A birdcatcher was about to sit down to a dinner of herbs when a friend unexpectedly came in. The bird- trap was quite empty, as he had caught nothing, and he had to kill a pied Partridge, which he had tamed for a decoy.
The bird entreated earnestly for his life: “What would you do without me when next you spread your nets? Who would chirp you to sleep, or call for you the covey of answering birds?”
The Birdcatcher spared his life, and determined to pick out a fine young Cock just attaining to his comb.
But the Cock expostulated in piteous tones from his perch: “If you kill me, who will announce to you the appearance of the dawn? Who will wake you to your daily tasks or tell you when it is time to visit the bird-trap in the morning?”
He replied, “What you say is true. You are a capital bird at telling the time of day. But my friend and I must have our dinners.”
Necessity knows no law.
Hello my friends,
The 9th Annual Missouri Liars Contest was fabulous. I hope you were able to catch the tall tales. Each story was so different and so captivating. Thank you, contestants, for sharing your talents. Thank you to all our volunteers who took care of registration, book sales, lunch, coffee, the silent auction, workshop emcee, workshop leader, donors to the silent auction and donors of all kinds. A special to our judges and timekeeper and to Marsha Stifel Mellondorf, the creator of the quilt that was raffled off. Thank you to Shara Storm for photographing the event. Thank you to the Masonic Lodge, who housed our event. There are so many to thank. Thank you to the audience who listened to our stories.
We will begin working on next year’s Liars Contest. We will move away from St. Louis but where will we go! Any ideas from you are welcome.
On September 13th, 7 pm Central Time, we will have an online event, New Moons, New Beginnings. More information to come soon.
We have Tellabration to look forward to and then another event on December 12, Helping Hands.
We are continuing with our history page. If you think of a story about your time with MO-TELL, send me anemail. Joyceslater20@gmail.com.
These events leave us with so many memories, so many stories. I love storytelling.
Keep telling your tales.
Love to you all,
Joyce Slater
President of MO-TELL
“No, it’ll not do just to read the good old tales out of a book. You’ve got to tell ’em to make ‘em go right.”
- Richard Chase (1904-1988)
David Schlamb loves storytelling. He and Perrin Stifel were co-founders of MO-TELL,
Missouri Storytelling Inc in 1987.
For me, storytelling began on Saturday nights at bedtime. That’s when my father would tell us a story. My favorite was How Ruddy Raccoon Got His Mask. Dad had learned it as a boy from his father, John Lafayette.
Emily Thatch was responsible for my reintroduction to the genre on a summer afternoon in 1981. I was teaching fifth grade and she was drumming up business for her storytelling workshop. When SHE announced she was going to tell the class Beowulf, I knew we were in trouble. After all, I had been subjected to Beowulf, Lady in the Lake, Last of the Mohicans, and other choice classics. My fears were unfounded.
Instead of a laundry list of who was related to who, Emily had us mesmerized by a monster with eyes of green flickering flames fighting a hero with the strength of 30 men. I signed up for the workshop.
Traditionally, Beowulf begins: We have heard it all before and we rejoice in the retelling. In a preliterate society, you might learn the story by hearing it a number of times. Nowadays we can read the text a number of times to get the story in our brains. And so, I began storytelling days in my classroom. We told ghost stories on Halloween, fairy tales on the day before winter vacation, and folk tales on the day before spring vacation.
398.2 (Folk Tales and Fairy Tales) was not the only section of the library. We also searched the biography shelves for stories about famous Americans of the same gender and race as the students so they could prepare a one-person performance for the end of school.
While all of this was going on, a number of St. Louis storytellers gathered at Perrin Stifel’s house with the intention of starting a storytelling organization. My suggestion of MO-TELL carried the day and paved the way for IL-TELL and KAN- TELL.
And so, storytelling became my passion in the classroom at Old Bonhomme School, I became known as that man who tells stories.