Wednesday, January 11, 2017, at The Foundry
by Marci White
For the first Rabbit Box storytelling event of 2017, the theme was “Rites of Passage.”
Neal Priest was our affable MC. A veteran Rabbit Box storyteller and MC, Neal is also a devoted vegan, environmental activist and a highly regarded physician at St. Mary’s ER.
The storytellers:
David Hale is an artist who has tattooed more than one thousand people. Several years ago he spent many hours inking designs into the skin of a young man named Brennon. The two became close friends, and David loved what they were creating together. But in the middle of working on a full-sleeve tattoo for Brennon, Hale had an nagging premonition.
Like most girls, Brittany Dunn got her first period during middle school — but under cringe-inducing circumstances.
When Matt Pruitt turned 16, his father got him a blue Toyota Corolla to drive – nothing fancy. The car represented freedom and expanded horizons, but another unexpected event around that time became “the ties that bind.”
Denise Mount told a story about the woman affectionately called “the pretty blonde-haired lady”: her mother. Her mom’s long, thick, dark hair began to turn prematurely gray at the age of 25. By 30 it was completely gray, and she decided to do something about it. And then she decided not to.
The name chosen out of the Crackerjack Box at the end of intermission was Tucker Austin‘s. She told of her grandfather, “Big Tom,” who was always the life of the party and the last one to leave. Because Tucker‘s large family loves to sing in harmony together, they gathered around his bed at a hospice to sing when he was near the end of his life.
When Angela Burgess was six, her grandmother entered her in a singing contest. The winner of the contest would get $100! Little Angela had big plans for that money. First she had to sing a jingle for a camera store on live radio, and everyone in her South Georgia town would be listening. Understandably, she was very nervous.
Chuck Horne‘s first job after high school was working as a bushwhacker for a surveyor. A man in his 80s who everyone called “Uncle Tommy” worked with him. The man was a legendary worker with the special skills of a farmer. Horne went on to college and then to another summer job working at a fruitcake factory outside of Athens… and that job, in a roundabout way, led him back to Uncle Tommy.
Delia Turner was “a first-born, over-achieving child who did everything right.” But after finishing a business degree at UGA, she realized she felt unfulfilled. Deciding a drastic change was in order, she went to the local bookstore where she closed her eyes and ran her fingers along the row of travel guides. When she opened her eyes her fingers rested on “Nepal.” Deciding to trust, she jumped into the void.
Rabbit Box 