Story of the Month: An Excerpt from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

The migrant workers scuttling for work, scrabbling to live, looked always for pleasure dug for pleasure, manufactured pleasure, and they were hungry for amusement. Sometimes amusement lay in speech and they climbed up their lives with jokes. And it came about in the camps along the road, on the ditch banks, beside the streams, under the sycamores, that the storyteller grew into being, so that the people gathered in the low fire light to hear the gifted ones. And they listened while the tales were told, and their participation made the stories great.

I was a recruit for Geronimo---

And the people listened, and their quiet eyes reflected the dying fire.

Them Injuns was cute - slick as snakes, an quiet when they wanted, could go thru dried leaves and make no rustle, you try doin that sometime” and the people listened and remembered the crash of dry leaves under their feet.....

And the people listened, and their faces were quiet with listening. The storytellers, gathering attention into their tales, spoke in great rhythms, spoke in great words because the tales were great, and the listeners became great through them.

As we celebrate the holidays and are grateful for our blessings let us remember the migrants and the immigrants and those running from persecution. Be sure to share their tales and pray that they find a warm hearth to reflect in their eyes.

Story of the Month: The Owl & the Grasshopper

The Owl always takes her sleep during the day. Then after sundown, when the rosy light fades from the sky and the shadows rise slowly through the wood, out she comes ruffling and blinking from the old hollow tree. Now her weird "hoo-hoo-hoo-oo-oo" echoes through the quiet wood, and she begins her hunt for the bugs and beetles, frogs and mice she likes so well to eat.

Now there was a certain old Owl who had become very cross and hard to please as she grew older, especially if anything disturbed her daily slumbers. One warm summer afternoon as she dozed away in her den in the old oak tree, a Grasshopper nearby began a joyous but very raspy song. Out popped the old Owl's head from the opening in the tree that served her both for door and for window.

"Get away from here, sir," she said to the Grasshopper. "Have you no manners? You should at least respect my age and leave me to sleep in quiet!"

But the Grasshopper answered saucily that he had as much right to his place in the sun as the Owl had to her place in the old oak. Then he struck up a louder and still more rasping tune.

The wise old Owl knew quite well that it would do no good to argue with the Grasshopper, nor with anybody else for that matter. Besides, her eyes were not sharp enough by day to permit her to punish the Grasshopper as he deserved. So she laid aside all hard words and spoke very kindly to him.

"Well sir," she said, "if I must stay awake, I am going to settle right down to enjoy your singing. Now that I think of it, I have a wonderful wine here, sent me from Olympus, of which I am told Apollo drinks before he sings to the high gods. Please come up and taste this delicious drink with me. I know it will make you sing like Apollo himself."

The foolish Grasshopper was taken in by the Owl's flattering words. Up he jumped to the Owl's den, but as soon as he was near enough so the old Owl could see him clearly, she pounced upon him and ate him up.

Flattery is not a proof of true admiration. Do not let flattery throw you off your guard against an enemy.

MO-TELL Member of the Month: Karen Young

Stories have been an essential part of my life since I was first told, “Turn off your flashlight, stop reading and go to sleep!” After spending ten years spinning corporate marketing and public relations stories, I became a stay at home Mom. Telling bedtime stories to my toddler daughter was followed by telling stories at her preschool. The school director asked me to tell Christmas stories at the annual party and afterwards handed me a check for $50. What?!? Storytelling was a career?!?

That May I heard about the St. Louis Storytelling Festival at the Arch. As I listened spellbound to teller after teller, including Sue Hinkel, I discovered what I wanted to be when malls and festivals. As a storytelling teaching artist with Springboard, I have performed and taught students of all ages and abilities about storytelling and story writing. I have witnessed how Story tickles your funny bone, engages your mind and opens your heart.

My passion for Story has expanded to including costumes, props and puppets whenever I can. “Have wand, Will travel” was my original catch phrase when I began my career as a faerie storyteller and writer. As my stories and I matured I included tales from around the world and character portrayals from history and folklore. A magical trip to Ireland inspired an ever- expanding collection of Celtic tales and I enjoy writing original faerie and personal stories. Our stories have the power to both entertain and educate our audiences and I continue to believe my stories are “for the young at heart and ancient in spirit.”

And by the way, I no longer use a flashlight at night. I have a Kindle.