The Tejas Storytelling Festival in Denton, Texas will be the second weekend of April this year. I have been asked to present an original story on Saturday for a concert about ethnic/immigration stories. My story is called "lefsa". Lefsa is a Norwegian flat bread that we "Norsky's" eat "up Nort" in Minnesota. The story combines personal remembrances of learning how to make it with my Grandma Peterson with a delightful, old Norwegian folktale.
Every time I tell this story to audiences, I am amazed at how it affects them. It triggers memories to surface. Listeners don't need to come from the same ethnic background that I do, rather they just need to come from a family that is striving to preserve some part of their ethnicity through the preparation of a traditional, cultural food.
This is one of those stories that popped up into my consciousness as a complete tale - it simply did not require a lot of work to write. I love to tell it and feel that when I do, I am honoring my dear Grandma Lillie who was such a positive role model in my life.
I have one other story about my early childhood in Minnesota; a humorous piece about the perils of young love. When it is complete, perhaps I will post it. I have already done an improvisational version of it and it went over very well with my listeners. Seems everybody can relate to childhood crushes that go awry.
With that I leave you folks to ponder this. Tell me...do you remember your first love? Who was it? What attracted you to that person?
.JPG)
11 years ago
1 comment:
ooh..I can't tell who my first love was...o.k. o.k. it was my best friends brother..I always had a crush on him..see we kids all grew up together..wherever our family moved..they moved too.Anyhow..D. was the best..I worshipped the ground he walked on... always wanted him to be my boyfriend..but even though we flirted we never got together because we were always afraid that if we did and things didn't work out it would cause rifts in the family..my brother had a crush on his sister too.He never asked her out for the same reason..fear that it would cause rifts between the families.
Anyhow..of course now that I'm grown up..I laugh about it cause well..he looks totally different than what he did way back then..and I cannot actually even imagine having had a horrible crush on him..and dreaming that I'd marry him one day..even sometimes praying that I would..ha. Sheew! Aren't we glad that sometimes God doesn't answer prayers? D. is a terrific guy though and is best left as a friend.
We've lost touch over the years of course. The families drifted apart..kids didn't keep in touch..but yes..I do remember those childhood crushes.
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about the Norwegian tale..oh my! I remember my granny baking bread..in fact Naomi has started baking bred once in a while..and I tell her that it looks like she has inherited the bread baking skills from Granny Helen.
Whenever I myself bake bread..I feel so very close to my grandmother.
As you know my grandmother was a very strong influence in my growing up as well.
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Good luck at the festival!
hugs, Tina
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