Hosted by Shoshanna Litman, our January meeting once again filled the house, this time to be treated to stories that were “lighthearted and fun”.
Shirley Routliffe took us back to the family fun her father used to create for the whole family by playing hide-and-seek according to dad’s special rules. After creating some pandemonium by hiding right in the middle of a very large Italian family picnic, dad’s comment summed up the family spirit with “We made a whole lot of memories today.”
Inviting us to participate in her folk tale, Sandra Johnson offered a watery version of “there was an old lady…” With the ocean as setting, we joined in with “splish, splash…” as the old lady swallowed ever larger sea creatures – trout, salmon, otter… whale and THEN the ocean itself and that led to the release of one and all as “they all swam out.”
True to her lively spirit, Fay Mogensen described her creative ways of getting out of that official khaki uniform while working as a park naturalist. In the daytime with children she became a fairy, a frog and all manner of creatures. Then at night, leading a VERY Large group into the wilderness to meet owls, every one of which failed to respond to her very authentic coaxing, she redeemed herself by enticing a loon to sound its “Loo loo looo” …
Taking us back to happy childhood memories of Kipling’s “Just So Stories”, Jacquie Hunt selected “How the Rhinoceros got its skin” as one of her favourites. Telling how the Rhinoceros got its just deserts – and new fit for its formerly smooth skin – Jacquie treated us to some very realistic wriggles to show just how the Rhinoceros tried to relieve the itch of all the cake crumbs inside its skin that the Parsee had put there to revenge the theft of his cake.
Wearing a colourful tunic that matched the sparkle in his eyes, Becky Beckwith spoke of his love for Jamaica, the country where he grew up and whose people he knows so well - solid church-goers but hanging on to ancient superstitions; coupling strength with the willingness to laugh in the face of hardships and even death. To have us experience that spirit, Becky asked us to join him with the refrain of the hit song created after Hurricane Gilbert devastated his island home. So as he sang it to us, we joined in with “Back to Back and Belly to Belly!”
Shayne King, who likes to be known as “the King of Magicians” demonstrated his art while presenting his tale of Rose, a lively 87-year-young lady whom he met while going to college. As he spoke of her philosophy – “Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional” - he timed the end of the story with producing a lovely paper rose he had been creating. Letting it burst into flame, magically he turned it into a real rose which he presented to Shoshanna.
Lee Porteous followed up on the theme of aging with her presentation entitled AAFDS.
After giving us a number of comic vignettes of going back and forth wondering “what did I come here for?” she let us in on the full title “Age Acquired Focus Deficit Syndrome” adding, you may laugh at this, but it’s coming to you too.”
As a bonus she told the tale of an old man who threw an axe at a bear, cutting off its leg which he and his wife put to very good use never knowing that the bear had fashioned himself a wooden leg on which he hobbled over to their cottage and ate them up!
In her gentle Newfoundland voice, Catherine Sheehan told “The Algebra Slippers” one of Ted Russel’s Pigeon Inlet Stories that capture the spirit of the people and their ways of facing life. Having short-changed Grampa in a trade of a couple of sealskins -slightly peppered by holes - for molasses, Josiah the merchant let himself be tricked into admitting that he would gladly sell anything for ten times the amount he paid. With Grampa wishing to buy back the sealskins, the local schoolmaster proceeded to prove to Josiah that based on Algebra fifty cents deducted for each hole in the skins meant “minus 50 cents” and ten times that made “minus $5.00”. So in selling back the sealskins, he would have to pay Grampa $5.00. And that’s how Grampa got his “Algebra slippers.”
Closing a very full roster of fun stories, Shoshanna topped up the riches by taking us to the ancient Polish town of Chelm that is famous for stories told of its Jewish community. Telling of a couple of the kind of foolish things that tend to happen, Shoshanna explained that after God had created the world, he sent down two angels, one carrying a sack of wisdom and one a sack of foolishness. As foolishness was much heavier than wisdom, the sack got hung up on the tip of a mountain and it all spilled out over Chelm. And that was the end of the stories.
Submitted by Anne Forester
