The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History held its second storytelling event Saturday in the museum courtyard. Judging from the reactions of the children in the audience, the art still connects on many levels for listeners as well as tellers.
Surry County Imagine That! Storytellers Guild representative Terri Ingalls said the group is always interested in people who want to listen as well a learn to be storytellers.
“These oral traditions still register on every level,” said Ingalls. “All storytellers are different. That’s what I love about it. There’s always a connection. We (the guild) meet on the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Mount Airy Library and the meeting is open to everyone.”
She said the guild’s meetings are casual and also provide a supportive atmosphere for participants to try out new material and hone it with the suggestions of their peers. Ingalls will be the next featured storyteller at the museum’s third event set for the second Saturday of the month at 2 p.m. Persons may obtain more information about the guild by calling 336-251-3806.
“This is a new program for us. We do historical talks during the fall and winter and we looked at this as a family friendly thing to do during the summer,” said museum Executive Director Matthew Edwards. “We’ve been impressed with the response to this and the first one and are looking at adding more storytelling programs based on this success.” Persons who want more information on ongoing Museum programs may call 336-786-4478.
Storyteller Vicky Town was the featured performer Saturday. The Philadelphia native, who lives in Fancy Gap, Va., told a story about two Irish sisters, Mary and Margaret. Town told the group about a huge giant kidnapping Margaret. Mary, a tiny girl, went after the giant armed with a small axe and shovel and 52 cupcakes in a dainty backpack.
After helping a frustrated leprechaun find his glasses, Mary was rewarded with a pair of almost microscopic pink fairy shoes by the enchanted little shoe cobbler who clued her in that Margaret is being held captive in Glass Mountain, which is notoriously hard to climb.
Mary discovered the enchanted pink shoes will grow to fit her feet and she climbs the mountain and challenges the giant to a contest of strength. She dares him to ram his head through a large tree. He tries and knocks himself unconscious. While the giant is out Mary tells her sister of her plan and proceeds to carve out a hole in the tree with her axe. She covers this with thin tree bark. She wakes the giant up and wins the contest by seeming to ram her head into the tree.
The giant, not one to be put off from a meal, convinces the girls to stay overnight. Mary uses her shovel to make a low wall of dirt and rock at the mouth of the cave and places logs under the girls’ sleeping blankets as they hide. The giant awakes and snaps the logs in two, thinking it is the girls. He goes back to sleep but is frightened in the morning as the girls launch a barrage of questions at him. The giant backs up in fear, trips and shatters as he falls off the mountain. The girls take his gold and help their family and the entire village.
Town also told another story of a heroic Chinese girl who earns the name Paper Flower after outwitting an evil woman and her bratty children who torment her. Paper Flower could only return home with her pay to help her family if she wrapped fire, water and wind in paper. She does this by making a lamp, a drinking cup and a fan and earns money to help her family for the rest of their days by making beautiful things from paper.
