Hi Everyone,

Thanks to all the people who made it to the show last Thursday. I never know what each month’s theme will will inspire but “Never in million years” brought out some very raw stories that surprised even me.

There were two tellers in particular who told stories so personal that I don’t want to share them out of context in an email. One was from a first-timer and the second was from one of our regulars. Everyone there that night could tell how hard it was for those two to get through their stories.

I wish I’d had a chance to find the first-timer after the show to thank him. I hope I see him again one day so I can say how much it meant to me that he chose us to share his story with. I hope it helped him to share what he experienced in the aftermath of a receiving a phone call about his 15-year-old son. I know how powerful it was to listen to.

Our second story was a very personal one about the ways life can surprise us, despite our best efforts to control it. The regular who told this story said to me afterward that three woman came up to her at the end of the night to thank her and let her know they had lived through the same thing. That means the world to me. If you ever hear a story at FGS that moves you I hope you walk up to the teller afterward and tell them that. Not only does it let the teller know they aren’t alone but it lets me know that what we’re doing at Roy Street is not only good but necessary.

The next time someone asks me why I ask that people focus on stories, rather than advocating for a political view or providing social commentary, this is the night I’m going to tell them about. Stories draw us in and help us feel someone else’s experience; beliefs sometimes get our defenses up and drive us apart.

And that’s as close as I’m ever going to get to sharing my own beliefs in these emails. What I want to do now is thank everyone who told that night: David, Chris, Devin, Elliot, Mark, Rebecca, Nigel, Carol, Kristi, John, Raul, Melanie, and Norm. Many of these folks were first-timers and I’m grateful they found the courage to get up there.

November’s show will be on the 16th which is a week early because of the holidays. The theme is “Anything for Love.” We haven’t done a show about love in a long time and now seems like a good time to do that. I’ll get the official invite out as soon as possible but mark the date on your calendar now in case it takes me a few days to get it out.

Forgive me if anything I’ve said here seems clunky. Some of your stories go pretty deep into me and it’s hard to put into words how much they affect me.

I hope to see you all on November 16th 🙂

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com

PS – If you told a story last week and want the audio send me an email. I’ll get you the mp3 as soon as I can.

Hi Everyone,

I hope to see a bunch of you at tomorrow night’s show.

In the meantime, here are a couple of amazing stories from FGS tellers. The first story is from Erin in her first appearance at FGS. You can tell how much I love this story from my cackling in the background 🙂

https://soundcloud.com/paul-currington-45306251/fgs-silver-linings-erin-p-9-28-2017

 

If you’d like to talk to Erin about more of her adventures in Japan you can catch her here on Halloween: http://www.thestranger.com/events/25415445/haunted-bingo

The second story is from Sam Blackman who told one of the most touching stories we’ve ever heard at FGS.

You can see why her won the Moth’s Grand Slam this summer.

If you’d like to hear more of Sam’s stories you can catch him at his solo show at the Pocket Theater in November.

https://thepocket.vbotickets.com/event/Samuel_Blackman_Solo_Month/23304

This month’s theme is “Never in a Million Years: Stories of the unthinkable.” Tell us about a time when you did something you never thought you’d do. Or lived through something you never thought you’d have to live through. Or maybe you always thought you’d react in a certain way but when real life came knocking your response surprised you.

How did you end up in that situation? What did you learn from it? Did it break you down or build you up? That’s the kind of story we’re looking for.

I don’t have time this week to write up a story of my own on this theme but I wanted to get the official invite out as soon as possible so you’d have lots of time to dive into your past and work up a story.

Remember to keep it clean and practice out loud as much as possible. Here are the rules & guidelines to help you get started.

https://freshgroundstories.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/storytelling-rules-and-guidelines/

I hope to see you on October 26 at 7pm at Roy Street Coffee and Tea.

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported all our tellers last Thursday. We had lots of first and second-time tellers and it’s always a treat for me to see those folks find the courage to get up there and share a story.

We started off with a Little League story by Dan and the sad realization that he was never going to play for the Cincinnati Reds. I always love hearing Dan’s stories but my favorite part of his story this month was the effortless way he handled a sudden outburst from the coffee bar a few feet away.

Dan: You know, there’s something about baseball glove leather. It’s one of the all-time best smells –
Barista: CHEESE PLATE!
Dan: -and cheese plates. Those are good too.

I almost fell off my chair laughing. I was so impressed with the timing of Dan and the Roy Street staff that later I asked all the tellers to say “cheese plate” whenever they wanted to use language that’s not allowed during the show. I might even start using it in everydayday life. In fact, on my way home from the show that night some cheese plate almost ran me off the road on I-5. Yesterday, I wanted to say to a guy in Target who was yelling into his phone, “Dude, don’t be a cheese plate. Take it outside.” If you ever see me selling t-shirts that say, “Don’t be a cheese plate” you’ll know where it came from.

One of the most surprising stories of the night was by first-timer Erin who told us about a night in Tokyo when she was at one of the lowest points of her life. Her career was stalled, she felt like a failure, and she couldn’t see a way out. Then, walking by a wedding venue, she spotted a giant flower mask in the trash. Is dressing up as a giant flower a wedding tradition in Japan? I hope so. Anyway, when Erin pulled that flower mask out of the trash and put it on everything changed. She spent the rest of the night walking through Tokyo dressed as a beautiful 4-foot wide daisy with her head in the center. Suddenly, the world not only looked different, it started treating her differently. Turns out when you walk around town dressed as a giant daisy people will start smiling at you. And then you’ll start smiling at them. And suddenly, life doesn’t seem so bad. I’ll do my best to post a photo of Erin in her flower costume so you’ll see what I mean. And this week, when I’m feeling down, I’m going to imagine I’m a giant sunflower.

I wish I could go into all the stories we heard that night but I don’t want to keep you guys stuck to your computer screen more than I have to. I wish you had been there to hear Obie tell the how much trouble a young boy can get into with his first pocket knife. I wish you could have heard Rich tell the story of how he helped bring America and the USSR closer together with his vodka-fueled impression of Ronald Reagan. And I know you would have loved hearing Sonny tell us about riding the rails as a 15-year-old in 1945. After two years of hopping freights around the country he was picked up by the police in New Mexico as a runaway and tossed in jail for three weeks. Hungry and tired, he sat in jail wondering how he was going to get home. Then one night he heard the most beautiful sound coming from the cells around him. It was all the immigrant farm workers who were waiting to be sent back to Mexico harmonizing with each other. That was 70 years ago and he still thinks about those young men in jail, waiting to be sent across the boarder, singing quietly to themselves. Thank you Sonny for passing that wonderful memory on to us.

If you didn’t make it to last week’s show I hope you can make it to next month’s which will be October 26. The theme is “Never in a million years.” I’ll get the official invite out as soon as possible.

The recording worked fine so if you told a story and want to get a copy of it send me an email. I only give out the audio to the people who told and it’s only of the story they told. Most of the stories at FGS are very personal so I never give them out or post them without permission of the people they belong to.

Thanks to everyone who told that night: Obie, Dan, Erin, Vidya, Sarah, Rich, Catherine, Moreah, Greg, Rebecca, Sonny, and Carl. (forgive me if I’ve forgotten anyone).

If you’d like to find out more of what it’s like to walk around Tokyo dressed as a flower you can catch Erin at the Haunted Bingo show she’s running on Halloween: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bingo-on-halloween-tickets-37419771544https://www.facebook.com/events/1681011588598581/

Also, if there’s a good storytelling open mic in Tacoma now and their next show is October 18. It’s an open theme so you can work on any story you want there this month as long as it’s true, happened to you, and is around 8 minutes long: https://www.facebook.com/events/119104262091726/

If you’d like to see me telling the story I told two months ago at FGS you can catch me at the FAR-West festival this Sunday:
http://www.far-west.org/storyexpo-2017.html

That’s all for now. Thanks again for coming out and supporting all our tellers 🙂

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

https://soundcloud.com/paul-currington-45306251/fgs-zoe-the-beatles-8-24-2017