Ten-Finger Exercises

A Hoosier storyteller

Today was the memorial service for Jane Brooks, a lovely lady who lived here with her daughter before she died. Her daughter told me about the stories she used to tell, and how she was absolutely a magnet for kids. They'd gather around her, and she'd begin. She was a Hoosier, and so was I. She had had a stroke when I met her, and so was not able to tell her stories anymore, but I wish I could have heard them. They might have been familiar from my grandparents as well.

One they told about was about Colonel Bug and Worm. Ever hear of it? It began something like, "Why have you got such big feet?""From walking so much." Then it proceeded up to his mouth, with "Why is you mouth so big?" "To eat you up!" That part sounds familiar.

Another story was actually told at the memorial service by a brave great-granddaughter. "Ollie and me was walking down the railroad tracks. We weren't goin' nowhere, and we weren't comin' from nowhere, just walkin'. All of a sudden we hear, "toot-toot." I look over at Ollie, and he doesn't say nothin'. Ollie looks over at me, and I don't say nothin'. We just keep walkin' down the railroad tracks."

Those lines are repeated over and over with the toot getting louder and louder, until, "I look over at Ollie, and he was gone! Where was Ollie? I looked around, and I saw, way over there on the side of the tracks, there was his pants. And I looked around, and there, on the other side of the tracks, there was his shirt! And I looked around again, and there on the tracks were his shoes! But nobody ever found Ollie!"

Another tale she told was of "Morgan, the terrible raider, and Morgan's terrible men." This is the only story I could find a trace of when I googled them. It was from a very long poem about a young wife left alone during the Civil War who befriends a soldier and gives him her horse to get home on. It was called "Kentucky Belle."

Jane gave generations of children a love for stories and poems and reading. She was also a 4H leader for many years, teaching cooking and sewing, knitting, crocheting; most of all, she encouraged kids and helped them learn. She noticed when some needed more attention, more hands-on help, more hugs.

Her children said she always thought of herself as an ugly duckling. (She wasn't at all.) But she certainly made them, each of them, feel like swans. What a great lady!

Reading to children is great and I love to do it; but learning about Jane to put on her memorial service, and hearing the families (six children) all talk about her stories, reminds me to tell my grandchildren stories while I have a chance.

Haiku from my drive home

Tall grass rims the pond
nearly hiding six white geese
nestled for a nap.