Ocrafolk Festival

For several years I’ve had a yearning to attend the Ocrafolk Music and Storytelling Festival in Ocracoke, NC. Well, life kept getting in the way. So this spring my husband and I decided that we must take action and do something about it, despite other commitments. Otherwise we could grow old and wake up one day only to realize we never got there.

While I busily worked on a storytelling newsletter, my husband began making call after call, searching for reservations for the festival held in early June. He discovered that places were either booked or we must make a commitment for one week’s lodging going from Saturday to Saturday. This was absolutely impossible. Our plans were to arrive several days prior to the festival and stay through part of the following week and enjoy the quaint village of Ocracoke. After all, we hadn’t visited there for many years.

Finally, after more brainstorming we had the answer. We’ll stay somewhere close. Well - as close as you can by taking a ferry to Ocracoke and back each day. That left one area - Hatteras Island near Hatteras Village. After more calls, he found our place, which was only five minutes from the ferry dock. Whee! Now we were truly excited. To make a long story short we spent 12 fun days on and near the Outer Banks, including seven days at Ocracoke, before returning home. We attended most of the Ocrafolk Festival, which was thoroughly worth every moment we spent there.

Donald Davis who lives on Ocracoke and John Golden from Wilmington, NC were among the line-up of performers. Donald and Rodney Kemp, a historian and storyteller from Morehead City, were featured storytellers. Donald and Rodney’s performances were sandwiched between the musicians on Saturday, creating a pleasurable balance between music and storytelling. Donald performed stories on two separate stages during the day on Saturday. Of course we took in both performances. Several of his ‘growing up’ stories may be found in his newly published book, Tales from a Free-Range Childhood. Whether or not you’ve heard Donald enthrall a crowd with his stories, you would definitely enjoy reading his new book. We bought our copy while at the festival.

I realize how fortunate we southerners are to have so many festivals, including storytelling festivals around the state of North Carolina. I met five or six people during the Ocrafolk Festival who moved here from other states, particularly northern states. They told me they had never seen or heard storytelling until they moved to this state and heard about this festival. Most of them presently live in the eastern part of our fine state. Each professed to have fallen in love with storytelling and with the style of music performed during this festival.

A few of our favorite musical groups that performed were the Ocracoke Jazz Society (and I’m not the greatest jazz fan), Molasses Creek (from Ocracoke), the Steel Wheels (from Virginia), Beleza Brasil, and of course John Golden. Both John Golden and Donald Davis shared their musical talents during the day Sunday with the morning and afternoon Gospel Singing. The Ocrafolk Festival is definitely recommended if you have never been. The dates for 2012 are June 1-3rd. I warn you, make your reservations early. Check out the festival website at: http://www.ocrafolkfestival.org

Eclectic Author

May 13, 2009 began a three-day journey across the NC Mountains toward the Great Plains destination of Wall, South Dakota to visit my mother-in-law. I was pleased to find SD sprinkled with rolling green hills, spreading ranches with grazing cattle, and occasionally a wild animal or two. This state is sparsely populated with approximately 800,000 people. I’m pleased to say these fine folks were genuine and sincere as they welcomed travelers into their communities and towns. It was a wonderful place to be to get away from the crazy rat race back home and to find stories.

This blog will include one of the stories I gathered, so here goes.

My husband Jim, and I, accompanied by his mother, drove to a small town just 35 miles away from her home for lunch. While there I met a very interesting lady whom I shall call Donna.

Donna was very surprised and intrigued when I told her I was a freelance storyteller. Then she proceeded to tell me that she wrote a weekly article for her hometown newspaper. After listening to her conversation for a few minutes I realized that she too was a storyteller.

She told me about an eclectic author and storyteller that she knows who lives in Pennsylvania. It seems their way of crossing paths was quite extraordinary. Some years ago a book was written about Donna’s grandmother called Pioneer Woman, but unfortunately the book is out of print. The author is the lady from Pennsylvania. Each year she goes on an annual trek to help on an archaeological dig in southwestern South Dakota. While there she always tells the story of Donna’s grandmother, Pioneer Woman.

Donna told me that her family met this remarkable author/storyteller some years ago and got to know her. “Since that time we have grown very close to her.” I sensed that Donna regarded her as a member of her very own family. Donna saw her at last year’s ‘dig’ (Mammoth Hot Springs) and remarked, “We’ve been corresponding but I haven’t heard from her recently and I’m getting very concerned because she’s 88 years old. I’m going to see if I can get in touch with her by phone. I am so afraid that she won’t be able to come this year.

I didn’t get Donna’s email address so I don’t know if she has heard from her eclectic friend or not. But I returned home thinking, “Wow, what a wonderful story!” And I just happened to fall into it. So I urge you to keep your eyes and ears open and aware: stories are all around us.