■*
*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.
