Two first-time tellers at the club, three old hands, and seven listeners made for a very varied evening.
Paul boldly went first, with his tale of the anti-alcohol meenister of the kirk, and Sandy, the whisky-drinker in the front pew, whose empirical observation triumphed over dogmatic and preconceived interpretation [you had to be there to understand]. Then Steve revived his African narrative skills [15 years, he said, since he'd last told] with the tale of The Angry Buffalo, and showed how anger could be harnessed into the service of what's right. Darren, for once not behind the counter serving us, took us to Alderley Edge in Cheshire, with a tale of the farmer from over Moberley way, and what he saw when the Wizard bought his horse. Maddie had two bites at the cherry, with Nasruddin Feeds His Clothes, and The Destruction of the Dragons [a Mesopotamian tale], before Paul closed the first half with a grim account of The End of Heather Ale. Mike took us round the Moon and back in 45 minutes in the second half, with the crew of Apollo 13, woven into a fly-through of space history up to that point in 1970 when the fateful words were spoken: "Houston, we've had a problem." But they all lived happily ever after - which is what you want from a story evening, isn't it?
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