Celeste and I were invited back to Folklore Village, in Dodgeville WI for a down-home weekend of music and dancing and, of course, stories and crafts … .  I focused on Jack Tales while Celeste introduced children of all ages to the art of rug-braiding (if they chose) or painting and assembling a small pioneer toy.

Now “Jack Tales” do not rank highly in my repertoire – not because I don’t enjoy reading them; I do … but because I don’t especially enjoy telling them.  They don’t appeal to me as a Teller, for the most part; I mean, in the first place, they go on forever; one thing leads to another and one adventure dove- tails into another and there’s always – it seems – just one more thing that needs doin’.  And Jack and the Varmints, one of the stories I chose for Folklore Village, is just one of those stories … that goes on and on and on and

 …

Jack sets off to the store at the foot of the mountain he lives on.  En-route, he “kills” seven flies with a single blow from a paddle he’d been whittlin’ “to pass the time” …  The flies aren’t dead, “but it don’t matter none, ‘cause Jack jus’ fills up with himself so much he spills out with song” about how he

“kilt seven wit one whack!”

http://tale-teller.com