First kiss. First day of school. First time you stared death in the face. First times, they’re the beginning of one thing and sometimes the end of another. First day sober? First day single after ten years of marriage? What happened on your first time?
Our next show is on June 16th at 7 pm at the Olive Way Starbucks. The theme is “First Times – Stories of beginnings.” The theme can be as broad as you want it to be. Your first time could also be your last time.
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 the show Thursday. We had a great time and heard some wonderful stories. Big, extra special thanks to Halley, the Starbucks manager, who not only kept the store open for us even though they close that day at 6 pm, she also offered us free drip coffee and pastries. Without Halley and her fantastic staff, we don’t have a place to tell our stories so please consider stopping by when you’re in the Capitol Hill area and leaving a little something in their tip jar.
Before I get to the wrap-up, I want to let everyone know that the new 7 Stories show in Burien is coming up this Friday and they need more tellers. They have two themes to choose from that evening, Mothers and Gifts. Those are good broad themes so a lot of stories can fit them. Email them at 7stories at burienculturehub dot org for more info or to let them know you’d like to tell.
We opened the show with Chris, one of our long-time tellers, who lost the coin flip to Gretchen 🙂 She told a story of how she begged her parents to let her have a pet mouse until they finally caved in and allowed her to get two. I guess mouse fertility isn’t traditionally taught in the Queens, NY elementary school system because by the end of the story Chris’s two original mice had populated most of the neighborhood with their offspring. Personally, I judge pets by how much I want them in my bed. Dogs and cats? Come on in. But if I find a mouse, fish, or bird under the covers I’m freaking out and sleeping on the couch.
Our next teller was Mary in only her second time telling in front of a live, in-person audience. She told us about how she’d always wanted a train set as a child but her parents kept telling her that trains were for boys. Year after year she asked for a set of Lionel trains and every year she got the same answer. Finally, in 2019, thinking of all the times she’d watched trains pass by her house and listened for the whistles in the night, she booked a train trip for herself from Tacoma to Los Angeles. Next year she’s thinking of taking the train to Chicago. So many of us wait decades to live out a dream. I’m glad Mary is finally able to give that dream to herself.
Mary Anne then told us the story of how she outwitted her parents to finally sign up for the exclusive Columbia Record House Club. Does anyone remember the Columbia Record House? When I was a kid, you joined them by ordering 10 records for a penny and then buying six more at regular price. I’m pretty sure I still owe them money. For me, Mary Anne’s story wasn’t just about a little girl’s craving for music. It was also about the joy a kid feels by finding a loophole in a rule and getting one over on her parents. Yay for clever kids!
David then told our second train story of the night. Are all storytellers secret train enthusiasts? David didn’t wait years to live out his train fantasy. He hopped a freight in his early 20s from Spokane to Missoula. I remember being a little jealous as I listened to David’s story as I also wanted to hop a freight train when I was younger. But by the time I was old enough to hop a train, I had a toddler whose mother did not approve of midnight father-son runs in a Burlington Northern boxcar. Thank you David for inspiring me to put some old Woody Guthrie records on the turntable and sing along to some train songs.
Emily was next and we learned of her not-so-secret plan to move to Iceland by marrying an Icelander. She’s been going there for a number of years trying to find a nice Icelandic man to marry her for citizenship. Luckily for us, she hasn’t found the right guy yet. To all our Icelandic fans reading this, DO NOT MARRY THIS WOMAN! We very much want to keep her in Seattle. She’ll be doing her solo show at the Iceland Fringe Festival this summer and I suspect a lot of young men will fall in love with her afterward. We must not let this happen. I might have to go to Reykjavik a week early and spread rumors about her. I can’t think of anything negative about Emily so I guess I’ll have to make something up. If anyone knows what Icelanders can’t stand let me know so I can go there and tell them Emily loves it.
If you’d like to see one of the reasons we have to talk her out of moving to Iceland, go see her show this Thursday at the Fremont Abbey. I performed there with her last month and had a great time.
Gretchen was our second-to-last teller and shared a sweet story about what it’s like to grow up a nomad and then realize the importance of having a home and staying in one place. One of my favorite things about the kind of storytelling we do at FGS is how we slowly get to know people over the course of several stories. Even though I’ve only seen Gretchen once in a non-story setting I feel like our connection gets stronger every time I see her tell. That’s what honest, vulnerable storytelling does. It makes us feel a little less alone.
Becky was our final teller and someone I asked to tell a specific story that night. It was the story she told on the Moth Mainstage the night before. Becky worked for the FBI for many years and one of the cases she worked on was the hunt for Sister Peng, a human trafficker who worked in China and New York City. The story was wonderfully framed, comparing her family’s journey to America and the journey that Sister Peng’s clients experienced. Many Chinese in China and the US still consider Sister Peng a hero for giving people access to the American dream. For those people, America is worth not only the dangerous trip and exorbitant cost, but also the beatings and murders that happen when those clients can’t pay Sister Peng what they owe her. Becky’s story is one I’ll be thinking about for a long time because it made me think about something in a different way. Thank you, Becky.
If you’d like to read more about Sister Peng, click on the links below.
Our next show is June 16. The theme is, “First Times”. I’ll get the invite out as soon as I can.
Don’t forget our next online workshop is Sunday, June 5. It’s free and a great way to get feedback on a story you’re working on. It’s also a great way to meet other tellers 🙂
I want to share a couple of links with you from two FGS tellers who are out in the world telling great stories.
The first is a show Mary Anne Moorman is doing with the band The Go Janes. It’s stories and music. What more could you want? The Go Janes are a fantastic band who also happen to back up Mary Anne at this show as she tells stories between their songs. It’s a magical combination. I saw this show when they were in Olympia a couple weeks ago and am excited to share them with you. The show is May 20 in Carnation. I heard a rumor that they’ll also be doing a show in West Seattle, so keep that in mind if you can’t make this one.
The second link I’m sharing will take you to a wonderful story by Paul Barach. He recorded it for the Out There podcast. He does an amazing job of showing what you can do with storytelling if you have the courage to dig deep. Paul’s stories always challenge me to tell the stories I’m afraid to tell. This is one of those stories.
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.
Fresh Ground Stories 