Shaun Groves
Mrs. Hayes knew I hadn’t finished my homework. She called on me in spite of that. Because of that.
I stood in front of the class, my back up against white cinderblock, hiding behind a piece of half-filled paper and read my Halloween story. When I ran out of words I made stuff up: a scary climb up a dark staircase, a creaky door at the top, a severed hand spinning around on a record player. (I may have watched too much television.)
It’s the first performance I can remember. By the end of it Mrs. Hayes was smiling. The girls were grossed out and the boys were laughing.
I was hooked.
I’ve told stories ever since. Some of them rhyme and last about three minutes. Others fill page after page of a journal. These days the bulk of them wind up on the internet. And most weekends I’m telling them from a stage.
Visiting Kiran’s house. Buying Becky’s wedding ring. The colonoscopy. Angry pastor. These stories work. You pay attention to them. You remember them. You – hopefully – gross out, smile, think, or all three because of them.
Wednesday you can watch me and some more notable story tellers talking about story telling at 2PM CST at www.StoryUnfolding.com.
Other story tellers participating in this thing include Margaret Becker (artist/author), Lee Steffen (photographer), Matthew Paul Turner (author), Anne Jackson (author) and several others. It’s rumored that Andrew Peterson is coming too, who is my favorite story telling musician, by the way (and now an author). But I don’t know if that’s for sure happening. Tune in and find out I guess.
And, again, thanks, Mrs. Hayes, for forcing me to make stuff up. If not for you, I’d be sitting at home Wednesday afternoon…and what would I do for a living?
Kristie says:
yes…we do remember your stories…my 6 year old remembers you well
from FBC Woodstock in January…every time complains that she’s “SO
HUNGRY” because I don’t quite have dinner finished–or because I won’t
let her have the ice cream she REEEEALLLY wants–she’s also quick to
clarify: “But I’m NOT starving…my tongue doesn’t look like a
giant strawberry in my mouth!” Thank you for grossing out my little
girl in a way, I pray, will impact her forever.
Dad Groves says:
How about the one you told the neighbor man when he wanted to know
if you shot holes in his sliding glass patio door with the BB gun?
shaungroves says:
I believe I told YOU a story, Dad. I RAN from the neighbor. If
you don’t have a very convincing story to explain why you shot a hole
through a man’s window in the middle of his cookout, running away is a
pretty good back-up plan.
Grovesfan says:
That must be a part of growing up for boys. My brother did the
same thing. He got his BB gun for Christmas one year. My
father told him that if he EVER got in trouble with it, he’d have to
break it over our rock wall. “No second chances. No
excuses.”
Well, Christmas afternoon, he shot out the neighbor’s window. To
top it off, that neighbor was a cop! Needless to say, my brother
watched in tears as my dad broke that gun over the rock wall.
BTW. God bless Mrs. Hayes and her story-telling-inspirations.
Liz Reeves says:
Oh yes…I’ve gotta go do a search for your colonoscopy story! I bet it’s a hoot!
Terrace Crawford says:
Loved the stuff you talked about today. I took away some really insightful things.
Not sure if you recall working with me a few times when I was in radio (formerly with WMHK-Columbia).
//TC//
–Terrace Crawford
http://www.terracecrawford.com
http://www.twitter.com/terracecrawford