July 12, 2017
“If These Walls Could Talk”
by Marci White

More than 300 people came out on a sultry Georgia night to hear stories on the theme “If These Walls Could Talk.” The stories were an extraordinary mix of antebellum walls containing romance and Chippendale furniture, Facebook walls, psychiatric hospital walls, dilapidated party-house walls, prison walls and walls haunted by ghosts. It was a night to remember. Thanks to all the storytellers, our co-sponsors the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation, and to all the people who came and listened to the stories so raptly.

Adam Hebbard, president of the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation, was our convivial emcee for the evening.

Daniel Epting is a 4th-generation Athenian who was raised steeped in Athens history. True to his roots, he restores historical homes, and his home in the historic Boulevard neighborhood is a perennial job-site. Daniel told a short history of some of his preservationist work, including some of the very odd, old things he’s found on job sites.

The mansion at 150 S. Milledge Avenue is currently the sorority house of Alpha Delta Pi, but its history includes the adventures and international intrigues of Ned Hodgson and family, who bought the house in 1906. Tom Hodgson told us the story of his grandparents Ned and Mary Hodgson and the role they and their house played in an unlikely international romance.

When a group of student ballet dancers at UGA left town for a long holiday, they asked Rhett Crowe and her boyfriend to house-sit the antebellum house they were renting. Only after they returned did they ask, “Did you notice anything strange about the house?” Um . . . YES!! This story gave us all the creepy chills.

Riley Kirkpatrick, in his previous life as a non-violent drug offender and addict, got acquainted with the gritty, claustrophobic confines of many county jails. Those walls can tell stories of hard, hard times, sickness and perseverance.

Kristin‘s name was chosen out of the Crackerjack box to tell an impromptu story. She told of being in a locked ward for the mentally ill in New York City with lots of doors, lots of keys. The only thing to do was to be fully herself — to face the fear and boredom and connect with the people stuck there with her.

Lee Epting, a native Athenian responsible for the renovation of many old homes and buildings in our town, told the story of an old woman he knew who was house rich but cash poor and needed to sell her historic mansion. She asked him to help her put on one last dinner party in her beautiful home. The meal had to be perfect in all its particulars. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. Things didn’t turn out as planned, but the dinner party turned out to be unforgettable.

As a freelance journalist, David Ferguson spends a lot of time hanging out with co-workers in online chatrooms and on Facebook walls. He got to be close friends with one coworker, Dan, long before he ever met him in person or even talked on the phone. When Dan’s life started going downhill, David saw it all happening, sometimes even before Dan did. They finally did meet in person but not in the way either of them had planned.

Starting in 1977, Paul Butchart participated in the Athens music scene and laid-back, bohemian lifestyle of the times. In 1980 he moved into a famous party house on Milledge Avenue that he rented from a Latvian immigrant with a mysterious and colorful past: Mr. Antons. Paul lived in the house for 28 years, and his life became intertwined with his eccentric landlord’s.

May 10, 2017
by Marci White

Ashley Na, activist and board member of Athens for Everyone, was our emcee for the evening. She directed the proceedings with an unpretentious grace, musing about everyone’s astrological signs and what they’re prepared to fight for.

Benjamín Milano Albino grew up in a housing project in Caguas, Puerto Rico. In 5th grade, a boy in his neighborhood, Jose, drew attention for being effeminate and acting out. While the dreamy and timid Benjamin looked on, Jose fought and danced and by the time he was in 8th grade, was openly gay and still fighting to be who he was. Jose couldn’t have known that he way a hero and role model for his straight-laced neighbor, Benjamin.

When Lori Hanna started UGA as a “wide-eyed freshman” she stumbled across the food activist group Real Food, and dove right in. She and her friends organized, had rallies, lobbied, educated and petitioned. Lori spend part of this past winter in Cuba, where her “house mother” had other ideas about what it meant to be a radical activist.

When Adam Lassila and his friend Laura flew into Mexico to begin a long adventure hitchhiking through South America, they were surprised to find themselves in the middle of an intense confrontation between the striking teachers of Oaxaca and the Mexican police. Should they join the strikers? The roads were blocked, but their path was clear.

As a young child, Maggie Schmidt was passionate about protecting animals. As a young adult with a new job at a poultry vaccine company, she had an occasion to remember her love for animals and her passion for trying to help them. Sometimes it helps to have a reminder that “we can give ourselves permission to act up.”

Crackerjack storyteller Alan Black was walking through Detroit when he saw some picketers outside a building. These picketers had extraordinarily good-looking picket signs. Who could they be?

Beto Mendoza and his brothers were raised in Mexico by their hard-working, community-helping, obstacle-overcoming and religious-minded mother. She set an example of selflessness they never forgot.

Sarah Bradley grew up in Athens and was a sweet, obedient little girl…until around 5th grade, when she turned into a terror. By middle school, she was a raging rebel and the bane of her teachers. Many years later, Sarah found herself full circle, with a job as a middle school teacher, at the same school she had gone to, teaching kids just like herself.

In 1978 Maureen McLaughlin went with a defense legal team to Reidsville, Georgia, to defend six men accused of killing a guard during a prison uprising. Maureen was the consultant for helping to pick the jury. Hosea Williams showed up. The KKK was there. The town was tense, and more than 100 people were arrested for demonstrating. After this historical trial, Reidsville would never be quite the same again, and Maureen had found her calling.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017, at The Foundry
by Sean Polite

Very much the even point in the show was Mr. Russell Cutts, previous Rabbit Box storyteller and MC extraordinaire. With an effortless mix of warmth in the messages he gave to the audience, and the coolly composure of a solidly running host, Mr. Cutts charmed newcomers, encouraged the storytellers, boasted upon the board members/volunteers, and entertained the return crowds at The Foundry in his own inimitable way.

Once was the era of a precocious young Jim Lavender, a Possum Town, Mississippi scamp whose sense of mischief knew no bounds.  In his day-to-day pursuits of perfecting the art of “Getting Even,” his accomplices included his pet snake and possum.  His targets, the culture the southern debutante culture, racially-endorsed class designations in Civil War re-enactment society, and even his occasional rival prankster — his older sister (along with a precious hemline of hers).  Want to know more about execution of his schemes and the results?  Listen and find out!

When she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at age 19,  Cricket Bancroft‘s study of performance enriched her growing belief in the beauty of life.  Two relationships would organically blossom at this time.  One begat a warm courtship, intimating a romance newborn.  The other marked the blossoming of a platonic friendship, and the hope that it would stay its’ sweet  course.  One of them would change, with six stark words.  Unknowingly and suddenly, Cricket‘s belief would be in danger…and so much more.  Where can“Getting Even” apply when a situation demands Getting Away?

Returning to the Rabbit Box stage, Mr. Paul Guillebeau invites us to the Alaskan frontier (University of Alaska).  He and his buddy Kit are thick as thieves, until the classic foil of an attractive lady bids their attention.  Both eyeing her affections, even a competition of Gentlemen can yield only one winner.  But oh, when you hear how they one up each other!  So who will win?  And will their friendship be at a loss?

She was the very reason that David Stroud first stepped foot here in the Classic City, to be with the one.  Though this woman was everything to him just the way she was, he could only be everything to her by being everything he wasn’t.  Love at such an imbalance couldn’t bear well for anyone — let alone Mr. Stroud.  What the mind figures would inevitably happen from here is quite possibly catastrophic and saddening.  What the heart hopes that occurs would by redemptive by his story’s end.  Listen and see..

Many moons ago, Donna Smith Fee and her pally roommate take the leap and attend their first party together.  A reckless wind (to put it mildly) provides a stark interruption of their libations.  Donna witnesses the vivid invocation of a pranking spirit prepared for the moment of payback — by the offering of some performing players not yet prepped for the prime time.

Emily Parker + New Job + Newly Svelte Figure + New Wardrobe + New Relationship + Return To Ahens = New Day
New Chance To Try The Art of Seduction + Inspired Purchase + Fantastic Dining + Opportunity With Her Honey + Apt Timing – The Best Laid Plans = An Unintentionally (Albeit Luckily For Us) Hilarious Romp For The Ages

In 1976, Mony Abrol is making his way up the shipping company ladder, and a super-exclusive luncheon club is so far a leap up, that the rung on which he gracefully hangs seems like entry level.  He’s an outsider ethnically and socially to the $500 a plate conglomerate, but he’s a good, genuine, hard-working man with a wonderful, supportive wife.  Patience and perseverance aside, can the underdog Mony even up the odds to score a spot in the big house?

To carry the mantle of baby of the Benson Brothers, playfully sabotaging people isn’t simply a thing to pass the time.  In late 1970’s Philadelphia, it’s a way of life which Greg Benson dabbles into, and then cherishes.  However, with a hit list of cars, the infamous Whaley family. and tractors, the high speed and intensity of the pranking is long overdue to catch up with him.  Taking the risks that he does through the years, his conscience and the fast lane of pranking loom like spectral figures to get even with his silly ways….maybe?

Wednesday, February 8, 2017, at The Foundry
by Marci White

Jesse Houle was the rousing emcee for Rabbit Box’s “What I Did for Love” show in February. The house was full, with about 270 people packed into the Foundry to listen.

Connie Crawley has been a regular attendee at Rabbit Box (along with the large group of OLLI members she comes with), but this was her first time telling a story. She described a funny scenario about going to a wedding shop to buy her dress and coming away with something she didn’t even want.

A Fulbright teaching assistantship brought Sonia Sharmin from Bangladesh to the University of Georgia, where she taught Bengali. She was a long way from home when she spotted a handsome, shy Southerner who lived in the same apartment complex.

In 1966, Tom Kenyon was dreading going on a blind date to a dance. His first two dates had bailed on him for different reasons. It seemed unlikely anything good would come from the third try.

At a dinner meeting about investment advice put on by Edward Jones, Michelle Commeyras met an interesting, friendly woman who was also retired and also into real estate. Card-playing, wine-drinking and confidences traded over dinner and by a bonfire ensued. But then what?

Our Crackerjack Box storyteller of the evening, the high-spirited Sondi Baker, told of working with a colleague whose health began to decline precipitously. Their relationship became more intimate as his health deteriorated.

David Bothe has been through heartbreak and survived to tell the tale. His feelings for his first love were intense, tenacious and loyal . . . but unfortunately not reciprocated.

As a girl, Deby Lantz-Sorenson realized she possessed a capacity for risk-taking — within reason — and a love for adventure. In high school she signed up to do a year-long exchange program in Europe. She was prepared to go to France, but right before she was to go, they said no host families were available in France, and she’d have to choose between two other countries they offered. That detour determined the course of the rest of her life.

When Tommy Valentine saw a beautiful girl in the doorway of the movie theater, the world stopped. A self-described, “confident, egotistical, mess,” he still didn’t have the courage to go talk to her. Lucky for him, later the same girl walked through a different doorway and straight into his life.

November 9, 2016, at The Foundry