For what it may be worth, J. G. Pinkerton created the "Tellabration" concept while he served on the NAPPS board.
I served on the board with J. G. and considered him to be an outstanding advocate for storytelling. When he raised the Tellabration idea, I supported him and the overall concept with one exception. I urged J. G. to call it "Tellebration" to emphasize and mirror the celebration dimension.
J. G. rejected my suggestion and refused to change or even consider my spelling suggestion.
He was a great friend, and our disagreement on spelling had no impact on our mutual respect. It was his baby, and he deserved the right to name it.
To this day, I regret that my effort to call it Tellebration failed, and I still believe it is a better name.
This minor footnote may be of little interest, but I offer for the record.
All best,
Ron Turner
This month, a special treat! Sue, during her recent move, has unearthed an obscure, esoteric tome about storytelling that has been long-missed and feared lost. Sadly only a portion of the document survived the Great flood of 1973 and the tragic periodical purge of 1986. Still, Sue is an avid preserver of all great Storytelling counsel, and presents this to us for our benefit.*
Hello, my friends,
Fall is here and we will soon be pulling out sweaters and jackets to keep ourselves snuggly warm. I hate to see Summer go, but I look forward to the changes Fall brings. There are different colors, cooler temperatures and shorter days. Fall offers so many celebrations too and with them different stories. The season and the stories draw us close together in warmth. Families gather to share their stories of harvest, Halloween, Day of the Dead, Thanksgiving and more, including Tellabration!
MO-TELL will celebrate Tellabration with two events. There will be a Zoom Tellabration Kickoff with Elizabeth Ellis on Sunday, November 17 at 5:30 pm and an in-person Tellabration in St. Louis with Ken Wolfe, Papa and Jackie Wright, Lee Giezentanner, and Joyce Slater on Thursday, November 21 at 7 pm at the Chapel (6238 Alexander Drive, St. Louis, MO 63105) on the edge of Forest Park.
Enjoy the change in seasons and stories and we will see you at Tellabration!
Keep telling your stories.
Joyce Slater
President, MO-TELL
“Stories create community, enable us to see through the eyes of other people, and open us to the claims of others.”
- Peter Forbes, photographer/author