Holy cow, what a night! We had over 90 people in the audience, and 16 people walk up to the mic to tell a story. I think that’s a new record for the number of stories we’ve had. Thanks so much to everyone who told and everyone who came out to support them. Most of us practice our stories alone in the car or pacing the living room in front of a confused pet. It means a lot when we finally get onstage and see so many people rooting for us.

I usually write a long thank you/wrap-up after each show where I talk a little bit about each story and what I loved about it. I often have to re-listen to the show to make sure I get the details right. I can’t do that his month because the show went so long that it would take me a week to give every story the number of words it deserves. 

So I’ll start by just thanking everyone who told a story that night: David, Sean, Carmen, Brian, Kate, Bob, Colleen, Jeff, Todd, Nick, and Jamie. Extra special thanks to our first-timer tellers: Karin, Linda, Douglas, and Debbie. I also told a story that night and will post a link to it at the end of this email. I don’t think I’ve ever done that but enough people asked me about the cell phone I talk about in the story that I figure I should share the story and the name of the phone.

One important thing I was reminded of that night was the importance of keeping the show to a manageable length. We haven’t had this many tellers since before Covid, and I haven’t had to bump anyone to a future show in a long time. But two hours is too long. So, in the future, I’m going back to what I used to do pre-2020. If the show hits 90 minutes, I’ll end the show then and give each person who didn’t get to tell my sworn promise that they can tell their story at any future FGS, no matter what the theme is. And if I bumped you last month, I promise you won’t get bumped next month. Just remind me before the show, and I will guarantee you a spot on that night’s show. 

I know how hard everyone works on their stories and I want you to know I value that. I’ve been bumped countless times from shows, and I’ve bumped my son more than anyone else when a show runs long. So I know how what it feels like to drive home without sharing a story you spent all month working on. But 90 minutes seems to be the perfect length for us, and I need to make sure we don’t need a vitamin B shot to get home after the end of it.

Thanks again to everyone who came out. We heard a lot of stories we would never have heard anywhere else. and hopefully talked to people we would never have met anywhere else. That’s the real beauty of FGS. If this was just a night of free entertainment, I would have stopped a long time ago. It’s the people I get to talk to before and after the show that keep me coming back. Next month will be our 15th year. I’ve made a lot of friends through this show and felt a lot less alone over the years because of that. I hope if you’re reading this and haven’t been to a show yet that you’ll come hang out with us sometime soon. You don’t have to tell a story. Just come out and listen and if someone shared a story that touched you, tell them afterward. It will mean a lot to them and a lot to you, too. 

I hope to see you at our show next month on April 17. The theme is “Doing what you didn’t think you could.” I’ll get the invite out this weekend.

Don’t forget about our free monthly online workshop. It’s a great place to get feedback on a story you’re working on:

https://www.meetup.com/fresh-ground-stories-storytelling-workshop/

I’m also happy to work on stories with you. Write me directly at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com and we can set up a time to talk on the phone. These calls are a highlight of my week, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Here’s the story I told at the show last week about my Starbucks cell phone adventure:

The name of the phone I buy at the end is called Sleke. I don’t want to leave a link here because it feels like I’m trying to sell you something. But if you’re curious after hearing the story, you can Google it and see what I’m getting. It should arrive in a week or two. I’m not affiliated with them in any way. I just had a great experience talking to the young man who helped create the phone. 

One last plug!

I worked on my story at two wonderful open mic story shows in the area. 7 Stories and Bar Stories Live. I always have a great time at these shows, and they’re run by really sweet people. Give’em a shot if you’re free some night 🙂

https://www.meetup.com/7-stories (their next show is tonight!)

https://www.meetup.com/free-monthly-storytelling-meetup/

Take care, everyone. See you on April 17! The theme is “Doing what you didn’t think you could.” I’ll get the invite out as soon as I can.

Paul

freshgrounstories at gmail dot com

Hi Everyone,

I’m looking forward to our show this Thursday. I’m working on my own story and hope to have it in good enough shape to share. This month’s theme is “Connection – Stories of friendship” but if you have a story about anything else we’d love to hear it. 

Every month has a theme but sometimes I go ahead and open the show up to any story that follows our usual rules. So that’s what I’m doing this month. Let’s just fill the night with stories 🙂

Here are the rules and guidelines if you haven’t seen them in a while: 

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

Here’s a sweet story I just heard and want to pass it along for inspiration. 

See you Thursday!

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com

I’ve had a lot of adventures in my life and almost all of them have been with friends. Some of them were people who became friends during the adventure and some of them became ex-friends after the adventure. Have you ever been friends with someone who was completely unlike you? My stepmother Betty used to call those couples Mutt and Jeff.

When I was 20, my buddy Chuck yelled at a guy who was about to punch me in the face, “Nobody hits my friends!” Two seconds later that guy was on the ground looking for his teeth. I haven’t seen Chuck since I moved to Washington in 1995 but he’s one of the people I hope is at my funeral.

My buddy Mark and I spend as much time laughing about old adventures as we do trying to find new ones. I remember feeling terrible as I helped him move out of his house after his wife left him. A month later, my long-term girlfriend left me. For the next six months, I went over to Mark’s dingy apartment twice a week to watch The Wire. That’s how we both recovered from breakups we never thought would happen. 

If I find myself on some adventure without a friend I guarantee you I’ll be calling one as soon as it’s over to tell them about it. And adventure is only half over if you haven’t told anyone about it. Sometimes I think a friendship isn’t over until you’ve talked about it with another friend.

March’s theme is “Connections – Stories of friendship.” Come tell a story about making a friend, losing a friend, relying on a friend, an adventure with friends, or anything else around friends or friendship. 

Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. Please don’t get onstage if you haven’t practiced your story. The audience is giving you their time and attention. It’s not fair to them if you get up there and try to wing it.

All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email if you have any questions about that.

The rest of the rules and guidelines are below:

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

We have a free monthly online workshop that’s a great place to get feedback on your story. 

https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop/

I’m also happy to help anyone with a story they’re working on. Send me an email and we can set up a phone call.

See you on Thursday, March 20, at 7 pm, at the Chabad of Queen Anne – Magnolia. 1825 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 (Remember, no non-kosher food in the building)

Paul

Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

Thanks to everyone who came out last night and supported our tellers. We had our biggest turnout since we moved to the Chabad, 88 people!  I suspected we’d have a good turnout from the number of RSVPs so I borrowed 20 chairs from my buddy Ruben, asked my girlfriend to drive those up, then shoved 16 chairs and the PA system in my car. What a shlep that was! But we made it and had just enough chairs for everyone. Anyone know if a Prius can pull a flatbed trailer full of chairs? 

As many of you know, my favorite part of FGS is when we have new tellers show up. Last Thursday we had three new tellers and I’m so happy they told. They brought us stories from all over the globe. Sean told us about the time he got off the train in Moose Pass, Alaska for a quick ski into the wilderness and missed the train back. Do you know what it’s like to be caught at night in Alaska, miles from anywhere with no map, no phone, and an iffy sense of direction? I do because I grew up there so I understood exactly what Sean was going through as he skied toward what he thought and hoped was civilization.

Molly, another first-timer, told us about living with her boyfriend in NYC while acting in plays and enjoying her new favorite hobby, smoking. I have to tell you, Molly did make smoking sound pretty cool. There came a point, though, where she had to make a choice between smoking and true love. I’d love to tell you what she decided but then you wouldn’t feel a burning urge to come to our next show on March 20 to see how our next stories turn out. And I really want to give you a burning urge to come see the shows live instead of reading about them afterward. 

Mary, our last first-timer, told us about moving from New Zealand to Britain and what happened when true love popped up in her life. It was a story about love, travel, and discovering that there can be more than one place where you feel you belong. Instead of giving one place up, she added another. Tūrangawaewae is the Māori word Mary taught us that night.

Big FGS hugs to our three new tellers. I hope you come back and tell more with us.

Our regular tellers were sprinkled all through the room that night. David shared a story about going to Russia to walk for peace in the late 80s and the good friends he made on that trip. It’s been years since those beautiful moments he shared with the Russian friends he made there and he still prays that one day they’ll be able to leave and he can see them again. 

Gretchen told us what it’s like to stare down the barrel of a gun in the middle of the night. If you’ve ever met Gretchen, you wouldn’t think she had that kind of story in her. That’s good in a way. It means the experience doesn’t define her. But those moments never leave us no matter how well we’ve dealt with them. I know there were people in the room that night who knew exactly what Gretchen was talking about.

Bob told a story from one of his trail-running adventures where he met an overly honest three-year-old. Are there any other kinds? Probably not. I don’t know at what age we all decide to not say out loud what’s on our mind, but I know for sure it’s after three. Sometimes I think I still haven’t reached that age.

Kate, Bob’s sister, is also an accomplished teller and shared a story of a friend’s betrayal. We’re not talking about dating someone she broke up with or staying friends with someone who done her wrong. This was big. It involved lawyers, kids, and a lot of money. It’s always heartbreaking when you find out that someone you trust isn’t worth that trust. It’s even worse when it ends up in court. Turns out you never really know what the person across from you playing Mah Jongg is really thinking.

Deborah shared the story of finding out the difference between heartburn and heart attack. Apparently, one can sometimes feel like the other. Who knew? We also learned it doesn’t matter how much kale and chia seeds you eat. Heart attacks can still get you. Now I need to find a use for the three-pound bag of chia seeds I got at Costco last week. Deborah is one of the wonderful people I’ve met through FGS and I don’t know what I’d do if her husband had to call me and say I wouldn’t see her walk through our door anymore. Basically, what I’m saying is call your doctor if the heartburn doesn’t go away.

Cliff, one of our new regular tellers, shared a wonderful story of connection during Covid. Remember the people who volunteered at the vaccine places during those years? Cliff was one of those people. He met and helped thousands of people move through lines, get to where they needed to go and get what they needed. He didn’t get to have long, involved conversations with anyone, but he got to share some moments with human beings in need and it changed him. It was a sweet story of just the kind of thing I see so often at FGS but without the respiratory illness part. We show up, listen to moments from people’s lives that changed them, and go home feeling a little more connected to the world.

Brian shared a story of his old friend Norm back in Louisiana who was always there for him, even in death. In a way, it was the opposite of Kate’s story. It was an elegy to a man who few people knew outside of the little town he lived in. But he made a difference in the lives of the people he touched and what more can we ask of anyone, including ourselves? In my experience, the people who go out and do Great Things for the Commonweal are sometimes not pleasant to be around in real life. We need them, of course. But we also need people who make their own corner of the world a kind and loving place for the people around them. We can’t all bring down the Berlin Wall or create a polio vaccine, but we can all be kind and helpful to the people around us.

Emily closed our show with a story about how she cooked up batches of wine-scented body lotion to sell at farmer’s markets. Her mom thought this was crazy. Her sister did too. In fact, almost everyone did. Who wants to smell like they just plowed through a couple quarts of merlot? Well, it turns out the people in one western Washington town love smelling like that. Who are those people and where do they live? You’ll have to go the The Moth Grandslam on March 3 to find out. I’m so happy that Emily and Kate are both in the grand slam that night. Here is my promise to you. If you’re working on a story for another show, you are always welcome to tell it at FGS. Don’t worry if it doesn’t match the theme for that night. There aren’t too many places to work out stories in front of a live audience, so if you need stage time with a story that still follows our usual rules, you are welcome to tell it at FGS.

Thanks for reading this far. I know my thank you emails run long. It’s the last chance I have to thank the people who got up and told, and I want each of them to know their stories meant something to me. 

Our next show in March 20. The theme is Connections – Stories of friendship. I’ll get the invite out as soon as I can. In the meantime, take care of each other. Call me if you want help on a story. Pop into our free monthly online workshop on Sunday, March 2 if you like. It’s run by two great tellers, Dave and Colleen, who give excellent feedback. It’s also a good place to meet other tellers and see how different people go through the process.

https://www.meetup.com/fresh-ground-stories-storytelling-workshop/events/305986929/

Don’t forget about our friends at 7 Stories in Burien this Friday. The suggested theme is “The Kindness of Strangers.” 7 Stories is run by good people who love supporting storytellers. It’s my go-to show for new stories I’m working on. 

https://www.meetup.com/7-stories/events/305907338/

Bar Stories Live on Stage is another story show we love. They run multiple shows a month so check out their main Meetup page for times, dates, and places. Nick and Rebecca are lovely people and their shows are amazing.

https://www.meetup.com/free-monthly-storytelling-meetup/

That’s all for now. I hope to see you on March 20!

Paul

freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

Hi Everyone,

I’m looking forward to seeing you this Thursday at FGS!

I’ve had a very storyworthy month so far and hope to work up at least one story I can share with you soon. 

I’m going to try to connect a Starbucks barista, a guy from Reno, a new cell phone, and an overly friendly old man coming at me in nothing but his boxers. It’s been a great couple of weeks 😊

In the meantime, here’s a beautiful story I just heard that I hope will inspire you to work on one of your own.

I’m always happy to help anyone with a story over the phone. It doesn’t matter if it’s a story for us or not. And don’t forget about our free monthly online workshop. It’s run by two great tellers who can’t wait to hear your stories.

Write me directly at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com if you have any questions (meetup doesn’t always get emails to me if you just hit reply)

See you on the 20th!

Paul