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Papa
Joe ~ Travel
Notes
From: Papa Joe <papajoe@tiac.net>
To: Rebecca
Subject: Traveling in Maine
Date: Friday, March 14, 1997 12:34 PM
3/13/97
Rebecca,
I'm up in Elsworth, Maine with my dog, Tasha Tripod. I'll be
telling stories to the Kindergartners, first, and second graders.
It's pretty cold this morning. Got down to -7 degrees last night.
Good thing we had a heater in the Vardo or Tasha and I would have
woken up as popsicles this morning. I'll add more to this post
between shows and try to get it off to you this afternoon. Pax,
Papa Joe
Too busy to write. Now it's evening and I've been
lucky enough to find a friend's driveway to park in. The heater
fan has been running all day, so it's nice to have a place to
plug in and charge up the batteries. It is the coldest spell
Maine has seen this Winter. That doesn't surprise me. The first
March I came up here, they had a blizzard. But I won't let the
weather stop me. The chance to share the stories with new
children is much too important. This spring, I'm putting solar
panels on the roof. Then all I'll need is a little sun to keep
the batteries charged.
At the school today, I told the 'Old woman & the Pig', then
'Jack Frost' to the first group. There were three very special
children and the teachers told me not to worry if the children
didn't understand the stories. Weren't the teachers surprised
when the children did. The magic of stories. Silly teachers. When
will they learn it isn't the words that are important. Just the
telling. If they spent more time telling stories, they'd be
surprised how much more children would learn.
For the second group, I told 'Poccamandas' and 'The Ghost and the
Apple Sauce'. In the afternoon the children need stories that are
more active than in the morning. I met a boy with the most
beautiful golden eyes. I told him I thought they were magnificent
and he told me he was almost legally blind. "Not blind
though," I said with a smile and held out my hand. He
grinned and slapped me five.
When we left Elsworth, we went to my favorite library in Maine.
There are a lot of wonderful libraries around here, but Hampden's
is my favorite because they let Tasha come in. She always runs
over to the hamster cage to visit her friends. The hamsters have
been gone for a couple of years, but Tasha just sits by their
empty cage as if they'll be back any time. The librarians are all
friends. They don't even wait for me to get out of the Vardo. As
soon as I pull into the driveway, they all come out to meet us.
Time for bed. Sweet dreams to you and your family. And a Happy
Birthday to David.
3/14/97
Stopped in at a wonderful nursery school in Bangor called Winnie
the Pooh. It's one of the few schools, I've ever been to where
they have one adult for every two children. Linda is the director
and a friend of ours. She's the one who lets us stay in her
driveway whenever we're in this area. The school (of course) has
very little money so I try to squeeze a visit in when I can. This
year, they have three deaf children. I told 'Poccamandas' with
ASL signs thrown in. I wish I could have stayed to tell more
stories. They are wonderful listeners, but I had to get to Fruit
Street School. They were the ones who invited me to Maine. I
don't like
to be late.
This must be the fifth year in a row that I've come to Fruit
Street. The children vote on who to bring in and they've chosen
me every year. Hard to turn down 600 hundred children. I told
"The three little Pigs and the Ogre'. I still have one more
show to do after lunch for the other half of the school.
They are calling for a big snow storm this afternoon. I hope I
get back to New Hampshire before it gets too bad. It's a six hour
drive. They haven't closed the highway yet this year, so I think
I'll make it home. If not, I have many friends along the way who
will put me up until the roads are cleared. So funny. All winter
there has been hardly a flurry here. Then I come and they have
the coldest, windiest, and biggest storm of the year. My second
year at Fruit Street there was such a storm that I had to stay in
town for two extra days. Maybe next time they'll invite me to
come near the end of December so they can have a white Christmas.
Pax & Amicitia,
Papa Joe
Vardo on Tour, Maine, USA
1-800-466-6835 p.i.n. 7272
http://www.tiac.net/users/papajoe
Papa
Joe ~ Travel
Notes
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