A Note from the President

Hello, my friends,

Who is the hero in your life? Is it your mother, your father? Maybe it is a national leader, like Martin Luther King, Jr. or a teacher who stimulated your imagination. It could be an unselfish employee who gave their time for others.

This month is a time to celebrate heroes and patriots. September 11, 2021, is the twentieth anniversary of the attack in New York City. Lives were lost and saved by so many. These are our patriots, our heroes. Their stories live on.

Keep telling stories and I hope to see you soon on Zoom.Our next Zoom event is September 11, which is the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, otherwise known as Patriots Day. We will feature four storytellers, Jim “Two Crows” Wallen, Christine Henderson, Mark Armato and Molly Postlewaite, telling stories of American patriots throughout our history.

Joyce Slater

President, MO-TELL

A Note from the President

Hello my friends,

How in the world did August get here so soon? The summer reading programs have come to an end and schools are starting soon. I want more time with this season to keep the kid in me alive.

When I was a kid, my dad always planned a vacation for August. We didn’t start school until after Labor Day, so we had plenty of time to get away. Those vacations were something. He saved up a couple hundred bucks, packed us in an old car and we headed west to California, hitting every relative along the way. I am sure there were many stories after the Johnson’s left town. There were six of us kids and Mom and Dad. I know our aunts and uncles breathed a sigh of relief when we left, but it was great fun for all of us.

Tell some of those old summer vacation tales to your kids or your grandkids before school starts. Keep those stories alive.

MO-TELL will be keeping the stories alive both virtually and in-person this month and into the Fall. We will try to have an in-person event in October in the St. Louis area. In all things we must be flexible.

Keep telling stories and I hope to see you soon on Zoom. Our next Zoom event is August 13 and it features Brian Fox Ellis, Carol Birch and Deb Swanegan.

Joyce Slater

President, MO-TELL

Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all.

-Hans Christian Andersen

Story of the Month: A Peruvian Legend

The Inca did not have horses or cows. Llamas were the important animal high in the Andes mountains. Llamas provided the Inca with wool, food, and a way to transport goods. Llamas were not worshipped, but they well cared for. The Inca believed that once upon a time, llamas could talk.

There was a time when some people forgot the gods. They were greedy, and spent all their time fighting with each other instead of working in the fields and worshipping their gods. Only people high in the Andes Mountains behaved as people should.

The gods were not angry at the people who lived high in the mountains. They were not angry with the good llamas who served these people well. But they were very angry with the greedy people who lived in the valley below.

One day, the good people who lived high in the Andes Mountains noticed that their llamas were staring up at the sky. The llamas told the good people that the gods had told them that a terrible flood was coming and to hide as high in the mountains as they could.

All the good people, and all the llamas packed food for a long stay, and climbed to the top of the mountain peaks, where the gods lived. They were just in time. The very next day, a big wave came. It was so big and so high that it almost reached the mountain peaks. The big wave swept all the bad people away.