On Thursday evening, September 3, 2015, Bladen County Public Library participated in the “100 Stories in 100 Counties” program that was developed by the North Carolina Storytelling Guild. Lynda Johnson came to represent the Guild and explain the program to a crowd in Elizabethtown. The mission of the program is to send storytellers to every county in the state, to interact with children, teens, and adults, and to express ideas in story form.
Johnson began by picking out one of the Dads in the audience and asking if he would like to hear a knucklehead story. He responded that he could also tell her a knucklehead story, to which she replied she would be happy to take turns. That was the perfect segue into the story of E. Pam Anondus, a young boy who seemed to attract a lot of trouble, but always listened to his mother.
As the applause for the first story stopped, Johnson asked the audience if they knew that wolves used to be vegetarians. She told the children that there was once a great flood, and the wolf had known that when the water receded the moist ground would produce a wonderful garden full of fresh vegetables for him to eat. Then she wove a tale of an annoying rabbit and a frustrated wolf. And that was the story of how wolves USED to be vegetarians.
Then there was a story about how a rabbit saved a possum from a snake.
Finally, Johnson told one of my old favorite stories from long ago, Rendercella and the Gary Fod Mother, about how Rendercella wanted to go to the Bancy Fall, but all she had to wear was Rurty Dags, so her Gary Fod Mother conjured up a lovely Gall Bown and asked for that Mumkin and some Pice, so she could make Rendercella a Cancy Foach to ride in to the Bancy Fall. The Gary Fod Mother warned Rendercella to leave the Bancy Fall before the Mike of Stridnight, or her Cancy Foach would change back into pice and a mumkin. As Rendercella heard the Mike of Stridnight, she tore herself away from the Pransome Hince, and as she ran from the Bancy Fall she slopped her dripper.
I’m sure you all know how that story ends… Ladies, if you want to marry a Pransome Hince you have to slop your dripper.
It was a joy and a delight to be a part of the story time experience. It’s not too late to enjoy The Heart of North Carolina Storytelling Festival, to be held September 25 & 26, in Greensboro, NC.
If you would like to learn more about the “100 Stories in 100 Counties” program visit the website: NC Storytelling Guild
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