November 9, 2016, at The Foundry
The lovely Tara Stuart emceed this event – yes, the day after the national election. Storytellers added a bit of levity with their stories of interesting and funny family dynamics.
Tara Bulger talked about how everyone in her family was a “black sheep” so she felt compelled to be the goody two-shoes “white sheep.” Tara’s mother was a free spirit and a single mom who left her kids one summer to go live with the Rainbow Family in a national park. But when Tara’s mean aunt shows up at their trailer with her new, much-older husband, it becomes clear that Tara’s mother does have a sense of decorum.
When Paul Guillebeau‘s children were small, they got a very rambunctious kitten that could and would not be controlled. Soon it was a question of who would be the hunter . . . and who would be the hunted.
Evelyn MacKenzie‘s family comes from Appalachia. Her aunt and uncle lived in a hollow in a four-room house with their nine children. An outhouse was their only bathroom. After they came into some money, her aunt and uncle each made a big purchase to improve their lives…and that marked the beginning of their long feud.
When in Nashville for a wedding, Roy Felts got snowed in and was left in town to celebrate Christmas with his grandparents. Things got interesting when one of his grandmothers decided to take him bar-hopping.
Ryan Dekker was surprised to learn that his sweet grandmother had contentious relationships with all six of her children when they were teenagers. Every child, including his mother, has their own story of what happened when their mother finally reached her limit. The grandchildren, luckily, never saw this side of her.
Rebecca McCarthy watched her mother’s slow decline from Parkinson’s disease and was her mother’s main caretaker. Family dynamics can get complicated when it comes to caring for a relative with a debilitating illness. Some potential caregivers just don’t seem to have the “caring gene,” and that can be a problem.
When it came to helping her daughter plan her wedding, Meg Reed was happy to be asked for her opinion about all the many details. Her daughter was well-organized and a joy to work with except for one part of the wedding that the mother-of-the-bride thought violated all the rules of wedding etiquette.
Rabbit Box 