
Think about bringing a chair if you can since Starbucks is still getting their regular chair/table inventory out of storage. Of course, they still have a bunch of chairs there but I’m bringing a couple myself just in case they run a little short. The show starts at 7 pm but get there early to either find a seat or get a good place to put your chair.
Our theme this month is Bumbles, Stumbles, and Fumbles – Stories of making mistakes.
Matthew Dicks, a multiple-time Moth Slam winner, has a great free newsletter he puts out with storytelling advice. Here’s is last week’s advice on how to grab the audience’s attention:
Say the suspenseful thing first.
In a story I’m working on for next week, I plan to begin with a line like, “The scissors hidden in my lap are sharp. Sharper than I expected. Now I wait for the teacher to turn his back so I can use them.”
The most suspenseful object in the scene – and perhaps the story – is the pair of scissors, so I lead with them to create wonder, suspense, and even worry.
Why are you hiding scissors in your lap? What do you plan on doing once the teacher turns his back? Why are they so sharp?
The scissors play a very minor role in the story, but I lead with them to grab the audience’s attention. I force my audience to wonder what will happen next. String enough “I wonder what will happen next” moments together and you’ve got yourself a story.
Let me know if you have any questions about the show coming up or FGS in general. Email me directly at freshgroundstories@gmail.com. If you reply to this email Meetup will lose it so you’ll have to start a new email and send it to me at that address.
One of the weirdest things I discovered during Covid was how much I missed making mistakes and all the adventures they led to. For the last two years, I haven’t shown up at a work meeting not knowing I had a giant rip in the back of my pants (August 2019). I haven’t offered to spot someone in the gym and then realized I wasn’t strong enough to save the guy when he couldn’t get the bar off his chest (June 2016). I haven’t accepted a gig to do an hour-long comedy tour for a busload of tourists and then find out none of them spoke English (1994). And I definitely didn’t get chased out of town by a shipload of sailors after a show in Astoria, Oregon (1998).
Now that I’m finally getting out of the house I’m really looking forward to getting back to crafting a life of thoughtless errors and awkward moments. It’s really what I love most about life. Who are these weirdos who think before they speak and look before they leap? They are not my people. On April 21, we’re looking for 8-10 blurters and non-looking leapers to tell a story on this month’s theme, “Bumbles, Stumbles, and Fumbles – Stories of making mistakes.”
Come tell a story about a mistake you’ve made in life and how you worked your way out of it. Did it teach you something about yourself? Did you keep making that same mistake or did that one moment change your life forever? Here’s your chance to show how mistakes can be great teachers and great stories.
Don’t forget this is your chance to tell a story live on stage! We’re back at our old venue, the Olive Way Starbucks. They might not have quite enough chairs for us because they put a lot of their stuff in storage during Covid. So if you’re able, please consider bringing a chair for yourself.
Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. If your story goes long, someone else who practiced for weeks might not get a chance to tell. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email or give me a call if you have any questions about that.
Big thanks to everyone who came out to our show last week. It was an amazing night, and the perfect way to say goodbye to Zoom and hello to the stage. Our next show will be April 21 and we’re going back to our old venue, the Starbucks on Olive Way. I can’t wait to see everyone in person again!
It’s going to be hard to leave behind all the wonderful out-of-state tellers we’ve met over the last two years. I’ll do my best to stream future shows but I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to do that with any consistency. Since April of 2020, we’ve had people from India, Germany, Australia, Canada, New York, Texas, California, Idaho, and probably a bunch of other places I can’t remember. There’s a little-known rule at FGS that anyone who crosses state or international borders to get to our show will absolutely get a chance to tell a story. So if you’re outside Washington state, and thinking of going on vacation, consider being in Seattle on the third Thursday of the month 🙂
Our first teller of the night was also one of our furthest tellers. Johanne from Montreal told a beautiful story that began with her father, who was a roofer, driving her around town saying “every roof has a story to tell.” One night, years after he had passed away, one of his old friends called the house to say goodbye as he was close to death himself. The way Johanne described what happened that night on the phone felt as haunting as it must have felt for her that night. Grief comes and goes and seems to rise up in the most unexpected ways. Somehow, the rhythm of Johanne’s voice brought back old memories of people I thought I was done grieving for years ago. Stories like this go deep. They dig up things we thought we had buried. In the hands of a skilled teller like Johanne, they help us move forward when we thought we had gone as far as we could go.
Our next teller was Bev, from just slightly closer to us in Albany, NY. She told a story about saying goodbye to her father for what she knew would be the last time. I cried at the end of her story that night and I cried again tonight when I listened to it again. Both times Bev brought me back to April 2002 in Bellingham, Washington, in a room in St, Joseph Hospital where I said goodbye to my own dad. Thank you, Bev, for reminding me that the length of our grief is measured in the love we have for those we’ve lost.
Silvana was next with a story that was both thrilling and heartbreaking. There were parts of her story about growing up that I instantly connected with. When she got to the part where Girl Scouts was a way to channel her energy and connect with people who cared about her, I thought, “Yes! That’s what Boy Scouts was for me!” To hear a few minutes later how Girl Scouts was suddenly taken away from her was heartbreaking. I felt for that little girl even though I know the Silvana of today is happy and living a great life. It was one of those stories where you want to go back in time and make things right for someone.
Gretchen then shared a story of living through the “Great Lesbian Baby Boom” when she was in a relationship where her partner wanted a baby and she didn’t. There’s a moment in the middle of the story where Gretchen and her girlfriend’s mother are waiting in the hospital to find out if her girlfriend will one day be able to have a baby. When the news arrives they both start crying but for different reasons. It was a touching scene in an honest story about what happens when you realize you and the person you love are heading down different paths.
Zac, in only the second time he’s told with us, shared a story about when he was a young man taking care of his mother who was dying of cancer. Zac stepped up on an hour’s notice to tell this story when he heard that a couple of tellers couldn’t make the show. I had no idea that he had never told this story publicly. We could see his face change as he dealt with each memory as it came back to him moment by moment. He took us back 20 years to a Mexican restaurant in California when he realized his mother wasn’t going to be with him much longer. As he saw his mother’s body falling apart in front of him, he realized there was one thing he could do to make this night ok for them. It was something that’s going to stay with all of us for a long time.
Ed was next with a story from all the way back in 1969 when he came back from the Vietnam war. It turns out that his dad was a lot like my dad. He was hard to talk to about serious things and was more concerned with fixing than listening. Ed learned his father loved him when his mother told him that he did. I think a lot of us had to find out from our mothers that our father actually loved us. If you want to know how important it is to hear that your dad loves you all you have to know is that this story happened over 50 years ago and it was still powerful enough for Ed to want to share it with us.
Niranjian got the award for greatest distance from FGS HQ as he beamed in from the future in Australia. I was so glad he did because I wanted him to tell one last story before we ended our Zoom shows. He told a story that was personally terrifying for me because it was about being attacked by birds. If you ever want to get me to do something just threaten me with a bird. Any bird will do. Eagle, emu, robin, yellow-bellied sapsucker, it doesn’t matter. Feathered, flying dinosaurs are the stuff of my nightmares. So I’m glad Niranjian escaped with his life and discovered that if you can’t beat’em, feed’em.
Chris then told a beautiful story about learning to sign her name in second grade and how the weight of that signature has changed over the years. I love it when a teller takes a simple, everyday act and shows how it can mean much more sometimes. Have you ever thought of what your signature can do? It can buy you and car and a house and a thousand other things. It can also tell a doctor what to do if someone you love doesn’t make it out of surgery. Chris was at her storytelling finest here. Some of the tellers you see at FGS are so good you should study them. Chris is one of them.
Jamie told her second story with us and I am really looking forward to seeing her transition from Zoom to being onstage. Somehow she was able to tell her story of coming to America through her adventures at Costco, office potlucks, and the golden egg yolk pastry she loved as a kid in Malaysia. It was one of those stories that we were all able to relate to even though most of us were born here. It was a wonderful example of how storytelling can bring people together no matter how different their lives seem to be on the outside.
Tracey followed Chris with a story that made us all want to overhaul the American medical system. It started with a voicemail from her primary care physician who, after seeing Tracey’s lab results, asked if she had a treatment plan in place. It’s never good when your doctor asks if you have a treatment plan in place, especially when you have no idea why you would need a treatment plan in the first place. After a series of misdiagnoses from various doctors, humiliations at every level of the system, and uber rides where she had to say, “No, take me further down the street to the good ER,” she finally managed to find someone who could fix what was going on with her heart. We’re all happy that Tracey is still with us but I’d be lying if I said any of us are looking forward to the day we find out we need a treatment plan for something. If you’d like to read more about this yoga teacher’s heart attack you can check it out here: https://www.unicornheartgal.com/my-heart-story.
Emily closed out the show that night with a story that had a twist in it that took me completely by surprise. I’ve seen teachers break up fights between students but I’ve never seen a teacher break up a fight like Emily did. Some of the biggest laughs I’ve ever had came right after I just heard something I couldn’t believe. There’s a moment toward the end of Emily’s story that gave me a laugh like that. I don’t want to tell you what it is because I know you’re going to hear her tell it at other shows in the future. All I can say is that it’s about something in her life she rarely talks about and I’m touched she chose to share it at our show.
Recently, Emily asked me to tell a story at a great show she co-produces at the Fremont Abbey called Locally Fameless. I’ve been to two of them so far and can unreservedly recommend it to anyone who loves true storytelling. I’ll be on the next one which is probably going to be scheduled for April 28 (but check the link below to make sure.)
If you’d like to pitch your own story for Locally Fameless write Emily at emilyjpitts@gmail.com. They’re always looking for new tellers and they spend a lot of time coaching each teller they put on the show. So if you’ve never told a story in front of a live audience, this is a great place to start.
I hope to see a bunch of you at our next show April 21 where we’ll finally be back at our favorite Starbucks. The theme is, “Stumbles, Bumbles, and Fumbles – Stories of making mistakes.”
Our next workshop is April 3, hosted by Dave and Colleen. It’s a great place to get feedback on a story you’re working on as well as meet other tellers in the area.
Fresh Ground Stories 