WEBVTT

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- Good evening. I'm Laura Clavio from the Bloomington Storytellers Guild and thanks so much for coming

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- out to see our performance tonight. 250 years of American folklore. It's hard to actually comprehend

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- that. It's like a giant tapestry made of millions of strands from all over the world that have come

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- together and

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- Choosing material from all that is a bit challenging. But tonight you're going to hear some of the favorite

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- stories that we've come up with from the animals of American folklore. We hope you enjoy those. Just

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- a couple of things to talk about before we get started. First, if you brought a device with you that

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- makes noise, please silence it. And some thank yous, first to the

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- Monroe County Public Library for their support and the use of their facilities, to the Friends of the

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- Library who support us, and to CATS, the Community Access Television Services that records our programs,

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- and if you miss part of this tonight or you have friends that want to see it, it will be available on

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- CATS, usually within

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- two to three weeks, so you can look for it there. Our tellers tonight are all ready to go, so we'll

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- get started, and thank you again for coming. Hi, folks. My name is Kellen Everett, and I will be telling

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- a story that I found in a collection of folk stories from around here.

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- from Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, close by. Now, my family's lived in Indiana for a couple years now. And

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- I got to say, it's a pretty great place to be. In fact, some people say that Indiana is God's own country.

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- A big part of the reason for that is because the devil keeps out of Indiana. And the reason for that

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- goes way back. It's an old story, back from when

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- Indiana was still mostly frontier country. And back then, there were a couple of lumber men,

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- tough as nails. John Travers and Ben Barker. When I say you guys were tough as nails, I mean it. They

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- would go to bed every night sleeping on grindstones for pillows. And they'd wake up every morning for

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- breakfast. They'd have a nice bowl of razor soup. John was about as tall as a tree. Ben was about a

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- big around as a barrel. And when it came to cussing and swearing,

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- Well, these two fellas could give a whole team of Ohio boatmen a run for their money. They could cuss

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- the hide off a mule. They could cuss the scales off a fish. They could cuss the bark off a tree. Awfully

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- handy for a pair of lumbermen. Now, all this cussing and swearing and foul language wasn't a good habit.

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- Wasn't a polite habit. But what could folks do? It's a free country. They could talk however they want.

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- But every time they open their mouths, well, the devil's always looking out for candidates for his domain

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- way down in the great below. So every time they open up their mouths, he just smiled and waited. So

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- one fine spring day in Wabash County, Ben and John got together and they bought themselves a fine plot

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- of timberland that they were hoping to turn into an even finer profit. They bought it and they went

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- straight to work cutting and chopping and sawing and they were hard at work and as they were working,

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- The woodchips and the sawdust was flying thick as snowflakes in a blizzard, and the nasty filthy toad

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- words flying out of their mouths were coming even thicker. They were working and sweating and hollering,

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- and on about the fifth day of them working, they were about halfway through sawing through an oak tree

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- that was about as thick as a bear is long. About halfway through, John said to Ben, say, we ought to

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- let this one fall down along the path when it goes down. And Ben said,

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- No, you idiot, we gotta let it fall the other way. And just like that, two of them launched into another

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- one of their famous rip-roaring, swearing arguments. And they were swearing and cussing, and the language

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- they were using was just so foul that the trees around them were shaking with indignation. Their beautiful

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- green leaves were turning pale and yellow and shriveling up like it was the wintertime. All the other

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- lumbermen around them

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- No saints themselves, mind you. Well, they just about had to run off with their ears scorched because

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- this language was so hot. The devil was not there that day to hear this argument, but he did catch a

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- year of it where he was all the way over in Boston on business. And as soon as he heard, he smiled and

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- laughed and started rubbing his hand so fast sparks flew. He knew that he was going to get these two.

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- And well, wouldn't you know it, he was right.

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- John Travers, soon after this, up and died. And when John died, the devil zipped right over,

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- grabbed him, pulled him straight down, down below Wabash County where he lived, to where there's a special

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- place reserved for Hoosiers that don't behave like they oughta. So the devil took him straight down,

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- but a while before John had died, after a different other one of his famous swearing quarrels with Ben,

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- Well, he'd figured out a mean, mean way to get back at his partner. Now, John got together with a lawyer

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- who was so crooked, his lawyer's grave had to be dug with a corkscrew. John and this lawyer got together,

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- and he worked his legal sorcery, and they had it worked out so that Ben would have to pay out a whole

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- barrel full of money to John's heirs when John finally kicked the bucket. When Ben found out about this, oh, boy.

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- Right there at John's funeral he found out and he was mad, mad, mad. He started swearing and cussing

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- and spitting and yelling right there at the graveside. His language was so bad that the tombstone started

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- to crack. He was just getting madder and madder by the second. He was screaming and hollering and using

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- just about every bad word that he knew and just getting madder and madder. He was about to start making

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- up new bad words when finally his body just couldn't handle all that anger and Ben Barker up and died.

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- just like John. And of course, when Ben died, well, the devil zipped right over and grabbed him, pulled

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- him straight down to where John was. Which means, of course, that the very first thing that Ben Barker

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- saw down in the great down below amidst the flames was John. Now, there's three things in this world

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- that you just can't make over no matter how hard you try. A stubborn mule, an old miser,

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- and a swearing foul-mouthed lumberman. And when these two saw each other down in the devil's domain,

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- well, they just lit into each other like a couple of roosters at daybreak. They were hollering and swearing

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- and cussing up a storm right there at each other, just getting louder and louder by the second. All

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- those cuss words were coming out fast as grease lightning and about twice as hot.

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- They were roaring about as loud as all the roaring flames all around him. And the devil was just laughing

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- and laughing, because he'd got exactly what he had wanted. Or so we thought. Because you see, he looked

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- around, and he saw that he had all his little helper devils. You know, the devils that he keeps down

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- there to help him torment folks. Well, they had stopped tormenting folks. They were just watching Ben

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- and John. They'd never heard language like this before. They were learning all kinds of new words. And

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- the devil?

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- He was getting worried. What kind of effect was this kind of language going to have on these impressionable

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- young devils just staring eyes like saucers? And so, well, the devil couldn't take much more of that.

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- So he got all the little devils together and told them to scat, get out of there. They didn't need to

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- torment Ben and John. They got each other, just sweared at each other for all eternity. That's enough

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- torment right there. And the devil, well,

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- being honest, he couldn't take much more of it either. His ears were starting to smoke. So he got out

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- of there, too. He just left the field to Ben and John to just stand and swear and cuss and argue with

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- each other for all eternity. Now, whether they're still there doing that to this day, I couldn't tell

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- you. It would explain some of the heat that we feel in the summers of Indiana. What I can tell you

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- is that that is why the devil knows better than to come back to Indiana. I'm Connie Chicalis, and I'm

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- going to... Wait. I believe I hear a message from the devil coming from Illinois. Yes, I will sing the

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- deaf woman's courtship. Old woman,

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- Old woman, are you fond of weaving? Speak a little louder, sir. My hearing is deceiving. Old woman,

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- old woman, are you fond of shearing? Pray speak a little louder, sir. I'm rather thick of hearing.

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- Old woman, old woman, would you go a-walking? Pray speak a little louder, sir. Or what's the use of talking?

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- Are you fond of spinning? Please speak a little louder, sir. I only see a grinning. Old woman, old woman,

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- are you fond of knitting? Please speak a little louder, sir. Come nearer where I'm sitting. Old woman,

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- old woman, might I kiss you dearly? Oh, Lord, have mercy on my soul, sir.

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- Introduction for an old woman. Hi, my name is Patty Callison. The story that I have to tell tonight

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- is a Native American story, a Cherokee story. I originally found this story in the library. And it was

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- sort of, it was from an oral history that a researcher had collected.

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- And I'm happy. It became part of my storytelling life, and I hope you enjoyed it. And if you've heard

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- me tell this before, it's always different. Now, you all know what a possum looks like, don't you? Of

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- course you do. They got in your garden, and they're rubbing around. And if you meet somebody, they might

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- say that it's

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- Oh, Possum. But did you know that at one time, the possum had a long, beautiful tail. It was just covered

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- in long, silky, silvery fur. And Possum was very proud of that tail, and he loved

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- to show it off to all the other animals. Now, he especially liked to show it off to Rabbit,

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- because you see, Rabbit's tail had been pulled off by Bear many years ago, and so all he had was a little

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- itty bitty fluff of a tail. Now, Rabbit is a trickster. He loves to play tricks

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- pranks, jokes. But he gets a little mean when he's kind of envious, just as he was envious of Possum's

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- tale. And so he had been thinking of some way that he could kind of get back and pull a prank on Possum

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- for being so proud of that tale. But he'd never come up with anything.

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- was just about this time of year. And the animals decided they would get together. Everybody would bring

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- some food, a kind of a picnic-type thing. And so it was decided where and when it was going to be. It

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- was also decided that rabbit, being the very quickest animal in the forest, should go around telling

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- all the other animals about where and when this

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- was going to take place. Now there was even going to be a dance that went along with this. And so Rabbit

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- went from place to place and he was just getting ready to go over to Possum's place when

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- So before he went over to Possum's place, he went to visit Cricket. Now, Cricket had a very interesting

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- occupation. With those little hind legs of his, he could trim up and style the animal's fur. A barber,

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- if you will. And so Rabbit went to visit Cricket

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- Then he went to see Possum. And he told Possum all about the potluck and the dance and all the animals

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- that were going to be there. And Possum said, well, if I come, I know that everyone will want to see

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- my long and beautiful tail. Oh, I've been thinking about that, said Rabbit.

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- to let you know that I am in charge of the dance, and you will be at the very front of the dance line.

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- Oh, good, said Possum. But you know what, said Rabbit, before, before then,

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- Why don't I send Cricket over, and he can style up your tail so that it's even more beautiful than it

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- is right now? All right, said Possum. So the day of the dance and the picnic came, and here came Cricket

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- over to Possum's place. And he combed all the dirt

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- debris out of that tail. And he washed it and dried it. And then he put a little something on it so

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- that that silvery fur just sparkled in the sunlight. And possum, oh, boy, look. Oh, that is magnificent.

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- Yeah, but you know, said Cricket, it's a while until the dance. I brought this red string with me.

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- I'm going to tie it around your tail if you want. And so it'll keep it from getting all dirty and messed

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- up. And then I'll take it off when we have the dance." All right," said Possum. And so, Possum laid

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- down on the ground. Hmm. He may have even gone to sleep.

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- that long red string and he tied it to the base of Possum's tail and then he started to wrap that red

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- string around Possum's tail. But what Possum didn't know was that just before he'd wrapped the string

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- around the tail

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- was taking his little hind legs and cutting the hair off of Possum's tail right next to the roots. And

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- then he would wrap that red string around the bear place. Wrap that red string around the

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- until he came to the very tip of Possum's tail and he tied a nice red bow. Well, that evening the animals

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- all came to the gathering spot. Oh, there was a nice fire going there and a huge table just covered

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- with all of the contributions that everybody had brought for the meal. And they ate.

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- until they couldn't eat anymore. And then they ate some more anyway. But then it was time for the dance.

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- So Rabbit got the dance line all lined up. And sure enough, Possum was at the very head of the dance

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- line. Well, the animals had brought their instruments. And they started to dance.

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- They started to sing. And they started to play. And Possum remembered that his tail was still wrapped

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- up. So he motioned to cricket. And cricket came on over and unwrapped that red string from Possum's

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- tail. But by that time, Possum was really into the music. And he started to sing. And he started to dance.

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- See my beautiful tail. Well, the other animals on there goes Possum talking about his tail. And they

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- all clapped. And Possum heard this and he said, oh, my tail must really look good. So he sang some more.

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- See how fine the color is.

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- could stop the the animals were were clapping and stomping and and hurrying and and positive and so

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- he's saying some more see how fine the fur is well when he's saying that

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- The animals started to laugh, and they laughed, and they laughed. Oh, Bear was over there, and he held

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- up his big paw. Squirrel. Squirrel was laughing so hard that he was rolling around in the dirt, holding

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- his stomach.

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- laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his cheeks. And Possum turned around and he looked at

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- the animals.

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- just like a lizard's tail. And with that, Possum lay down on the ground, and he held up his little paws

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- like this, and he grinned, which Possum's do to this very day whenever they are frightened or embarrassed.

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- And that's the story of why when you see a possum today, it is very, very bare. My name is Ken Ogas.

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- And I'm actually based in Indianapolis.

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- I love coming down to Bloomington to tell with my storyteller brothers and sisters. So here we are.

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- Have I ever told you the absolutely incredible story of great-grandpa Jack and his hunting trip? No?

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- Well, lock the doors. You're going to hear it now. You see, my great-grandpa was born 100 years before me.

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- He married my great grandma, and they settled down by the Wabash River, and they cleared trees. They

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- were going to have such a fine life together. They had plenty of corn, but not a whole lot of meat.

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- And after several weeks of no meat, great grandma said, Jack, you need to go hunting. But dear, I only

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- have the one bullet for the rifle, says,

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- Well, you need to figure something out. You take the bird net, you take the corn, you take the horse,

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- get down to the lake. We need meat. Yes, ma'am. So he loaded up the stone boat, which was used for carrying

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- all the stones that were taken out of the fields as they cleared them, took the stone boat, hooked it

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- up to old Alex the horse, and he took his bird net and corn and a sharp hatchet. And bumpity, bumpity,

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- bump, they went down to the lake.

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- And he set up the bird net, put out the corn, began chopping on a hollow log, make a bucket. You never

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- have enough buckets. Well, while he was doing that, he heard the sound of not just one goose,

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- but many geese. And he looked over at the bird net, and there must have been a dozen under that net

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- gobbling up that corn.

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- Oh my! He went running and he grabbed the net so they couldn't get away. Well he held on tight and they

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- stuck their wings through the net and they pulled him up over the lake until he was looking down at

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- water and he didn't know how to swim. Oh and well they came back around over the land and he saw a tree

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- with a nice big opening.

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- Now, one thing I'll say about great-grandpa Jack is that he had a great sense of timing, so he let go

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- just at the right time. He fell into that hollow tree and he went down, down, down, and instead of hitting

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- something hard with a bump, he hit something soft and sticky and sweet. Oh, sour wood honey, a whole

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- tree full of it. Well, things are finally looking my way, but how am I going to get out of this tree trunk?

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- had his arms squeezed together, he didn't have to wait long. Because something blocked the top of the

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- tree now, got dark, and they could hear a growling and a snarling and a snoozing. And that bear was

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- going to lower himself down into the honey and pull himself out again and lick himself off. Doesn't

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- get any better than that for bears.

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- Well, great-grandpa Jack, he waited and he waited until that wagon tail of the bear got just within

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- reach and he bit onto that bear tail and the bear pulled him up to the top of the tree. Now, I told

00:26:23.575 --> 00:26:31.569
- you about Jack's good timing. Well, before that bear could swat him with one of his bear paws, Jack

00:26:31.569 --> 00:26:35.486
- just gave him a little like that. And he hit the

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- rocks at the base of the tree and broke his neck. Safe. So Jack slowly climbed down out of that tree

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- with all that honey on him. And he went over to the lake and went up into his neck. And he was letting

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- all that honey dissolve off. And then something got under his shirt. What is that? You're not going

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- to believe this. He caught a trout without even trying.

00:27:05.890 --> 00:27:12.862
- and it was under his shirt and it was flapping around so hard why finally it snapped the top button

00:27:12.862 --> 00:27:19.904
- of his long underwear, which it didn't really take off that many times. Anyway, that button shot off

00:27:19.904 --> 00:27:26.945
- like a bullet, hit a duck, killed it. Well, my day is really shaping up. I've got a duck, I've got a

00:27:26.945 --> 00:27:31.198
- trout, I've got a tree full of honey, not to mention a bear.

00:27:31.490 --> 00:27:38.967
- So he came out of the lake and he took that sharp hatchet. He began to slice through that bare skin

00:27:38.967 --> 00:27:46.444
- and get them all carved up, put them on the stone boat. And then he cut a hole in that hollow honey

00:27:46.444 --> 00:27:53.921
- tree and let that honey dribble out into the bucket he had made. And he thought, oh, just wait till

00:27:53.921 --> 00:27:59.454
- great grandma sees this. Well, you know, it had gotten a little bit late.

00:27:59.650 --> 00:28:07.589
- with all this going on, all the cutting and preparing. And the wild turkeys were beginning to roost.

00:28:07.589 --> 00:28:15.607
- And he could hear them. And they were collecting onto one long branch on a tree nearby. And he got up

00:28:15.607 --> 00:28:23.467
- real quiet like, and he walks over with his rifle, with the one bullet. And he points his rifle up,

00:28:23.467 --> 00:28:29.598
- and he says, I've got to hit at least one of them. Oh, please, please. Kapow!

00:28:29.730 --> 00:28:38.568
- And that bullet shot up. Did it hit one wild turkey? No. Did it hit two? No. It hit that branch and

00:28:38.568 --> 00:28:47.759
- it split open and trapped all their feet in between the two halves. Oh my. So he got his sharp hatchet.

00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:56.774
- He climbed up that tree, cut that limb down. Kaboom. Put it in the stone boat. And he was getting all

00:28:56.774 --> 00:28:58.718
- set now to head home.

00:28:59.298 --> 00:29:06.827
- And he heard something he'd never hear again. He never thought it. Geese. All of the geese that had

00:29:06.827 --> 00:29:14.431
- flown him up into the air in the first place, they were still under that net. They were trapped in a

00:29:14.431 --> 00:29:22.261
- tall, tall tree. And he says, I'm not climbing up to get them. He took that hatchet. It was very sharp.

00:29:22.261 --> 00:29:25.950
- And he cut that tree, and it came crashing down.

00:29:26.402 --> 00:29:36.385
- Now, the local deer were very curious creatures. And the deer that he actually hit with a tree had not

00:29:36.385 --> 00:29:46.464
- seen it coming. And I told you it was incredible. Well, so he's got a deer, a bear. He's got the trout,

00:29:46.464 --> 00:29:56.350
- a duck, wild honey. Oh, she's going to be so happy. Well, he loaded everything up on that stone boat.

00:29:56.962 --> 00:30:04.402
- There was no room for him, so he had to walk up with the horse, old Alex. And as soon as they pulled

00:30:04.402 --> 00:30:12.137
- forward, just a couple of feet, there was a loud snapping sound on either side. The harness broke. Well,

00:30:12.137 --> 00:30:19.872
- he had all kinds of fresh leather to work with, so he cut strips of deer hide, thinking, that's probably

00:30:19.872 --> 00:30:25.470
- going to work. Right, right. He took those strips. He repaired the harness.

00:30:25.986 --> 00:30:33.675
- And then off they went, and it got darker, and it began to rain. Now, you might think this is the end

00:30:33.675 --> 00:30:41.364
- of the story, but that warm rain did its trick. And when he got back to the cabin, he went running up

00:30:41.364 --> 00:30:49.129
- to the door, banged on it, said, dear, come on out. Take a look. You won't believe it. And she didn't.

00:30:49.129 --> 00:30:55.838
- Says, I don't believe you've got a thing. Where is it all? But, but, but, but, but, but.

00:30:56.674 --> 00:31:04.522
- Well, deer hide stretches when it gets warm and wet like that, doesn't it? Yeah. And he could feel the

00:31:04.522 --> 00:31:11.836
- strands were going all the way back down to the lake. And it was too dark to go there. He says,

00:31:11.836 --> 00:31:19.608
- all right, I don't want to hear about it. He took care of old Alex. He hung the harness on a stump in

00:31:19.608 --> 00:31:23.646
- front of the cabin. And he had cold corn for dinner.

00:31:24.162 --> 00:31:31.270
- And the bed was kind of cold that night, too. Well, in the morning, things tend to look better when

00:31:31.270 --> 00:31:38.590
- the sun comes up. Well, in Indiana, it's no different. In fact, it might even be more so, because they

00:31:38.590 --> 00:31:46.196
- looked out their front window, which was the only window that they had. They looked out that front window,

00:31:46.196 --> 00:31:54.014
- and there was the stone boat. The leather in that warm sunshine had gone back to its original size and shape.

00:31:54.370 --> 00:32:02.829
- And well, there were all the animals, there was the honey, everything was there. And he said, well,

00:32:02.829 --> 00:32:11.626
- what do you think? She says, I don't believe it, but I'm seeing it, and we're gonna have plenty of food

00:32:11.626 --> 00:32:20.338
- all year. Well, you know, my great grandpa Jack, they raised nine children. His timing was impeccable.

00:32:20.338 --> 00:32:23.806
- And they loved to hear stories at night,

00:32:24.290 --> 00:32:33.016
- And you know what story they asked for most of all and you've just heard it. Now I'm going to tell you

00:32:33.016 --> 00:32:41.573
- something that's absolutely true and that is we pass stories along in the oral tradition and stories

00:32:41.573 --> 00:32:50.384
- are written down in collections so they stay alive. What I've told you tonight is two different stories

00:32:50.384 --> 00:32:52.926
- brought together in marriage.

00:32:53.634 --> 00:33:02.047
- So the first one is from Richard Chase's grandfather tales, right? Jack's hunting trips. And the second

00:33:02.047 --> 00:33:10.623
- source that I've woven into this is great grandfather in the honey tree. And that's by Sam and Zoe Swain.

00:33:10.623 --> 00:33:18.874
- Richard Chase was the editor of the first book. And you see, you can find these books on the internet

00:33:18.874 --> 00:33:22.110
- archive and some fine public libraries.

00:33:22.210 --> 00:33:35.504
- You can read them. You can tell them. And remember, when you're telling a story like this and you look

00:33:35.504 --> 00:33:48.798
- at the person you're talking to, they're probably not going to believe you. Thank you. Thank you, Ken.

00:33:49.954 --> 00:33:56.880
- a nice segue, I think, to the story I have to share tonight. My name is Lisa Ciampelli, and the story

00:33:56.880 --> 00:34:03.874
- that I'm sharing is called Parley Garfield and the Frogs. And this story is adapted from the tale told

00:34:03.874 --> 00:34:11.003
- by professional storyteller Margaret Reed McDonald, who grew up in southern Indiana and attended Indiana

00:34:11.003 --> 00:34:17.182
- University right here in Bloomington. Now, I got to thinking about this story after a trip

00:34:17.282 --> 00:34:26.203
- recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, where I enjoyed the same gorgeous landscapes that were the reward

00:34:26.203 --> 00:34:34.438
- of the explorers Lewis and Clark when they journeyed from Missouri in May of 1804, and finally,

00:34:34.438 --> 00:34:41.214
- after a year, reached their destination of the Pacific Ocean. Now, in our era,

00:34:41.410 --> 00:34:49.808
- of jet planes and GPS navigation tools, I was just struck by the courage and the fortitude that it took

00:34:49.808 --> 00:34:58.205
- these explorers to make their way over forested mountains and wade through raging rivers when they were

00:34:58.205 --> 00:35:06.684
- hungry and cold and just motivated by their desire to discover what was out there, what was on the other

00:35:06.684 --> 00:35:10.398
- side, and to document their way as they went.

00:35:11.202 --> 00:35:19.538
- And although they were incredibly brave and savvy individuals, I think their success in reaching their

00:35:19.538 --> 00:35:28.440
- destination was due in part, in great part, critical part, to the help that they received from the indigenous

00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:37.342
- people who guided them through their native lands. So how do Lewis and Clark relate to Parley Garfield? Well,

00:35:37.506 --> 00:35:44.799
- Maybe a bit of a stretch, but you might be able to call Parley an explorer in his own right. I'll let

00:35:44.799 --> 00:35:52.164
- you decide. I first read this story in one of Margaret Reed McDonald's books called 20 Tellable Tales.

00:35:52.164 --> 00:36:00.030
- But Margaret Reed McDonald says that she first learned this story from her grandfather, Parley Garfield Reed.

00:36:01.314 --> 00:36:09.051
- So I tell this story tonight in honor of all the explorers who have come before us and in honor of the

00:36:09.051 --> 00:36:16.038
- granddads and grammies and memes and papas who have shared their stories with their children

00:36:16.038 --> 00:36:23.625
- and grandchildren so that we have them to enjoy today. Now, when Parley Garfield was a young man, he

00:36:23.625 --> 00:36:30.686
- had a girlfriend who lived across the wide creek that ran behind Parley Garfield's farmhouse.

00:36:30.978 --> 00:36:39.226
- And Parley Garfield liked to visit his girlfriend frequently. And fortunately, the creek bed was often

00:36:39.226 --> 00:36:47.313
- dry. And it was no problem for Parley to walk across that dry creek bed on the flat rocks that lined

00:36:47.313 --> 00:36:55.321
- the bed. But there were some parts of the year during the spring and stormy summers when that creek

00:36:55.321 --> 00:37:00.766
- bed would fill up with rushing water, swirling with mud and sticks.

00:37:00.898 --> 00:37:09.443
- And at that time, Parley would have to figure out if he would be able to get across that wide creek

00:37:09.443 --> 00:37:17.987
- safely or whether he would have to find another way around. Now, fortunately, there were some frogs

00:37:17.987 --> 00:37:26.703
- that lived near and in this creek. And Parley would call out to the frogs for help. He would call out

00:37:26.703 --> 00:37:30.206
- to them, how deep is it? How deep is it?

00:37:30.498 --> 00:37:39.550
- How deep is it? And the little frogs that live right at the creek's edge, those peeper frogs, they would

00:37:39.550 --> 00:37:47.999
- answer back, ankle deep, ankle deep, ankle deep, ankle deep, ankle deep. And so this day, Parley,

00:37:47.999 --> 00:37:56.878
- he figured, oh, well, that's no problem at all. And he took off his shoes, and he started to wade into

00:37:56.878 --> 00:37:58.430
- that creek water.

00:37:59.394 --> 00:38:07.564
- When it got up above his ankles, he paused. And he called again to the frogs that lived a little bit

00:38:07.564 --> 00:38:15.168
- further into the creek. They were a little bit bigger. And he called to them, how deep is it?

00:38:15.168 --> 00:38:23.095
- How deep is it? How deep is it? And these little bit bigger frogs, they answered back, knee deep,

00:38:23.095 --> 00:38:26.654
- knee deep, knee deep, knee deep, knee deep.

00:38:28.322 --> 00:38:34.678
- That's entirely manageable, thought Parley. And he just rolled up his pant legs a little bit higher,

00:38:34.678 --> 00:38:41.097
- and he continued on wading into that creek water. But when that creek water crept up above his knees,

00:38:41.097 --> 00:38:47.578
- he stopped again, and he called out to the frogs that he could see sitting on a log just about halfway

00:38:47.578 --> 00:38:54.123
- through the creek. Now, you can join me, because we don't often get a chance to be loud in the library.

00:38:54.123 --> 00:38:56.766
- So join me in calling out, as Parley did,

00:38:57.218 --> 00:39:07.926
- How deep is it? How deep is it? How deep is it? And these little bit bigger frogs sitting on the log,

00:39:07.926 --> 00:39:18.529
- they answered back, belly deep, belly deep, belly deep, belly deep. Well, Parley was really eager to

00:39:18.529 --> 00:39:25.982
- see his girlfriend, and he figured he was already wet. So he continued

00:39:26.178 --> 00:39:35.641
- crossing over that creek, trying to find his way on the flat rocks that he knew were on the bottom somewhere.

00:39:35.641 --> 00:39:44.588
- But when that water got up above his belly, he stopped again. And he called out to the big old bullfrog

00:39:44.588 --> 00:39:53.277
- that he could see sitting on a rock nearby. How deep is it? How deep is it? How deep is it? And that

00:39:53.277 --> 00:39:56.030
- big old bullfrog answered back,

00:39:57.218 --> 00:40:06.635
- Better go round, round, round. Better go round, round, round. Well, Parley was really determined to

00:40:06.635 --> 00:40:16.145
- see his girlfriend. And he was already wet. But he did not want to get into that water and be pulled

00:40:16.145 --> 00:40:22.078
- under. And he wasn't a very good swimmer. So he turned around.

00:40:22.658 --> 00:40:30.631
- And he clomped back up the creek about a mile or so until there was a bridge that he could cross over

00:40:30.631 --> 00:40:38.605
- to the other side. And he was able to arrive at his girlfriend's house, soggy but safe and sound, due

00:40:38.605 --> 00:40:44.702
- to his persistence and the sage advice of the frogs. Thank you for your help.

00:40:53.378 --> 00:41:09.386
- Mary Elizabeth, Mary Beth Simpson. Here I sit on buttermilk hill Who could blame me, crime I feel Every

00:41:09.386 --> 00:41:12.926
- tear could turn a mill

00:41:24.450 --> 00:41:41.441
- to see him go. Only time will heal my woe. Johnny has gone for a soldier. I'll sell my flax, I'll sell

00:41:41.441 --> 00:41:51.998
- my wheel to buy my love a sword of steel that he may wield upon

00:42:17.346 --> 00:42:24.293
- storyteller. My name is David Matlack. Now, some of you might associate the surname Matlack with a rather

00:42:24.293 --> 00:42:32.093
- important document that's garnered a lot of attention this month, as it should. My great-great-great-great-great-uncle

00:42:32.093 --> 00:42:38.778
- was Timothy Matlack, the scribe of the Declaration of Independence. It was Jefferson's words, but ol'

00:42:38.778 --> 00:42:41.662
- Uncle Tim just had really good handwriting.

00:42:41.794 --> 00:42:48.373
- and he was the clerk of the Continental Congress. My sister Anne is here all the way from Whidbey Island,

00:42:48.373 --> 00:42:54.642
- Washington, and we're very proud of old Uncle Tim, but to do his story justice would take all night,

00:42:54.642 --> 00:43:01.159
- so instead I want to switch to my father's maternal side of the family and tell you about an interesting

00:43:01.159 --> 00:43:07.490
- character, and I can scarcely do her justice, so I'll just give you some tidbits from her fascinating

00:43:07.490 --> 00:43:10.718
- life, my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.

00:43:11.362 --> 00:43:19.794
- And this is the way the story is passed down in my family. Elizabeth Griscombe was born New Year's Day,

00:43:19.794 --> 00:43:28.146
- 1752, with flaming auburn hair, lily-white skin, and flashing blue eyes. Red, white, and blue. She was

00:43:28.146 --> 00:43:36.335
- born in Gloucester City, New Jersey. It's on the eastern shore of the Delaware, directly across from

00:43:36.335 --> 00:43:37.470
- Philadelphia.

00:43:38.306 --> 00:43:45.871
- She was about the middle of a very large Quaker family. Her father, Samuel Griscombe, was a carpenter.

00:43:45.871 --> 00:43:53.510
- And her mother, Rebecca James Griscombe, as far as we know, worked in the home. And I assume she worked

00:43:53.510 --> 00:44:00.856
- quite busily. She would raise or bury 17 children in all. Elizabeth and eight of her siblings would

00:44:00.856 --> 00:44:02.398
- live into adulthood.

00:44:03.010 --> 00:44:10.137
- Now, when Elizabeth was still a toddler, Samuel packed up his big family and moved across the river

00:44:10.137 --> 00:44:17.406
- into Philadelphia. And here he prospered as a carpenter. Philadelphia was already the largest city in

00:44:17.406 --> 00:44:24.604
- the colonies, and it was growing exponentially in the 1750s. And when Elizabeth and her sisters came

00:44:24.604 --> 00:44:32.158
- of a certain age, they attended a public girls' school led by two Quaker women. They were taught reading,

00:44:32.674 --> 00:44:40.285
- writing, ciphering, and vocational skills. And Elizabeth's favorite part of the day was when the school

00:44:40.285 --> 00:44:47.676
- mistress would announce, now is that time for thee to pursue that skill in which thee most delights.

00:44:47.676 --> 00:44:55.067
- And for young Elizabeth, that was sewing and embroidery. Embroidery without embellishment. Plain and

00:44:55.067 --> 00:45:02.238
- simple was, still is, the Quakerly advice for all matters, particularly of dress and in the home.

00:45:03.586 --> 00:45:10.097
- And then the story goes that towards the end of her primary school career, one day she was trotting

00:45:10.097 --> 00:45:16.608
- down Arch Street to visit an older sister who was working in John Webster's upholstery shop. And in

00:45:16.608 --> 00:45:23.575
- the shop that day, one of the other girls was having difficulty with a specific task and Elizabeth offered

00:45:23.575 --> 00:45:30.608
- her help. And when John Webster saw the perfection of Elizabeth's stitches, he took her on as an apprentice

00:45:30.608 --> 00:45:31.454
- on the spot.

00:45:32.098 --> 00:45:38.482
- Now, upholstery in those days, it was certainly the cushions and fabrics on furniture, heavy draperies,

00:45:38.482 --> 00:45:44.744
- but a really big part of it was making mattresses. And this was really hard work. It was really thick

00:45:44.744 --> 00:45:51.066
- canvas, and young Elizabeth would have to stuff and overstuff it with horsehair and feathers, and then

00:45:51.066 --> 00:45:57.205
- with a giant needle, and certainly with help from the other girls, she would sew the lid on. It was

00:45:57.205 --> 00:45:58.494
- very difficult work.

00:45:59.778 --> 00:46:07.758
- Well, sometime around the late 1760s, there came to the shop another young apprentice, John. And this

00:46:07.758 --> 00:46:16.128
- hardworking lad caught Elizabeth's eye. And well, Elizabeth caught his eye. And what began as shy, furtive

00:46:16.128 --> 00:46:24.029
- glances over the period of five years blossomed into longing looks of love. But there was a problem.

00:46:24.029 --> 00:46:28.958
- And Elizabeth knew that she would have to speak to her father.

00:46:29.474 --> 00:46:38.485
- So one Sunday morning after meeting on the way home, walking down Arch Street, she broached the subject,

00:46:38.485 --> 00:46:47.667
- Father, in meeting this morning, these shared how we must love that of God in everyone, the savage Indian,

00:46:47.667 --> 00:46:57.278
- the Negro slave, everyone. Why then, why then, Father, is it so wrong that I should love an Anglican? My child,

00:46:57.538 --> 00:47:03.958
- This is not the type of love of which I speak. Thee knows that. That is an entirely different matter

00:47:03.958 --> 00:47:10.315
- altogether. But I don't see that it is. But she could tell from the throbbing veins in his neck and

00:47:10.315 --> 00:47:16.862
- the redness rising up his cheeks towards the broad rim of his Quaker hat that she would get no further

00:47:16.862 --> 00:47:23.346
- with this argument. But she was a strong-willed young woman, and she knew what she wanted. So she and

00:47:23.346 --> 00:47:26.334
- John made and carried out plans for elopement.

00:47:26.978 --> 00:47:35.433
- They met at the wharf on Arch Street. They hired a boatman to row them across the Delaware to the town

00:47:35.433 --> 00:47:43.887
- of her birth, Gloucester City, where a justice of the peace married them in Hug's Tavern. The marriage

00:47:43.887 --> 00:47:52.588
- certificate is dated November 4, 1774. And it is signed, probably with auto pen, by the colonial governor

00:47:52.588 --> 00:47:56.446
- of the colony of New Jersey, William Franklin.

00:47:57.442 --> 00:48:05.955
- And just as William would become estranged from his father, Benjamin Franklin, for William's lifelong

00:48:05.955 --> 00:48:14.718
- loyalist sympathies, so too now Elizabeth would become estranged from her father and family for marrying

00:48:14.718 --> 00:48:23.230
- outside of the Quaker faith. Now John's was a family of prominence in the Church of England community

00:48:23.230 --> 00:48:25.150
- there in Philadelphia.

00:48:25.314 --> 00:48:32.543
- His father was a minister, and at the time of their wedding, he had just received his own parish just

00:48:32.543 --> 00:48:39.985
- downstream in Wilmington, Delaware. Prior to that, he was rector at Christ Church, the preeminent Church

00:48:39.985 --> 00:48:47.144
- of England parish in Philadelphia. If you weren't Quaker, everybody that was anybody attended Christ

00:48:47.144 --> 00:48:53.310
- Church, including prominent figures from all over the colonies when they were in town.

00:48:53.698 --> 00:49:03.751
- and they were coming to town more and more frequently for important and clandestine state business.

00:49:03.751 --> 00:49:13.803
- Now, Elizabeth never found a spiritual home at Christ Church, but evidently, it was really good for

00:49:13.803 --> 00:49:23.454
- networking. And they had a sound system, but it seemed to go out. It's okay. I'll just project.

00:49:26.946 --> 00:49:34.318
- As soon as the newlyweds hung out a shingle for their own upholstery shop on Chestnut Street, they received

00:49:34.318 --> 00:49:41.553
- a huge commission from the right honorable Benjamin Chu, Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

00:49:41.553 --> 00:49:48.378
- And he was building a stately home as a wedding gift for one of his daughters and commissioned John

00:49:48.378 --> 00:49:52.542
- and Elizabeth to furnish the home. It was a huge commission.

00:49:53.122 --> 00:50:01.704
- And the family story goes that through Christchurch, she received a much smaller commission, but perhaps

00:50:01.704 --> 00:50:10.042
- of more importance for the trajectory of her life. And that was to embroider the initials on the long

00:50:10.042 --> 00:50:18.869
- flowing sleeves in the European style of the wealthy planter from Virginia who would sit in John's family's

00:50:18.869 --> 00:50:23.038
- pew at Christchurch. G.W. George Washington. Yeah.

00:50:24.002 --> 00:50:30.735
- So the newlyweds were working, but these were such tumultuous and uncertain times in Philadelphia and

00:50:30.735 --> 00:50:37.336
- all of the colonies. There had already been bloodshed in New England. Her uncle, Abel James, one of

00:50:37.336 --> 00:50:44.069
- the wealthiest of the wealthy Quaker merchants, was right in the middle of a lesser-known but equally

00:50:44.069 --> 00:50:51.264
- subversive and significant Philadelphia Tea Party. Daily, the young couple would have to check the bulletins

00:50:51.264 --> 00:50:52.254
- for what goods

00:50:52.866 --> 00:51:01.724
- were being embargoed or sent back or that patriots were encouraged to boycott, there was so much uncertainty.

00:51:01.724 --> 00:51:10.099
- Now John, as an Anglican, did not have to grapple with matters of conscientious objection in the Quaker

00:51:10.099 --> 00:51:18.554
- peace testimony. He became a patriot. And he became radicalized when he joined the Masons. And he joined

00:51:18.554 --> 00:51:21.534
- Ben Franklin's Philadelphia militia.

00:51:21.666 --> 00:51:28.837
- to protect the city from British invasion. And what happened next is shrouded in mystery, but one version

00:51:28.837 --> 00:51:36.142
- of the story holds that one night, in the middle of the night, he was guarding a cache of patriot munitions

00:51:36.142 --> 00:51:43.178
- down near the wharf when he heard the scuffle of feet. And before he realized what was happening, there

00:51:43.178 --> 00:51:47.710
- was a massive explosion. And he would later die from his injuries.

00:51:48.386 --> 00:51:59.595
- He was buried January 26, 1776 at Christ Church. She's scarcely married for two years. She's 24 years

00:51:59.595 --> 00:52:10.804
- old, a sole proprietor. She's a war widow. But later in life, she would say that she never wanted for

00:52:10.804 --> 00:52:16.958
- work. And some very important work was waiting for her.

00:52:18.146 --> 00:52:26.584
- Later that year, one morning, she was preparing to open her shop when there was a knock at the door.

00:52:26.584 --> 00:52:35.523
- She opened the door, and there stood GW, George Washington. And with him was Robert Morris, the wealthiest

00:52:35.523 --> 00:52:43.627
- man in all the colonies, financier of the American Revolution. And next to him was John's uncle,

00:52:43.627 --> 00:52:46.718
- George Ross, who like Robert Morris,

00:52:46.978 --> 00:52:54.193
- was a signator of the Declaration of Independence. We would consider all three of these men founding

00:52:54.193 --> 00:53:01.694
- fathers. Across the pond, they were considered traders to the crown with a price on their head, as would

00:53:01.694 --> 00:53:09.338
- be anyone who did business with them. So Elizabeth quickly ushered them in back to the parlor for privacy,

00:53:09.338 --> 00:53:13.982
- and the men explained the reason for their visit. They explained

00:53:14.658 --> 00:53:23.316
- that the troops needed a common symbol, a common banner, colors, a common flag around which to gather.

00:53:23.316 --> 00:53:31.722
- It was so confusing. Every state and town militia had their own colors. Pennsylvania Navy had their

00:53:31.722 --> 00:53:40.465
- own colors. Continental Army had none. They needed a common symbol. And they unrolled a scroll and they

00:53:40.465 --> 00:53:42.398
- showed her their plan.

00:53:43.522 --> 00:53:53.895
- And she studied it, and she said, would it not stand out better against any hue of sky if the red stripe

00:53:53.895 --> 00:54:03.775
- were at the top? And the men agreed. Yes, it would. And then she studied the canton, the upper left

00:54:03.775 --> 00:54:11.678
- corner, reflecting pool blue. It was supposed to be. And the new constellation,

00:54:12.194 --> 00:54:18.231
- of 13 six-pointed stars in the European style and on the Washington crest. And she said, excuse me,

00:54:18.231 --> 00:54:24.390
- but would not five-pointed stars stand out more crisply on the field of blue? And the men said, well,

00:54:24.390 --> 00:54:30.548
- yes, but they're too difficult to make. We're going to need a lot of these. And she said, no, no, no,

00:54:30.548 --> 00:54:36.645
- no. She took a piece of paper. She did a little origami, did a couple snips, and held up the perfect

00:54:36.645 --> 00:54:39.966
- pattern of a five-pointed star. And so the men agreed.

00:54:41.218 --> 00:54:51.734
- And then they asked her, they asked her earnestly, can you do this? And her humble answer, I think,

00:54:51.734 --> 00:55:02.251
- speaks for so many patriots of whom so much was asked in that great American experiment. She simply

00:55:02.251 --> 00:55:06.142
- said, I don't know, but I shall try.

00:55:09.474 --> 00:55:17.455
- And that is my family story of our first flag and my great, great, great, great, great grandma,

00:55:17.455 --> 00:55:26.268
- Betsy Ross. Yes. Now, if you're of a certain age, you might be thinking, well, wait a minute. Your family

00:55:26.268 --> 00:55:32.670
- story is exactly how I learned it as a child and myriad children's books and

00:55:33.282 --> 00:55:41.034
- Flag Day and Fourth of July pageants, the famous painting that hangs in the Betsy Ross house commemorated

00:55:41.034 --> 00:55:48.566
- in 1952 U.S. Postal Service with a stamp. It's exactly the same story. Yes. That is because the family

00:55:48.566 --> 00:55:56.026
- story, quite literally, began its trajectory to becoming the cherished American legend some 100 years

00:55:56.026 --> 00:55:56.830
- later when

00:55:57.954 --> 00:56:06.227
- her grandson, my great-great-grandfather, William Canby, presented a paper to the Pennsylvania Historical

00:56:06.227 --> 00:56:14.422
- Society, complete with signed, notarized affidavits from other surviving grandchildren and one surviving

00:56:14.422 --> 00:56:22.617
- daughter who lived into her 90s. Betsy herself lived to be 84, retiring only at 80 because of blindness.

00:56:22.617 --> 00:56:24.958
- All right, well, all of these

00:56:25.378 --> 00:56:34.456
- The paper and the signed letters all told the same story, how they would gather around Granny Betsy's

00:56:34.456 --> 00:56:43.712
- skirts and she would tell them that story. And then it was picked up by the popular press in 1876, just

00:56:43.712 --> 00:56:47.806
- in time for the American Centennial. And, um,

00:56:48.034 --> 00:56:55.868
- Centennial Americans were eager to forget about the Civil War, and they were hungry to hearken back

00:56:55.868 --> 00:57:03.545
- to those revolutionary days, as was fitting for Centennial, and pluck out the stories, the myths,

00:57:03.545 --> 00:57:11.613
- the legends, the heroes, and the heroines. Now, if you're of a younger set, or a more cynical set, you

00:57:11.613 --> 00:57:16.862
- might be thinking, wait a minute, hasn't the Betsy Ross story been

00:57:17.154 --> 00:57:28.843
- debunked and dismissed as purely a legend, a myth? Well, recall, I introduced myself as a storyteller.

00:57:28.843 --> 00:57:41.100
- It's a family tradition. Evidently, going all the way back to my great, great, great, great, great grandma,

00:57:41.100 --> 00:57:43.710
- Betsy Ross. Thank you.

00:57:54.242 --> 00:58:02.453
- Trisha, Linda, Joanne, Diane, Ellen, Simpson, Taylor. I have another very sad song for you. Loo, loo,

00:58:02.453 --> 00:58:10.665
- skip to my loo. Loo, loo, skip to my loo. Loo, loo, skip to my loo. Skip to my loo, my darling. I got

00:58:10.665 --> 00:58:19.037
- a girl who eats turnips raw, brushes her teeth with a handful of straw, combs her head with a cross-cut

00:58:19.037 --> 00:58:21.694
- saw. Skip to my loo, my darling.

00:58:24.866 --> 00:58:35.967
- Skip to my loo, loo, loo. Skip to my loo. Skip to my loo, my darling. Ants in the sugar bowl two by

00:58:35.967 --> 00:58:47.402
- two. Mules in the barnyard kicking up through. Kittens in the haystack. Mew, mew, mew. Skip to my loo,

00:58:47.402 --> 00:58:48.734
- my darling.

00:59:07.938 --> 00:59:17.883
- His name is Farida Pawan. Do you know David Crockett? Born in the mountains of Tennessee, raised to

00:59:17.883 --> 00:59:27.728
- know the name of every tree, killed a bear when he was three. He grew up to be a man with no fear.

00:59:27.728 --> 00:59:37.374
- In fact, so brave, he fought single-handedly in the war in the New Frontier. Then later in life,

00:59:37.474 --> 00:59:47.997
- He went to Washington D.C. and took over Washington D.C. for a spell and even during his free time fixed

00:59:47.997 --> 00:59:58.721
- the crack in the Liberty Bell. And then, finally, he marched on west as a leading pioneer and made himself

00:59:58.721 --> 01:00:06.238
- a legend to folks far and near. But do you know of his partner, Sally Ann?

01:00:07.106 --> 01:00:18.699
- thunder and whirlwind, Crockett. Well, if you don't, you should read Stephen Keylock's book. But tell

01:00:18.699 --> 01:00:29.723
- you what, I'll do you a favor. I'll tell you a little bit of the story so that you have an idea.

01:00:29.723 --> 01:00:36.542
- Listen up. About 250 years ago, a remarkable baby was born.

01:00:37.922 --> 01:00:47.738
- On the day that she was born, she said, hi, I'm Celianne Thunderen-Worldwind. How you doing?

01:00:47.738 --> 01:00:58.505
- You can talk? Said her astonished parents. Well, I can talk. In fact, I can out-talk, I can out-grin,

01:00:58.505 --> 01:01:07.582
- I can out-scream, I can out-grin-whirl, and I can out-run just about anyone. Amazing.

01:01:07.810 --> 01:01:18.791
- Amazing, said her parents. But her nine brothers did not agree. Celian is a loudmouth liar. Everybody

01:01:18.791 --> 01:01:29.987
- knows that babies can't do all of that. Everybody knows babies can't run, especially girl babies. Well,

01:01:29.987 --> 01:01:36.446
- let's race up the mountain, Celian said, and I'll show you.

01:01:36.578 --> 01:01:42.673
- I'll show you what I can do." And without missing a beat, she ran up the mountain, past racing rabbits,

01:01:42.673 --> 01:01:48.768
- trotting turkeys and galloping horses. And when she got to the top of the mountain, she came right back

01:01:48.768 --> 01:01:55.039
- down. And on the way down, she saw her brothers just huffing and fuffing at the beginning of the mountain,

01:01:55.039 --> 01:02:01.017
- at the bottom of the mountain. And she looked at them. She said, I'll see you at the finish line, you

01:02:01.017 --> 01:02:01.662
- tortoises.

01:02:02.754 --> 01:02:12.228
- Well, when they got to the finish line, her brothers exhausted and defeated and they conceded, Sally

01:02:12.228 --> 01:02:21.983
- Ann is amazing. Well, Sally Ann went on to do more amazing things. At age 18, she decided she was going

01:02:21.983 --> 01:02:31.550
- to go out there and live out in the wilderness and got to get to know all the animals all by herself.

01:02:33.186 --> 01:02:44.778
- Now everything was going just fine until one fierce winter's night when the frigid cold drove Salian

01:02:44.778 --> 01:02:49.598
- into a cave where a bear was hibernating.

01:03:04.322 --> 01:03:14.115
- the hair on Salian's head. The bear woke up and he growled and he opened his big mouth and before he

01:03:14.115 --> 01:03:23.132
- could chomp down on Salian as a midnight snack, Salian flashed out the biggest, widest grin.

01:03:23.132 --> 01:03:29.822
- It was so wide. It was so bright. It flashed like lightning, stunned

01:03:30.338 --> 01:03:39.375
- rolled back onto the stalactites on the cave and rubbed against the stalactites, which ripped off all

01:03:39.375 --> 01:03:48.323
- his fur that left him with almost nothing on. Embarrassed, he scampered off. Well, there was nothing

01:03:48.323 --> 01:03:57.625
- else for Sally Ann to do except to take that fur and wrap it out around her to stay warm and to continue

01:03:57.625 --> 01:03:59.486
- on with her journey.

01:04:03.810 --> 01:04:16.119
- She saw a fella in a strange predicament. He had his head stuck between two tree trunks. And to make

01:04:16.119 --> 01:04:28.551
- things more miserable, there were two eagles pecking on his head. And so Salianne began to chase away

01:04:28.551 --> 01:04:33.182
- the eagles and she decided to scream.

01:04:39.042 --> 01:04:48.850
- was so loud, it blasted off all the colors off the top of the bald eagle's head. Star spangled me banner.

01:04:48.850 --> 01:04:58.104
- I just about created the first American bald eagles. How about that? Well, she wasn't done yet. She

01:04:58.104 --> 01:05:04.766
- had to yank the man out of the tree trunks. And so she shook the bushes

01:05:05.058 --> 01:05:15.154
- and found six rattler snakes that she knotted up into a lasso, and she used that to yank the man out

01:05:15.154 --> 01:05:25.450
- of the tree trunks. The man was speechless in admiration. He said, my heart, my heart is pounding like

01:05:25.450 --> 01:05:34.846
- a buffalo stampede. Will you, will you, will you marry me? Well, suddenly I thought about it.

01:05:35.170 --> 01:05:44.346
- for a minute and thought, I guess that's a fine idea. Let's get married. And so Sally Ann Thunderen

01:05:44.346 --> 01:05:53.797
- and David Crockett got married and they moved to a farmhouse right along the mighty Mississippi River.

01:05:53.797 --> 01:06:03.065
- Not long after they moved into the farmhouse, David Crockett had to leave for Washington, D.C. to be

01:06:03.065 --> 01:06:04.350
- a politician.

01:06:06.690 --> 01:06:14.477
- A few nights after he was away, there was a gang of bull alligators that were floating up and down the

01:06:14.477 --> 01:06:22.113
- Mississippi. When they saw the farmhouse, they thought the roof was just a perfect place for them to

01:06:22.113 --> 01:06:29.825
- play king of the mountain whereby they would fight to say who could stay on top the longest. Now they

01:06:29.825 --> 01:06:36.478
- began climbing up the rooftop and when Sally Ann heard them, she said, get off my roof.

01:06:36.898 --> 01:06:45.232
- off my roof. But the alligators were too busy. They were too busy playing. They didn't pay any attention

01:06:45.232 --> 01:06:53.486
- to her. So Sally Ann grabbed the tail of one of the alligators and she started whirling the alligator's

01:06:53.486 --> 01:07:01.503
- tail and the alligator that went with it faster and faster and harder and harder until she kicked up

01:07:01.503 --> 01:07:05.630
- a tornado that blew all the alligators up and down.

01:07:06.050 --> 01:07:15.499
- Mississippi. And you know what? For three straight days, it was raining alligator all the way from Minnesota

01:07:15.499 --> 01:07:24.168
- where the Mississippi started all the way to New Orleans where the river flowed into the Gulf. When

01:07:24.168 --> 01:07:32.491
- Davy Crockett came home, he was so proud, so proud of Sally Ann Thunder and he said, Sally Ann,

01:07:32.491 --> 01:07:34.398
- Sally Ann, let's have

01:07:34.882 --> 01:07:46.243
- 30 children. Well, folks, the story didn't tell us how many children they eventually had. But knowing

01:07:46.243 --> 01:07:57.937
- Sally Ann, Thunder Ann, Whirlwind Crockett, who could out-talk, out-grin, out-run, out-scream, out-whirl

01:07:57.937 --> 01:08:04.286
- just about anything she wanted to, she could have had 30

01:08:05.538 --> 01:08:25.354
- 60, 90, or more children if she wanted to. So there. Hello. My name is Jonathan, and we're going to

01:08:25.354 --> 01:08:35.262
- go just a little bit further past the Mississippi

01:08:35.522 --> 01:08:45.275
- to Kansas for this tale. This is the story What Gold? And it is from a collection called Sweet Land

01:08:45.275 --> 01:08:55.125
- of Story by Pleasant de Spain. Now Charles H. Withington moved with his wife down to southern Kansas

01:08:55.125 --> 01:09:01.854
- in 1853. And Charles opened up the very first dry goods store there.

01:09:02.658 --> 01:09:10.087
- Now in those days, there wasn't a bank in Council Grove, and so the Withingtons had to keep their own

01:09:10.087 --> 01:09:17.517
- accounts. Now since business was largely conducted in gold in those days, this means that after a few

01:09:17.517 --> 01:09:24.801
- years, the Withingtons had quite a store of valuable gold coins. Now Mr. Withington, he trusted his

01:09:24.801 --> 01:09:30.846
- wife's judgment more than he trusted his own. He was a wise man, wouldn't you say?

01:09:31.938 --> 01:09:39.388
- And so it was Mrs. Withington's job to store the gold. Now, Mrs. Withington was as smart as she was

01:09:39.388 --> 01:09:46.913
- strong, and so she was well up to the task. Now, one day, Charles had to leave town on business, but

01:09:46.913 --> 01:09:54.661
- he was worried about leaving his wife at home all alone. You see, just the other day, the Anderson gang

01:09:54.661 --> 01:09:57.790
- had been spotted in the next county over.

01:09:58.530 --> 01:10:05.607
- Now the Anderson gang, they were a family of rough riders, three sons, and one father, and they had

01:10:05.607 --> 01:10:12.827
- a terrible reputation for going around and taking from folks anything that they so happened to fancy.

01:10:12.827 --> 01:10:20.116
- Oh, I don't know if I should go, dear. The Andersons are around and, oh, they've certainly heard about

01:10:20.116 --> 01:10:25.566
- our gold at this point. What if they come and try to take it while I'm gone?

01:10:28.930 --> 01:10:36.629
- What gold is that, darling?" said Mrs. Withington. There's no gold here. You go on along. I will be

01:10:36.629 --> 01:10:44.482
- fine. Okay, whatever you say, but I will be back by nightfall at the latest. And so Charles got up on

01:10:44.482 --> 01:10:52.336
- his horse and he rode off as fast as he could to do his business. Now it was wash day that day and so

01:10:52.336 --> 01:10:58.110
- Mrs. Withington, she went out on the porch and she took out two saw horses

01:10:58.338 --> 01:11:06.398
- and she set them up on the porch and she got down a great big wash tub and she set it right on those

01:11:06.398 --> 01:11:14.379
- sawhorses and she filled it up with cold well water, put in a great big stack of very dirty clothes

01:11:14.379 --> 01:11:22.519
- and a whole mountain of soap and she just started in washing. And now it wasn't long, you see, before

01:11:22.519 --> 01:11:26.430
- she noticed a cloud of dust off in the distance.

01:11:27.618 --> 01:11:34.632
- It was the Anderson gang, and they were coming right for her cabin. Now, Mrs. Withington, she knew the

01:11:34.632 --> 01:11:41.033
- Anderson family from back years ago, before they went bad, when the boys were about knee-high

01:11:41.033 --> 01:11:47.910
- to a jackrabbit. And so, she showed no fear when those four men rode into her yard. Well, howdy, Mr.

01:11:47.910 --> 01:11:54.788
- Anderson. You and your boys look thirsty. There's a well just around the other side of the cabin. Go

01:11:54.788 --> 01:11:56.286
- on and help yourself.

01:11:57.730 --> 01:12:06.603
- Thank you kindly, Mrs. Withington," said Mr. Anderson. My boys and I certainly are thirsty and hungry,

01:12:06.603 --> 01:12:15.477
- too. I seem to recall a few years ago you invited my family over for a Sunday supper, and the meal was

01:12:15.477 --> 01:12:24.092
- mighty tasty. Go get us something to eat. Well, Mrs. Withington, well, she just stopped her washing

01:12:24.092 --> 01:12:27.710
- coal. Nice of you to remember my cooking.

01:12:28.482 --> 01:12:37.266
- But that was from some years ago before y'all started in robbing folks. And as I recall, you were invited

01:12:37.266 --> 01:12:45.554
- to supper. You didn't just stroll up and order a meal. Why not? Even my husband does that. He shows

01:12:45.554 --> 01:12:54.172
- me the proper respect, why he would ask me, all right, all right, I see where you're getting with this.

01:12:54.172 --> 01:12:56.990
- So I'll ask you, would you please

01:12:57.762 --> 01:13:05.553
- Get us something to eat. My boys and I are hungry. Well, that's better. Come on in. I'll see what I

01:13:05.553 --> 01:13:13.577
- can do. And so Mrs. Withington brought the Anderson gang in, and she gave them a fine meal of cold ham

01:13:13.577 --> 01:13:21.601
- and beans, fresh cornbread, and strong coffee. The man ate it with gusto and offered their compliments

01:13:21.601 --> 01:13:27.678
- politely. Polishing off the last of his cornbread, Mr. Anderson said, mm, ah.

01:13:27.842 --> 01:13:35.644
- All right now, Mrs. Withington, hand over the gold and we'll be on our way. Now what gold is that?

01:13:35.644 --> 01:13:43.762
- The gold? From your husband's store? Everyone knows that you are the one in charge of it. Hand it over

01:13:43.762 --> 01:13:51.958
- and there'll be no trouble. Well, I am sorry, Mr. Anderson, you must be mistaken. There's no gold here.

01:13:51.958 --> 01:13:57.790
- Mr. Withington would never leave a thing around like that for you to just

01:13:58.018 --> 01:14:06.846
- Steel? You'll excuse me if I don't believe you. Now hand it over. There is nothing to hand over. We

01:14:06.846 --> 01:14:15.673
- will search this cabin, and I doubt that I could stop you. Anyway, I have got to finish my washing.

01:14:15.673 --> 01:14:24.678
- And so, Mrs. Withington, she went back out to the porch to finish her washing, and the Andersons just

01:14:24.678 --> 01:14:27.326
- tore that little cabin apart.

01:14:27.842 --> 01:14:34.730
- They pulled out every drawer. They opened every cupboard and closet. They threw everything onto the

01:14:34.730 --> 01:14:41.136
- floor. They ripped open the mattress and all of the pillows. There were feathers everywhere.

01:14:41.136 --> 01:14:48.024
- But no gold. When they had moved every single little piece of furniture in that cabin, they started

01:14:48.024 --> 01:14:53.534
- just banging on the walls and the floors, listening for a hollow spot. Nothing.

01:14:54.370 --> 01:15:02.436
- And when the inside of the cabin had been thoroughly checked, they went outside and they looked all

01:15:02.436 --> 01:15:10.584
- the walls over real close. And they climbed up to the roof and they looked around up there. And they

01:15:10.584 --> 01:15:18.811
- went under the porch and they found a lot of dirt, but no gold. They even looked. They even looked in

01:15:18.811 --> 01:15:23.006
- the outhouse. Yeah. Nothing. Finally, Mr. Anderson,

01:15:23.170 --> 01:15:30.346
- Why, he walked right up to Mrs. Withington doing her washing, and he pulled his pistol out of his holster,

01:15:30.346 --> 01:15:37.321
- and he pointed it directly at her and said, all right, lady, I have had it. You tell us where that gold

01:15:37.321 --> 01:15:44.027
- is or else. Well, Mrs. Withington, well, she just looked him dead in the eye, and she said, you may

01:15:44.027 --> 01:15:50.398
- as well pull the trigger, Mr. Anderson, because like I told you before, there is no gold here.

01:15:51.682 --> 01:15:59.710
- Mr. Anderson stood. He knew when he'd been beat. And so he called his boys over, and all four of them

01:15:59.710 --> 01:16:07.738
- just rode back the way they came. Mrs. Withington, she just finished up her washing like she intended

01:16:07.738 --> 01:16:15.687
- to do, right about the time her husband got home. When he did, he got off his horse and ran over and

01:16:15.687 --> 01:16:21.118
- gave her a great big hug. Oh, I heard the Andersons paid us a visit.

01:16:22.242 --> 01:16:32.399
- Did they get the gold? Oh, you mean this gold? And Mrs. Withington, well, she reached her hand down

01:16:32.399 --> 01:16:42.555
- into that wash tub and she pulled out that big sack of gold right from where it had laid hidden all

01:16:42.555 --> 01:16:48.446
- day long under nothing but soapy water and soggy clothes.

01:16:59.234 --> 01:17:09.370
- Good evening. I'm Patty Jackson Smith-Jonathan, and I'd like to sing you another song. Oh, Shenandoah,

01:17:09.370 --> 01:17:10.846
- I long to hear

01:17:55.202 --> 01:17:55.550
- to the

01:18:38.626 --> 01:18:47.075
- I'm Ginny Ritchie, and we started this program, Kellyn started the program with a story from a book

01:18:47.075 --> 01:18:55.523
- called Sand in the Bag. Sand in the Bag is stories, folk tales collected by M.A. Jagendorf in Ohio,

01:18:55.523 --> 01:19:04.226
- Indiana, and Illinois. So I'm going to end with another story from Sand in the Bag. Oh, a little promo

01:19:04.226 --> 01:19:05.662
- for the library.

01:19:06.114 --> 01:19:17.941
- If you are interested in this sort of folktales, there's a copy of Sand in the Bag right upstairs in

01:19:17.941 --> 01:19:30.001
- the Indiana Room. And you can see it when the library is open. Now, M. A. Jagendorf collected stories.

01:19:30.001 --> 01:19:34.334
- He had a curious method of doing so.

01:19:34.914 --> 01:19:43.359
- Once he'd identified someone that told good stories, he'd sit down and say, let me tell you a story.

01:19:43.359 --> 01:19:51.804
- And you know, one story always leads to another. And sure enough, the person he was talking to would

01:19:51.804 --> 01:20:00.500
- say, well, that reminds me of a tale or I know that one a little different. Let me tell you my version.

01:20:00.500 --> 01:20:02.590
- And so, he would collect

01:20:02.722 --> 01:20:14.114
- Oh, more stories than he could put in one book. And one of them, he was sitting down with Louis B. Richardson

01:20:14.114 --> 01:20:23.952
- in Trafalgar. And I believe he might have told him a story from Ohio about how great Ohio was.

01:20:23.952 --> 01:20:32.030
- Because Mr. Richardson said, well now, Indiana's a grand state. Why, Indiana?

01:20:32.418 --> 01:20:43.381
- has some of the smartest people in the entire country living right here. Of course, it also has. Let

01:20:43.381 --> 01:20:53.801
- me tell you a story about that. One fine day, there was two fellas sitting in an old corn crib,

01:20:53.801 --> 01:21:01.182
- shelling corn. Now, the corn crib was dim and shady, it was full of

01:21:01.314 --> 01:21:10.015
- dry corn, and they were sitting cross-legged on the half-rotten punching floor. You don't have to have

01:21:10.015 --> 01:21:18.632
- light or pay much attention to shell corn. And so it's a fine time to talk. Now, the one sitting over

01:21:18.632 --> 01:21:27.079
- there by the upturned barrel with the dark shadows beneath it, that was Lem. And he was the farmer.

01:21:27.079 --> 01:21:31.134
- And the other one, that was little Jimmy Hodge.

01:21:32.098 --> 01:21:42.223
- He was the farmhand. Lem said, Jimmy, what was you making such a ruckus about last night? Oh,

01:21:42.223 --> 01:21:53.209
- I was scared, said Jimmy. I was scared of ghosts. What ghosts? Oh, them little tiny ones, them little

01:21:53.209 --> 01:22:00.318
- bitty ones with the shooting lanterns. Them wasn't ghosts, Jimmy.

01:22:01.346 --> 01:22:15.475
- them was lightning bugs. Well, maybe some was. But some wasn't. I know. Talking about being scared,

01:22:15.475 --> 01:22:29.886
- said Lynn, did I ever tell you about the time I met a bear, a big one? No, said Jimmy. What'd you do?

01:22:31.522 --> 01:22:44.150
- I run. The bear run after me. Did he catch you? No, I climbed up a corn stalk, got away from him. What?

01:22:44.150 --> 01:22:56.414
- Oh yeah, we grew corn big in them days. Why, that corn stalk was taller than the barn, and it was as

01:22:56.414 --> 01:23:00.542
- big around as an old swamp maple.

01:23:04.546 --> 01:23:13.108
- to show how big that corn stalk had been. And from that dark hole under the upturned barrel, they came

01:23:13.108 --> 01:23:21.669
- a something, a long slender something, and it struck his hand, and struck again, and struck once more.

01:23:21.669 --> 01:23:29.566
- I've been bit, he scrambled to his feet. It was a copperhead, said Jimmy. You're going to die.

01:23:40.706 --> 01:23:49.199
- top of their voices, copperhead, copperhead. Well, that got everybody's attention. All the kids stopped

01:23:49.199 --> 01:23:57.937
- their playing and their chores and came running. And Lem went in and laid himself down on the bed, holding

01:23:57.937 --> 01:24:06.266
- his hand up and moaning and groaning and saying, I've been bit by a copperhead. I'm going to die. Oh,

01:24:06.266 --> 01:24:08.798
- no. Everybody started yelling.

01:24:11.906 --> 01:24:19.784
- screaming and crying because everybody knows the bite of a copperhead is certain death. But the women,

01:24:19.784 --> 01:24:27.508
- they had ideas, things they could do. Why, bile up a polstice and pull that poison out. Oh, tie your

01:24:27.508 --> 01:24:35.768
- apron around his arm real tight so it'll keep the blood from flowing back into his heart. And corn liquor's

01:24:35.768 --> 01:24:40.510
- real good for snake bites, said Jimmy. I get the corn liquor.

01:24:42.882 --> 01:24:53.353
- Dan's wife called their oldest son Dan and said, Dan, saddle up the horse and go for the doctor, quick

01:24:53.353 --> 01:25:03.722
- as you can. When the doctor walked into the room, it was pure pandemonium. He could hardly tell which

01:25:03.722 --> 01:25:09.822
- one of them had been bit for the screaming and the yelling.

01:25:10.178 --> 01:25:20.778
- and the dog barking and the baby bawling and the sobbing and the, oh my goodness, but finally they quieted

01:25:20.778 --> 01:25:31.081
- down when he went to examine Lem's hand. Well, you've been bit, all right. Did you see the critter that

01:25:31.081 --> 01:25:36.926
- bit you? I did, said Jimmy. I saw it. It was a copperhead.

01:25:37.442 --> 01:25:47.319
- It was as thick as your arm and as long as law. Hmm, said the doctor. Hmm. Well, Jimmy, you and I better

01:25:47.319 --> 01:25:56.726
- go down to that corn crib and take care of that critter before it bites somebody else. You see that

01:25:56.726 --> 01:26:07.262
- iron poker there by the stove? You get that nice and hot, and we'll go burn it out. Jimmy was not enthusiastic.

01:26:09.826 --> 01:26:18.165
- But the doctor said to do it. So he wrapped a rag around that poker. And they went down. They got it

01:26:18.165 --> 01:26:26.420
- real hot. It was practically glowing red. They went in the corn crib, and he showed the doctor over

01:26:26.420 --> 01:26:33.438
- there, under that barrel. What are you waiting for, said the doctor. Give it a poke.

01:27:04.098 --> 01:27:15.050
- in all of Indiana. She was squawking, she was flopping, feathers were flying. Hmm, said the doctor,

01:27:15.050 --> 01:27:26.003
- hmm, she must have eggs under there. Reckoned she didn't like old Lin getting too close. The doctor

01:27:26.003 --> 01:27:32.574
- looked at Jimmy. Jimmy looked like a sheep out in the rain.

01:27:35.010 --> 01:27:46.377
- I guess he isn't going to die. You'd be right," said the doctor. Let's go tell him. Now, when they went

01:27:46.377 --> 01:27:57.853
- back in the room, it was subdued. Oh, yeah, there were sobs, little sobs and sniffles, but mostly people

01:27:57.853 --> 01:28:02.334
- were resigned. But then the doctor said,

01:28:04.450 --> 01:28:18.038
- Well, Lem, you are not going to die. Lem sat up. He sat on the edge of the bed. And then the doctor

01:28:18.038 --> 01:28:27.550
- told him why. There was silence while this information was processed.

01:28:34.178 --> 01:28:45.444
- by one. It occurred to them what had really happened. The baby did the laugh. They couldn't help it.

01:28:45.444 --> 01:28:57.380
- The kids were giggling. And even the doctor had a big grin on his face. Everybody in the room was laughing

01:28:57.380 --> 01:29:02.846
- and smiling, except Lam. He looked kind of dour.

01:29:04.450 --> 01:29:15.400
- He was card turning red. He knew. He knew all right. For the rest of his natural born days, every time

01:29:15.400 --> 01:29:26.243
- somebody saw him, there'd be that smile. There'd be that snicker. And he'd know they were thinking or

01:29:26.243 --> 01:29:34.110
- saying, oh, look, there goes that fool. There's a man that was so foolish

01:29:34.434 --> 01:29:48.805
- that he couldn't tell the difference between being snake bit and being hand picked. So it was. We're

01:29:48.805 --> 01:30:02.750
- so glad you came out tonight. Thank you so much for coming. And I want to repeat what Laura said.

01:30:03.042 --> 01:30:10.798
- Thanks to the Monroe County Public Library for its strong support of storytelling and of the Bloomington

01:30:10.798 --> 01:30:18.406
- Storytellers Guild. And also, our deepest appreciation for the crew that has recorded this performance

01:30:18.406 --> 01:30:26.236
- and many of our other performances. And you know, you can go on the library's website and you can request

01:30:26.236 --> 01:30:31.998
- any of those performances, which is a great service. We really appreciate it.

01:30:34.018 --> 01:30:42.405
- Now, if you're thinking of a story, because as MA Jagendorff discovered, if you tell a story, it gets

01:30:42.405 --> 01:30:51.038
- other people thinking about stories. And if you're thinking that you've got a story you'd like to share,

01:30:51.038 --> 01:30:59.425
- well, you watch the library's announcements for our meeting in September, or check our Facebook page,

01:30:59.425 --> 01:31:03.454
- or our Instagram, or one of those things, and we

01:31:03.586 --> 01:31:18.473
- be right glad to hear your tale. I'll leave you with a bit of old Hoosier wisdom. You ready? M. A. Jagendorf

01:31:18.473 --> 01:31:33.086
- wrote this in the book at the end of the story I just told, Copperhead in the Bin. So, genuine folk wisdom

01:31:34.146 --> 01:31:48.629
- from 1953, that's when the book came out, maybe 52. Remember well and keep in mind an old cow's tail

01:31:48.629 --> 01:31:54.078
- falls down behind. See you next time.