Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1992)
■* *S9» • - ii Often the best storyteller is the outsider, the one who’s been left aside but has oral personality. ’’ — Duane Hutchinson - -ft - ~^ -44 I learn the first line and the last line, then see the - scenes’ and tell what I see. — Duane Hutchinson storyteller -ft - X (firotos on jfarme » \ — 44 We wonder why Ameri can education is no good and why we fall behind these other countries. We wouldn’t have to worry about it if we engage kids in learning.... You learn what you are interested about. ” — Richard Kimbrough storyteller --ff - Spinning yarns Storytellers use ancient art to entertain By Jana Pedersen _ _ Centuries ago, before the advent of paper, history was recorded only in memory, passed along by the traveling storyteller. While history of today most often takes the form of video tape or printed pages, a few professional, traditional storytellers still can be found. Like early minstrels, today’s storytell ers keep hundreds of historical scraps in their memories. As their ancient counter parts did, they travel from town to town, telling their tales. And to this day, these modern min strels say, the essence of storytelling remains the same: Stories must entertain and educate. Duane Hutchinson of Lincoln and Richard Kimbrough of Crete are such modern-day storytellers. Hutchinson said the value of folklore could be found in its simple, honest message. “Folklore carries a segment of truth with it,” he said. “I find it’s valuable to look back, because folklore always re flects on issues of the time.” And, over time, Duane Hutchinson has collected many stories. “Hundreds,” he said. In the 12 years he has told stories professionally, Hutchinson has given more than 10,000 programs, has pub lished eight books and has covered at least 30,000 miles a year. And more than 100,000 children have heard his favorite story, about a moun tain lion named Quito who was raised by forest rangers. The rangers adopt the cougar cub and raise it as a pet after she accidentally is picked up by a family visiting a national park. In one of Hutchinson’s books, “Story telling Tips,” he explains how he is able to remember so many stories: “I learn the first line and the last line, then ‘see the scenes’ and tell what I see.” As Hutchinson retells a story, the lis tener sees the scenes, too. In an instant, his voice, filled with quiet expectancy, changes the scene from classroom or liv ing room to a forest, to a deserted island or to another, faraway place. During one presentation, Hutchinson said, an interruption caused him to pause for a moment, and he asked, “Where were we?” A child in the audience pointed to a corner of the room and said the character was “over there.” And then, as the story ends, the scene returns to Hutchinson’s ever-present smile, his thinning, silver hair, his smooth yet expressive face. For Kimbrough, storytelling is a powerful teaching tool. Kimbrough said he turned to his profession be cause he thought history could best be taught through storytelling. He became a professional storyteller in 1980 after teaching history for 23 years. “I decided that history is a subject that the way it’s normally taught is not inter esting,” he said. “We wonder why American education is no good and why we fall behind these other countries,” he said. “We wouldn’t have to worry about it if we engage kids in learning. . . . You learn what you are interested about.” Kimbrough said one of his stories about the assassination of President Lincoln begins with Lincoln remembering a dream from before his death. In the dream, Lincoln sees a casket and asks whose body is in it. “A man tells him it is the body of the president,” Kimbrough said, “and he’s been assassinated.” After that beginning, Kimbrough said, listeners are engaged in the story. “The listener’s age doesn’t matter,” he said. “They can be kindergarteners or they can be 65 years old.” To teach history, Kimbrough said, he tries to make historical characters come alive. If he’s successful, he said, listeners will go to the library after the story to read more about the character. For some of his stories, Kimbrough said, he becomes characters of his own creation. One of his most popular characters is Victor Ustinov, a Russian who is un happy with his country’s i,urn away from communism. Assuming the character, Kimbrough’s deep, grandfatherly voice slips into flaw less Russian accent. To make the charac ter even more convincing, he begins the story speaking in Russian. Most listeners don’t figure out he’s American until 30 to 45 minutes into the story, he said. Another character requires the 60 year old to don wig and phony beard. As Loof Lirpa, an economist originally from Nor way who now lives in Burbank, Calif., Kimbrough predicts the economic col lapse of the Midwest. Through this character, Kimbrough makes students “realize that unless we make provisions for the future, this kind of thing could happen,” he said. By the time the students figure out that Lirpa is an imposter, they also may figure out that his name, spelled backwards, is April Fool. Kimbrough said his first story telling practice came from teach inghis five children about history when they were young. To this day, he said, his children remember a story he taught them to help memorize the presidents’ names in order. One of the most important lessons he tries to teach children is to use their imaginations, he said. “For little kids, I tell them I had no TV when 1 was little,” he said. Once the children get over the shock of that statement, Kimbrough tells them about the first time he saw a television. He watched a baseball game and didn’t like it as well as games on the radio. “On radio, you can see it in your imagi nation,” he said. “With TV and with movies, I think ithas an effect of limiting our imagination sometimes.” As a youth, Kimbrough said, he was a big baseball fan. He used to listen to games on the radio and imagine the play ers in the field. “Today I don’t even watch (baseball) anymore,” he said. “TV sort of takes the fun of imagination out of it.” Hutchinson said that storytelling, on the other hand, is an active, recreational activity for children. “I find children very quick to make pictures in their minds. ... They’d much rather hear a story than see it on televi sion.” Some of the children who hear Hutch inson’s stories become storytellers them selves, he said. “Lots of times we find that the kid who wasn’t tops in his class . . . discovers storytellingas somethinghe can do or she can do.” Children who would make good story tellers often do not discover their talents, because education in school depends on written, not verbal, work, Hutchinson said. -——-——•—— — “Often the best storyteller is the out sider, the one who’s been left aside but has oral personality,” he said. And Kimbrough said the best storytell ers had active imaginations. “I think imagination is a wonderful thing, and that stories go hand in hand (with imagination).” Good storytelling also requires good memory, he said. Kimbrough’s favorite history teacher, who lived to age 91 and inspired his storytelling, had “a terrific memory,” he said. Kimbrough said the teacher kept two memories in mind while teaching: “One, what it was like to be 8 years old and afraid ofthe bully on the playground. And two, what it was like to be 16 and have unrequited love.” Keeping such memories in mind allows teachers, and storytellers, to identify with the children they are trying to reach, Kimbrough said. Hutchinson’s mentor was the fa mous traveling storyteller Hen rietta Child. The daughter of a Harvard University professor who specialized in folklore, Child spent part of her life walking throughout the Appalachian Mountains telling stories at schools and giving aid to needy children. In the late 1940s, Hutchinson met Child, who was then in her 80s, while he was studying at Berea College Founda tion School in Kentucky. “She told me then that I was going to be a storyteller,” Hutchinson said. “And I knew it.” Now, the 62-year-old gives about 20 programs a week, or four a day, mostly in kindergarten through high school class rooms. His job has taken him throughout Nebraska and into neighboring states. Before he became a storyteller, Hutch inson was a chaplain at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for 18 years. He then taught at the university for two more years beforejoiningthe folk arts program with the Nebraska Arts Council. Now, he said, he earns about $25,000 a year for storytelling — before taxes and travel expenses. Kimbrough’s main outlet for story telling is through the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship at UNL. As an associate with the center, Kimbrough takes his educational stories to area high schools to teach about entrepreneurship. For three years, Kimbrough has taught Young Entrepreneurial Seminars. Kim brough said YES involved 15 different programs, all of which involve audience participation, some of which include sto rytelling. He has given 110 entrepreneur seminars in Nebraska high schools. Kimbrough said his storytelling, too, has taken him beyond Nebraska’s bor ders. He has traveled throughout the United States and even was scheduled to teach in Tajikistan. The trip to the former Soviet republic, scheduled for February, had to be postponed because of transpor tation difficulties. And his pupils aren’t all high school students, he said. For adults, Kimbrough tells stories from one of three books that evolved from columns he wrote for small newspapers. The books, called “Love Grows on Farms,” are about a fictitious town called Marlow’s Gap, which is modelled after Kimbrough’s hometown, Big Springs. The stories are “based on fact but are exaggerated or embellished,” he said. They tell of local characters, mostly in a humorous light. Most adults can relate the tales to their own hometowns, Kim brough said. And for young children, the stories may be less complex, but the messages are much the same, Kimbrough said. “1 try to teach simple values, such as politeness, honesty, integrity, that sort of thing.” Hutchinson grew up near Elgin and said the area farmers were his first inspiration for story telling. “I used to ask them to tell stories about tornadoes and murders,” he said. “I try to imitate them, but I find that I lack their naturalness.” The first stories he told were ghost stories or jokes, Hutchinson said. Jokes are a common aspect of folklore that may be overlooked, he said. “Sometimes, I can tell the age of an audience I’m speaking to by the jokes they think are funny,” he said. “I can tell history by the jokes.” Jokes from one time period may not carry the same message today as they did when they was created, Hutchinson said. For example, he said, last year’s SCUD missile jokes during the Persian Gulf war are an example offolklore whose message probably will fade as time passes. Duringthe 1930s, Hutchinson said, the popular jokes were called “dum-dum” jokes, so-named because they were not supposed to make sense. A short period later, “little moron” jokes were popular. In these jokes, a “little moron” would act out strange be havior, and the punch line would poke fun at him. “But we don’t tell those anymore. We got scolded for telling them,” Hutchinson said. The next generation told “Mamma, Mamma" jokes, which were “gross tales” meant to make the listener squirm, he said. While some jokes of the past are inap propriate by today’s standards, Hutchin son said, they were valuable during their time. Even the jokes invented after the ex plosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger had value, he said. “You joke about something that you can’t stand the emotion of, so in that sense, folklore has a flushing out effect, a catharsis, I guess.” Folklore also “carries a fragment of history,” Hutchinson said. While folklore is sometimes associated with “tall tales,” he said, other kinds of folklore sbrve as an accurate documenta tion of history. m Author Alex Haley, who wrote “Roots” and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” used folklore to enhance his writing, Hutchinson said. “Haley found that oral history for his people was a very serious thing, and he could depend on it.” The folklore Haley used is powerful, Hutchinson said, because it is a “record ing of history from mind to mind.” And just as stories have been told for centuries, Hutchinson said, history al ways will be recorded through folklore. “Folklore will always be here. It’s human nature. We don’t have to keep it alive. It’s going to happen.” Michelle Paulman/DN Duane Hutchinson tells a ghostly tale from among the hundreds he has stored in his memory.