I really do.
Books, of course, but also TV, movies, and spoken word.
I set a timer to sit down at three o’clock on Saturday afternoons to listen to The Moth Radio Hour whenever I’m home. Three or four people tell stories on a particular theme. They’re hilarious and they can break your heart, often in the same piece.
I come from a long line of excellent storytellers, but even though I’ve kissed the Blarney Stone, I’d prefer to write mine.
My Dad could tell the spookiest campfire tale or something so funny you couldn’t breathe from laughing. He had a million stories locked and loaded and could whip one out to punctuate any topic.
After so many years of hearing about his high school pals and their shenanigans, I have to remind myself they were actually his friends instead of mine.
One of the things I wanted from his house after he died was a painting done by one of our, er, his friends from high school, Don Green, who came into renown in the art world in later years. The painting is called The Preacher, and it scared and fascinated me as a child.
The gist of it is that while my dad and his friends were out drinking beer after a softball game, this barroom character began preaching loudly from a bible he carried, but his words were gibberish. The owner of the bar threatened him with a baseball bat and kicked him out.
Months later my mom threw Dad a birthday party and Don presented him with this painting. It tells the same story in a different medium. It blew my widdle kid bwain to hear my dad tell the story in words while I was looking at the story Don Green had painted.
This lesson stuck with me. I used to teach games to reluctant readers and their parents to help them get better at reading and enjoy it more. One of the main lessons was that when they were reading, they should see a movie in their head.
With my own kids, I’d show them a painting and, because they were too young to write, they’d dictate to me the story behind it, as they perceived it. Charming, imaginative stories.
But one day, my four-year-old daughter began telling me about the “chicken picture.” Chicken had a family and Chicken had exciting adventures, but I had no idea what picture she was talking about. Then she pointed to this Picasso print hanging in our entryway.
“You know, Mom. The chicken.”
That led to a discussion about perspective, and has become a family joke.
One that my dad would have told to howls of laughter.
I know anyone reading this blog loves to read books, but how else do you consume stories? Do you binge-watch TV shows? Do you have storytellers in your family? Got a good family story to share? Do you see Chicken?
Chicks on the Case 
I do not see a chicken. LOL I do binge watch Law & Order shows, NCIS: New Orleans, Criminal Minds, Bones among others.
A friend of mine from high school, her dad could tell some great scary stories. Also when they had a family dispute, they did a trial. I was there one time and it was so hilarious. I never laughed so much.
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Ohmygosh! A trial! That would be AWESOME! My dad also did this thing at dinnertime where he’d throw out some ridiculous comment—women shouldn’t drive … apples should never find their way into a pie … kids should go to school every day—and then just sit back and listen to us sputter in opposition. I was a full-grown adult before I realized he didn’t believe any of those things. He simply was teaching us to pick a side and make a cogent debate. Duh.
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Becky, I could see the movie in my head with your dad’s pub story–and also the chicken! (Trying really hard to see that chicken, lol. Wait–that vertical line to the right is the road, right?) It will be fun to hear what your grandlittles come up with. Interestingly, I’ve heard (even from other authors) that not everyone sees movies in their head as they read or write. They do seem to see numbers better than I do, though, and can put Amazon boxes back together smoothly.
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(I sometimes have problems with those IKEA manuals with images for how to put together the furniture…)
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Ugh. I’m terrible with those directions that only show the picture without words. I used to sew all my own clothes, but a while back thought I could make something relatively simple with just online instructions. Nope!
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Well, I know for a fact there are a million ways to learn, but it was always gratifying to see those little lightbulbs flicker on over kids’ heads. I saw the chicken right away, but it takes me several tries to build a shipping box from the post office!
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My husband can spin a great yarn. He will go into great detail explaining something. Then when someone says “Really? I didn’t know that!” He will reply “No, I made it up”
The kids asked him why some people naturally float and others sink to the bottom of a pool. His reply was that the earth is naturally charged. Some people have positive blood and some have negative blood. When you put 2 magnets together, the opposite poles attract and the same poles with push apart. He was very convincing and they bought it hook, line, and sinker. We finally had to explain to them, he just made that up. But to this day, now that they are grown, when he explains something, they will ask him “Is this a positive negative thing?”
Gotta love him.
Carol
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Ha! That’s great, Carol!
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Oh, Carol, I love that! My dad did exactly the same kind of thing. I threw a full glass of water at him one time because he had me so convinced of something outrageous. When I was a kid we moved to notoriously windy Casper, WY. There was a house being built across the street from ours, which, being from a fully-formed neighborhood, I’d never seen before. I asked him about it and he said, “The wind blew it down.” I believed him for longer than I care to admit. My husband had a good way of dealing with him—he never believed a word that came out of his mouth unless he got third-party confirmation.
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Gotta admit – I don’t see a chicken.
I do binge TV. Did it with NCIS and just finished “House,” even though I told myself I was only going to watch three seasons. Next up, “Remington Steele.”
I also love movies and plays. All of this is in addition to books, of course.
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The chicken is there, Liz! I’m big into the bingewatch. It’s so comforting (unless it’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which I recently finished). Plus, with all the streaming channels and shows, it’s nice not to have to decide what to watch for a while! It’s like staring at the cereal aisle at the grocery store.
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That painting!! Wow! And I love the story that goes with it.
How do I consume stories besides reading? TV, I’d have to say. I get into a show and watch it religiously. I don’t do audio. I’ve learned that’s my least developed sense. I’m a visual learner and need to view things. If I’m listening, I drift. I’m famous for putting on the traffic report on the the radio when I drive, then my attention drifts and I completely miss it. In order to stay fully engaged in a telephone convo, I have to close my eyes or I get distracted and my attention once again drifts. Which is why I hate talking on the phone!
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All of that is the same for me! Years ago I had Bell’s palsy, which froze half my face for three weeks or so. I was okay until about noon every day, but then my eyes didn’t want to work. I was told to lay down and close my eyes for a couple of hours and thought, “Great! I can listen to books on tape” (which is what they were back then). I’d get like three sentences in and be fast asleep—and I NEVER nap. So weird.
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My brother-in-law had that, and his doctor said to cut his hair which was longer in the 1970s. He did and it went away.
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It ain’t no chicken!
The wife and I have been binging Blue Bloods in preparation for the final series. Some of the police stories aren’t the best, but we love the characters.
The best stories are always about interesting characters. Like the preacher.
Tom Burns
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Don’t you just want to be in that bar, Tom?? A very interesting character, indeed. I think that’s why I love airports so much. So many fascinating people and stories all the time. And these days, I can pretend I’m on my phone when I’m really listening to them and trying to figure out how I’d describe their face or voice or something.
And that chicken is there! Maybe if you squint …?
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Yes, I see the chicken and I also see movies in my head when I read, and especially when I write. Carol J. Perry
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Carol, you and my daughter would get along famously! You could make up adventures for Chicken all day long!
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Alas, I do not see the chicken. I love that story, though. I consume my stories in lots of forms: TV, big screen, theater, books. I’m not much of an audiobook person, though. Have never been able to figure out the best times/places to listen and absorb the story without distractions.
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My other problem with audiobooks is that I don’t do the things people tend to do while they listen—no commute, no gardening, no housecleaning, no long walks. It’s funny, but I don’t have a problem with just sitting and reading a book or watching a movie, but it seems like with an audiobook I should be multi-tasking! Weird, right?
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I love the free classic radio shows available on YouTube, Becky. For example: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (mystery), X-Minus-One (sci fi), and many more. Often you can find the free scripts, too. Hours of fun, and I don’t believe they harmed a “chicken” in any of the productions.
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LOL, Grant! Another thing we did when I was a kid was “go for a Sunday drive.” (Can you imagine??) I grew up in CO and so did my dad, and he’d head for a road he’d never been on before and we’d end up who-knows-where. It was my job, which I loved, to color the new road in on the map when we got home. But on these drives, there’d almost always be an old-timey radio show of some kind. Not at all like the horrible talk radio of today! Fun, maybe spooky stories—the Shadow knows—and if we were really lucky, we’d drive into a thunderstorm.
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Too funny, Becky.
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I’m here for stories, mostly in book format. I also enjoy movies and musicals; TV will suck me in sometimes, but it’ll depend on the show. Plus, songs–it’s amazing how someone can spin a tale in a matter of minutes.
And I see the chicken! Took me a while, but I’m viewing it the same as Lisa.
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Oh, songs! You’re absolutely right, Jen. How could I forget those?? Especially since I just the other day heard The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald!
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Hestia here.
I totally binge watch. One crime show at a time, one mystery show at a time (gonna rewatch and dissect Castle), do it with movie series as well.
No story tellers in my family except me. Although the hubbs insists that his senior year in high school he ran an illegal blackjack den out of the cafeteria. Don’t believe it for a second, but he says he was the mob in his school.
There is no chicken in that picture, but I never have understood Picasso
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Personally, I think every high school should have a blackjack corner of the cafeteria. Lots of math practice going on there!
I try and only binge one show at a time, and I’m lucky that hubs and I agree on just about everything!
And you don’t have to understand Picasso to see the chicken … just my daughter!
(I was going to offer the hint to conjure up the Partridge Family logo, but that’s not quite right. Maybe that’ll get you closer, though. Assuming, of course, that you want to see the chicken!)
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I do not see the chicken. But then again, I can NEVER see things with those picture games where you’re supposed to squint and see some such thing or another. I think my brain is simply too literal.
The main reason I prefer books over other ways of ingesting stories is because, since there is not any literal picture to look at, my mind is forced to create its own pictures, which makes the story so much for vivid than if I were simply to look at someone else’s picture.
I sure wish I could have met your dad, Becky. What a guy.
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He would have loved you, Leslie!
Does it bug you when you see a show made from a book and the actor is ALL WRONG? Completely different from how you pictured them?
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It does! Which is one reason I try to read the book before seeing the TV show or movie, so I already have a picture in my head and am not too influenced by whatever actor they pick for the role.
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Interesting. Now, you see, I’d do it the opposite way whenever possible because I’m so very lazy and prefer casting directors to do my thinking for me.
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Lol, Becky!
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I thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink I see the chicken if I squint my eyes and tilt my head, but then I’m worried I’m just telling myself I see a chicken!
I love stories, too, and am happy to consume them any way I can. I’m fond of a good binge-watch (recently-ish binged Bodies, which I enjoyed), and I’ll book via paper or audio.
My favorite “story” told by my dad was that he was the inspiration for TV’s Perry Mason. I 1000% believed him.
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I see the chicken and I would have loved your father as I loved mine. I consume stories in every way: books, audio books, TV shows, movies, etc. My favorites are books first, movies second, and then the rest. I love binge-watching Tv shows are movies I have missed. Recently we binged “Yellowstone” on TV and the “Fast and Furious” franchise along with “Jack Reacher” movies. Daddy told us many stories about the family. My grandmother had to move from Missouri to Texas as she had asthma. She stopped in Electra, Texas. They established a grocery store, but she also worked as a cook for the Waggoner Ranch for the cowboys. It was one of the largest ranches in Texas until recently after family members died. They moved to the Rio Grande Valley as the asthma was not better. They settled in Harlingen, bought many parcels of land and she opened the first hospital in Harlingen and then a rooming house and later restaurant called the Gilbert House. That was my father’s side of the family. My maternal grandparents had more stories.
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The chicken…lol!!!!!
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