I'll admit it right up front. When I was a youth, listening to the "old folks" talk was boring. Who cared about what happened during the big snow storm in Lincoln, IL where my family lived? I'd rather go dip my toes in the Sangamon River than listen to the elderly regale themselves with stories of their past, which seemed to grow in detail and change somewhat with every telling? But, thankfully, by the time I was 30, I had started wondering about families. What did our last name mean, what nationality. Why did my step grandmother use chimley instead of chimney? Where did some of our family traditions come from? When I moved to Kentucky I was shortly exposed to folk lore or folk narratives. It blew me away at times because here I found that story telling was ingrained in the web of people's lives more than I'd ever experienced before. I heard stories that amazed me, puzzled me, and pushed a button someplace in my soul - these stories are meant to be saved. Why the story telling? Well, with the lack of radio, television, telephones and other means of mass communication, folk lore was a way of preserving the history of people as much as the flowery biographies that appeared in some historical accounts. It was the passing on, from generation to generation, the lives of those who had gone before. Certainly, over the years, the hero of the story got bolder, the pain deeper, the love stronger, the names changed somewhat. But at the core was the life of someone whose gene's were now within me, whose blood coursed in my veins. The life of those gone past who influenced me unknowingly to feel like I feel, to react like I react, the be afraid of certain things, to be talkative or mute .... and I knew I had to start listening to these stories. Folk lore started in Kentucky the day the first white man set the sole of his foot on Kaintuck soil. Vivid descriptions of the beauties of the country, the height of the trees, the pureness of the water, the rich soil - all spread like wildfire to those living "back east." Those mighty men who first ventured into this unknown wilderness some became heroes bigger than life. Daniel Boone, Thomas Walker, the Long Hunters ... they were soon the bravest, the strongest and the most handsome men ever to walk on two feet. Then, later, when Kentucky was being settled, other cultures added to the folk lore. The Irish brought tales of the elves and developed into "once upon a time" stories told to children at night. The Germans brought their own tales - now known as fairy tales - Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin - and many more known to our children to this day. Then each region of the state developed it's own style of story telling, adding local flavor which tale changed from region to region. Story telling was found in most every home and cabin across the state with children snuggled in a blanket in front of the fireplace while Mama or Grandma told stories she had heard as a child. Books were a thing of value, owned by the very rich, so with each narrating of the story, subtle changes were made over the years. Several individuals began cataloging the old Kentucky stories including Kenneth and Mary Clarke who collected tale from eastern Kentucky by Leonard Roberts. William Hugh Jansen conducted a similar project in the Blue Grass area of the state along with Herbert Halpert and Mildred Hatcher from Murray State University. D Wilgus and Lynwood Montell worked on southern Kentucky tales about local citizens, legends, and ghost stories. It was Lynwood Montell who got me "hooked" on folk lore. I first heard of him shortly after moving to Kentucky and was given a copy of one or two of his earliest books. My first thought was "this is great, but totally unbelievable." I expected Mr. Montell to be a strange little old, bespeckled man with limited educational experience who had been hoodwinked into talking to some of the "strange" people who hid out in the woods someplace with a shotgun in one hand and a bottle of moonshine in the other. When I met Mr. Montell, I had to inwardly eat crow. I found him, and do to this day, an extremely well educated, fun loving and knowledgeable man who has become a friend over the years. His book "The Saga of Coe Ridge: A Study in Oral History", 1970, is a classic book of the beliefs, people and events of the southern Kentucky area and along the Tennessee border. He introduced me to what is known as "belief" tales. These are tales that are told to be true. And of course, ghost stories are considered belief tales. I'm still working on those! Another category is the family story - stories that people make up based on real-life experiences. They describe the history and folklife of their own family as remembered and passed on from great-grandparent, to grandparent, to parent to child. They seem to come out of the thin air when a memory is triggered by seeing a photograph of a long lost family member, going to the cemetery to place flowers at the grave of a loved one, a song even. Some tales spill out as the individual grows older and nears death; suddenly it is very important for him to share all these memories from a full life-time so they won't be forgotten. I cherish the stories that my own father told me again and again, the last time shortly before his death, and I rapidly wrote down all I could remember of his stories of growing up in central IL and living through the Depression, World War II and onward. Why is it important? It's always been important to remember the past and sometimes we even learn from the past! The Jewish people repeated their genealogies and stories from generation to generation, committing them to memory. The Indians (or better named the Native Americans) recorded their past in the totem poles and in ceremonies. Every culture has stove to keep it's past preserved in either written or oral form. We are no different. If we know a story from our past and share it, it is saved, albeit for a time, and is then forgotten unless it is recorded by someone. In the day of mass media, it is much easier to learn of other peoples, cultures and traditions; and the recording of our own family folklore is but a pen and paper away - or more likely, a stroke on the keyboard. Your descendants can look at your words years from now - perhaps chuckle over our stupidity, laugh at our clothing - cry when we cried. Maybe they can find themselves in our words. I have undertaken a project which is not at all complete, or writing my life story for my daughters. It's amazing that one memory will lead to another and I have to go back and add that in. Oh, they're minor things - I've never saved a life or fought a battle, or found a cure for some dreaded disease. But, I did live, I did feel, I did care, I did learn, I did goof up. Nothing is really that earth shattering that would earn me a Pulitizer Prize for literature; but it was my life. My friends, my clothes, my house, the foods we ate, the places we went, the fears, the joys of motherhood, the childhood diseases ... it's there in black and white for them to read when they're ready to settle down with their children or grandchildren in front of the fireplace, or snuggled in bed on a cold winter night. "Well, once upon a time when I was a little girl .... (c) Copyright 14 November 2002, All Rights Reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Col. Sandi Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ GORIN worldconnect website: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~sgorin SCKY resource links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html