Five local story tellers from Western Maine Storytelling and the Western Order of Dedicated Storytellers (WOODS) will share folktales and personal stories on Friday, February 19th, from 7:00-8:15pm at the Farmington Grange at 124 Bridge St., Rt. 43 West. Curated by Peggy Yocom and entitled “Around the World and Home Again,” the program is intended for adults and older children. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Rob Lively, recently retired from University of Maine, Farmington where he was a dean, will open the evening with “Mirror, Mirror, Where’s The Mirror?” When Lively traveled to Russia to meet a university president, the only mirror in his hosts’ apartment was on the far wall of their bedroom. What to do when you have to look your best? Lively will share his sometimes awkward, always humorous solutions.

Debby Bliss, a resident of New Vineyard, will tell “The Charcoal Cruncher,” an eerie folktale from Chile that takes listeners to a world where a head flies from one body, rolls to the hearth fire, chews on live coals, and then lodges itself on another body. Bliss has been looking forward to telling this story to just the right audience for 17 years.

Carole Lee, born and raised in Hong Kong, will lead listeners home with “Coming to the USA” that features her experiences as she learned English. She will tell about her first try at ordering food in a McDonald’s and about the most embarrassing mistake she ever made—in front of her entire class of college students at UMF.

Judy Loeven of Farmington will perform “This Job Is for the Birds!” about the unusual job she found herself in as she worked her way through college: caring for birds of all sizes in a private aviary. One small, green bird gave her a hazing she has never forgotten.

Jane Woodman will celebrate Farmington, where she was born and raised, with her story “How Mom Caught Dad.” In this Valentine season, Jane will tell how her father came home from World War II and met his future bride in Wilton—at a moment when he least expected love to appear.

For more information about this event, contact Marion Scharoun of the Farmington Grange at 778-2932 or Peggy Yocom of Western Maine Storytelling at 778-9641. For more information on storytelling and how you can join in, visit http://westernmainestorytelling.org.

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