Tag: storytelling

So last night, and in fact several nights and days over the last few weeks, I’ve seen a guy riding a unicycle around campus. He’s never far from the quad, but he rides in all kinds of weather. Kind of makes me wonder why. How. Is he just keeping in practice? Maybe he’s a clown who takes classes in the winter while the circuses are in their off season. Maybe somebody superglued his ass to the seat.
Whatever the reason, he’s good. He keeps up a pretty good clip – faster than the walkers, but slower than a slow bicyclist. I’ve never seen him waver, and he can go off curbs with absolutely no problem. There’s somthing to this, I know there is.

I found this auction on e-bay, and found the story attached to it to be quite interesting. I don’t know how long e-bay auctions last before they evaporate, so I’ll just cut and past the entire story here. You can find the original auction, with pictures, at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3701347648.

Read the whole sordid tale here. This is what cuts were meant for.

I remember back in high school hearing stories about something called “Pigman Road.” I never knew exactly where it was, or what, just that it was not a place you were supposed ot go after dark. I never paid it much mind, never having any direct knowledge of it.
A few years later, when I was a sophomore in college, a friend’s girlfriend, who was originally from near my town, asked me if I knew the tale. I responded no of course, and she started to tell me something about an axe murderer, and then fell over because she was so drunk.
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I finally know what it was about. Apparently there is no one tale or story about the area, but a whole mish-mosh of ideas and spooky happenings. Mason Winfield, a paranormal researcher who specializes in my home region, Western New York, has a web site where he answers questions from people (As an aside, my friend Helen’s mother did the illustrations for his first book). Check it out at http://www.masonwinfield.com/ArchiveFiles/January%202003/question.htm. I like the idea that nobody nowadays remembers the accident, but the area is still associated with such spooky happenings. I like the fact that there is still so much I don’t know about my home town. It gives me a place to start working from, I guess.

Edit: Some more digging found me http://www.paranormalghostsociety.org/Pigmans%20Road.htm. Pictures and some on-site reporting. Maybe I’m tired, but this is giving me the shivers.

So, as I sit her in the CADlab waiting for Sammi to get out of rehearsal, I figure I should start my Diary Project for Storyteling. Basically, I’m supposed to record a story every day ( I think it’s every day), whether it’s one I heard from someone, something I read in the newspaper, or something I remember from long ago.
I’m supposed to tell my first story on Monday. In fact, I’ll be the first person to go. I have to leave class early, so I’m up first. That, and Betsy thinks my experience with storytelling will serve me well. I’ll show the rest of the class that it’s not so hard to do.
Of course, I’m also the youngest person in that class by a couple of years. It’s weird, I’m now going out into the real graduate schools and putting myself side by side with older, more professional grad students.

I’m running a bit short on time, but tonight I’ll have to tell the story of my Odyssey on the London Night Buses. It’s a scary tale filled with strange characters, desperate and tired people, and the underbelly of London.