What a pleasure it was today to see and hear Gay Ducey tell stories at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough.
I've known Gay since sometime in the early 1990's when she was a Featured Teller at the Poplarville Blueberry Festival which was produced by my good friend, Hattie Gentry. She was such a hit that the Poplarville Guild had Gay come back a number of times to tell, lead workshops, and teach Master Classes. I think I attended all of these.
Rocky included Gay as one of the Barter Storytellers and she conducted a workshop for the Beaver Creek Storytellers Guild while in town. Both she and her husband, Patrick, stayed at our house several times.
Today, when she saw me we hugged and she whispered in my ear, "I just wasn't ready to let him go yet," meaning Rocky, of course. She loved Rocky's humor and was very helpful to him in one of the Poplarville workshops when he introduced his signature story which we referred to as "Chicken Beebees."
After the program today at the ISC, Gay, her husband, and I went to The Bistro to have ice tea and peach cobbler and a good catch-up visit. They have two granddaughters now who live near them in Berkeley that they are very involved with. Gay is a very wise woman who was once a social worker and now is a Children's Librarian. The Bay Area of California gives her the opportunity to hear many ethnic stories of a multitude of cultures.
She told several Asian folktales today and her animated facial expressions and her voice set her style that is so pleasing. I for one hang onto every word and the stories are never boring because I get caught up in the telling. The last story she told was a wonderful woman's story about a lifetime prosaic existence in which a woman lived as she was expected. However, she discovered an artistic way, using a prosaic medium, to express her yearnings. I've heard several stories from Gay through the years that have been memorable and have stayed with me, and this one will be one of those, I'm sure.
Gay is a special friend to me and many of us who were involved in the Poplarville Storytelling Festival have a special place in our hearts for her. I wish her contentment and hope that she receives the kind of pleasure that she has been giving her audiences for many years. Mimi
