I have a rarely used Facebook page; It’s just not an app I appreciate. But the intro on that page gives these details: applied anthropologist, video documentarian, scribbler of stories, former folksinger, and raconteur.
I have had a lifelong predilection for stories. Telling stories by way of music introduced me to the world of folksinging. Interest in the stories of others led me to anthropology, and eventually, I started spinning my own – laying claim, therefore, to the title of a raconteur.
I grew up in a storytelling and story-concealing family. The best stories were those told over drinks at holidays when my father and uncles would spin out the effervescent, improbable, and amazing story of their interestingly spent youths.
My mother, on the other hand, was a story concealer. There was a fascinating back story, but it was wreathed in secrecy. When pressed, she claimed to be an heiress and waited for the lawyers to resolve the inheritance. When she came into her fortune, everything would change.
In fact, over long years, we uncovered bits and pieces much more interesting than the cover story. There are complex family origin stories and Henry Morgan’s pirates involved. But she was silent on all of that.
I became a raconteur by listening to what was told and what was concealed.
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Nice post ✍️
thanks
Welcome 🙏freinds
You do it so well – the storytelling!
You’re a good story-teller. I get the “story concealer.” Lots of that in my family, too, and then back-stories would leak out dumping an incredible amount of information in just a few cryptic remarks. The funniest was when hyphenating last names became a thing in the late 70s. I had a good friend whose last name was Kennedy. He was very gay. We joked about getting married so we could hyphenate our names. I told my grandma because I thought it was funny. She was dead serious when she said, “No, no, no, no, no. Before you marry any Kennedy come and talk to me.”
One of the things I am now considering is what to do with years of field ethnography tapes. Lots of family secrets on them, told in condfidance of secrecy. Only the stuff relating to the saints society is safe to donate easily.
Your comment hits the target exactly for some of my other material. It’s not quite the same thing for folks who worked abroad. I worked right here just 70 or so miles from where I now live. Good point and thanks for promting me to think about it.
And I didn’t even know I was prompting anything!
I enjoyed reading this and I learned a new word today. I love story telling as well, not everyone likes to hear them though. 🙂 Happy New Year, Lou.