The fun began on Wednesday when I attended the opening event for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival at the Riverwoods. Most of the events at the festival are paid, but this one is one of the few free offerings, so of course that was the one I chose to attend! To get my exercise for the day in still, I parked at the mouth of the canyon and then ran down the Provo River Trail to the Riverwoods. By the time I got there, I was quite hungry and still had about 45 mins before the program began, so I decided to get something to eat at Bajio.
After I got my food, there were a number of people already in the chairs that had been set up, so I found a handy park bench that was a bit off-set from the main pavilion, but still provided a good view of the action. I’d made it early enough that I was able to catch the sound check while I ate, which was fun, since the performer sang an entertaining song.
As the start time approached, a nice older couple came over and asked to share my bench. We were chatting and I found out this was their first time too. The woman told me she had a friend who was an organizer for the event who said that this was actually the best event of the whole event usually. Apparently they’ve had the performer, Bill Harley, who has won 2 Grammys and is an NPR commentator, there in the past too. It was reassuring to discover that I was going to get to see the best event for free!
To warm up the audience, they had a little boy, who was probably no older than 6 tell a story. His tale was about how his father had taken an eating challenge at a spicy food restaurant the day before family pictures, despite the mother’s warnings that it was a bad idea. Though the dad successfully completed the challenge, it caused his eyes to get all red and swell up, so that he looked pretty awful the next day. I’m obviously not doing storytelling justice to this kid, but one of the more entertaining lines was basically, “It’s a good thing Dad had proven his manliness, because he sure was wearing a lot of make-up that day!” The kid was super cute and really did a good job telling his story in an engaging way, especially for someone so young.
So Bill Harley was next. He really was very good overall. He sang a number of funny songs that he’d written and also told a few different stories. It’s been awhile, but I remember one tale about a scary bus driver he had as a kid as well as my favorite part of the evening, in which he recited his pirate poem. This was prefaced by him talking about loving the work of Robert W. Service when he was growing up. Service was a Scottish fellow who ended up in Alaska and wrote interesting poems about living there. Harley also recited part of Service’s Cremation of Sam McGee, which I have actually heard before, but it really is pretty entertaining.
The pirate poem that Harley wrote was inspired by Services work, and is called Dirty Joe the Pirate. It’s also been made into a picture book now too, evidently. I won’t spoil it too much for you, but it involves a pirate captain who sails the 7 seas marauding for dirty socks! It’s definitely worth checking out, if you get a chance.
While the event in and of itself truly was excellent, what made the whole experience even better was the beautiful weather and all-around pleasant feeling. The setting is beautiful, the sunset was gorgeous, and the tales were engaging. All in all, it was a pretty perfect evening! After the show wrapped up, I had just enough light left to run back up to my car before dark. I’m really glad I decided to go, because everything did turn out much better than I could have planned. I’m glad I live in an area where there are fun things like this that happen pretty regularly. I will definitely be going back next year!
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