"In the beginning” … “A long, long time ago” … and of course the one we all know… “Once upon a time.” These are just some of the openings used in storybooks to draw readers into their tales, and the phrases most people recall from the first books they have read as children. But how about those stories weaved from our relative’s own imaginations? You know the ones. The ones that made your eyes open wide with wonder, your heart race with excitement, and kept you up all night wondering did these fantastic tales really happen to them or someone they knew?” I must admit, I still love listening to a good old yarn plucked from the magical mind of the storyteller.

 

     I remember my mother telling me of how her mother split a tornado in two by tying an ax to a beam of their front porch. Or another story she told of how a neighbor discovered she had raised a woodland kin’s baby as her own. One day when the child was twelve years old, he announced to her that he was going back to his own kind, but that one day soon, her own son would come along. The stories of the wise tree crones, the house spirits, the forest untouched by time, the passageways into the inner Earth, the passageways into the stars!

 

     Oh sure, I also loved reading the stories as a kid penned by the greats such as Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen, and my favorite of late the original Brothers Grimm collection. But, my first memories, my best memories are of hearing the exciting stories told to me by my mother. Now how about you? What are some of your most favorite stories you heard when you were a child? 

                                                                                               by Author Torry Rose