Story Exchange 3

Posted on March 1, 2013 under Storytelling with 5 comments

Happy Friday!
Those of you who have been following my blog, know that I have been doing a story exchange with a group of seniors every second Thursday. I go to their apartment building and we congregate in the common room. I take along a few of my stories and after reading them ( one at the start and one midway through ) the seniors get to tell their stories on a related ( or unrelated ) topic.

Last night was very interesting. I read a story penned by my brother Gerard called ” The Butcher of Marion Bridge “, a reference of his attempts to be a “gentleman farmer” many years ago. He raised chickens and described in vivid detail his first efforts at ” culling the flock”. The seniors loved it. The second story was my most recent offering on my blog. ( “Where’s The Beef?” ). Because this was a pun laced piece, I actually printed out copies for everyone so that they could see the spellings… to illuminate the puns. Of course, I went on about the tainted meat and at the end of the story, somewhat casually asked, if anyone had eaten horse meat. No one knowingly had (!) until one person from Holland piped up and said that they had eaten horsemeat during the German occupation of Holland in the 1940’s. It was pretty sobering listening to her accounts of that time in her life.

As much as this bi-weekly get together is about story telling, it’s turning in to a history lesson for me. Many of us are caught up with our technology and mobile devices. You might be surprised that you can learn a lot if you take the time to listen to the voices of wisdom.

Hope to have a new post for you on the weekend. Next week’s offering in The Casket and on my blog is about the sacrament of first Confession. It’s called ” I Confess “. Even if you are not a Catholic you will catch my drift!

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