Shirley Routliffe hosted another full house of listeners at Stories at Fern on April 18. We had the pleasure of hearing Margo McLoughlin play her Hang between stories, giving us time to let the stories settle within us.
Janna led off with a story of her connection to the royal Coronation Coach at the end of World War II and on a later visit to London in the Buckingham Palace Mews - celebrating freedom to visit the Royal Household, - a visit to the House of Commons - celebrating freedom to witness the heart of democracy in action, a visit to Westminster Abbey - celebrating freedom to worship, with acknowledgment of those who gave their lives to preserve those freedoms. The title of her story: "Fanfare for Freedom".
Anne Beatty took us South of the border with "Computer School" a story about two teachers at the beginning of the computer age who decided to play hookey from required, but infinitely dull, computer lessons. They made their escape to the dog track, absorbing sufficient information about its workings to gamble and win a tidy sum.
Tessa Owens - invited to tell after Shirley attended her performance at the recent Festival of the Arts - told us "Road Rage" by Dave Barry, a fun telling of a number of 'rages' that seem to be part of our society's current speedy, affluent circumstances. Tessa we hope to have you with us again and, this writer hopes, that a Young Tellers evening at Fern will be reinstated before too long.
In the Aztec legend "How Music Came to the Earth" Al told how the wind and the sun did battle over the celestial music of the spheres, the sun forbidding the musicians to leave, the wind finally triumphing with such a blast that the musicians were scooped up, bringing their celestial harmonies down to Earth for our delight.
Victoria told us the Korean folk tale "Story for Sale" of a couple who, sadly, had no stories in their lives, the wife, in desperation, sending her husband out into their small world to buy a story. Victoria's rendition of both the story and the heron within the story, unforgettable.
Catherine Sheehan told the Japanese tale "The Master of the Tea Ceremony" in which the gentle tea master accidentally affronts a samurai and is challenged to a sword duel. From a Zen master our tea master learns to confront the warrior with such absolute calm and concentration that it is the warrior who retreats, the tea master free to return to his master's household intact.
I should not surprise us to know that Jacquie's parents were storytellers, particularly her mother, who told, through her daughter Jacquie, of the howling, wailing ghost who inhabited an old house. The kind of ghostly encounter no one believes until they experience it for themselves.
Margo brought us a timely tale in this present election era, of the difficulties encountered by the animals when trying to choose a King. One by one those presented for consideration were speedily discounted by a recitation of their negative rather than their positive qualities. At the end, only the dog was left. They dressed the dog in royal robes but when his mouth began to water with the smell of meat cooking on the fire he threw off th robes, snatched the meat and ran off to the woods. "He's no king" was the cry,"just a thief" The gathering broke up, and to this day, they have no king !
Lee rounded out the evening with a Vancouver Island story, a tall tale if ever there was one, of ByGod Stafford, the man who milked a whale to help her because her calf had died, then used the milk to feed piglets. A thieving bear put an end to the pig farming and offspring refused to eat anything from cow or goat and headed off to sea, following a mother whale. Believe it or no, after a while, a pod of pink whales was spotted in the waters near Ocean Falls and the Queen Charlotte Islands, now
Haida Kwai.
submitted by Janna
