This episode features Melinda Fry, a student in Campfire’s Intro to Storytelling class. You can learn more about Melinda Fry on the Campfire website, https://cmpfr.com/events/summer-2019-intro-to-storytelling/.
These episodes of The Campfire Storytelling Podcast showcase students who went through our Intro to Storytelling class. These students take a six-week class to prepare to tell a story about life and how they live it. Season 27 students told stories about “labels.”.
This episode was originally performed in August 2019, produced by Jeff Allen, and recorded live at The Stage at KDHX.
This episode features Melinda Fry, a student in Campfire’s Intro to Storytelling class. You can learn more about Melinda Fry on the Campfire website, https://cmpfr.com/events/summer-2019-intro-to-storytelling/.
These episodes of The Campfire Storytelling Podcast showcase students who went through our Intro to Storytelling class. These students take a six-week class to prepare to tell a story about life and how they live it. Season 27 students told stories about “labels.”.
This episode was originally performed in August 2019, produced by Jeff Allen, and recorded live at The Stage at KDHX.
[ Intro music]
Speaker 3:Hello again, Internet. I'm Steven Harowitz, and I will be your host for this episode of Campfire at Home recorded here in St. Louis, Missouri. Almost every month, we gather at the Campfire to hear stories about life and how we live it from the everyday voices that live around us. Campfire at Home is how we bring that live storytelling experience to you wherever you are. In this episode, I have something special for you because we have stories to share from the Capstone event of our Season 9 Intro to Storytelling class. These stories come from students who signed up for a class through Campfire to learn about public speaking and storytelling, and in that first class, the students come in nervous, excited and looking around, not quite knowing who each other are yet, but then they slowly get to know one another as they collectively reflect on their lives through story. They started to see the output of their training and the power and liberation of owning and sharing their narrative. And even when it got scary or their nerves crept up, they kept choosing to take on the challenge. And then there they were on stage in the lights, delivering some truly delightful and some truly heavy stories in their natural voices. This series of podcasts includes the five Intro to Storytelling students, Amy, Paige, Jenna, Lizzie, and Melinda telling a story on the topic of labels. And when the event ended, beyond the hugs and smiles each storyteller got from those that had come to support them, Molly, who was their instructor this Season, and myself got to say a heartfelt congratulations to five people with newfound skills in storytelling, confidence in their voice when speaking publicly, and an understanding of the power of story. Let's head to the Campfire to listen to Melinda's story on labels.
Speaker 5:I'm going to move my water closer. I have a fairly dry mouth at this really important moment. Oh, hi everybody. I can't see you.
Speaker 4:[Laughter]
Speaker 5:So let's see. All right. It's 1980, and I am standing on a riverbed watching my little sister Lisa fiddle with her backpack, tie her boot for the third time, and she's singing"Oh to live on sugar mountain." And it doesn't sound like she's gonna stop, but I'm watching, I'm watching. And as her dog, Melissa, is going in and out and in and out of the water, just thrilled to be out in the outdoors. Of course, Melissa comes through and shakes every time she comes out on me or Lisa. So we're here at Cherokee National Forest because I begged my little sister to take me into the forest for just one night. The fact is I had just turned 25, and I was lost. I was in a social service job that wasn't paying my bills. I was in a relationship that I knew I needed to end. So what do I do? I hop in a car and drive 387 miles to see my little sister and be in her energy field because I wanted to escape mine. So we were sitting there, she's finishing fiddling, and we resume our hike and I am just excited. The forest is amazing. It smells like, Oh, deadwood, wet earth, spruce pine. It had been raining for two weeks,, and on this day the sun was shining. We were walking and my little sister and I, well we couldn't quit talking. We started talking and one couldn't finish faster than the other one. Just started talking and we were discussing everything. Everything big in our twenties. Do you still believe in God? Does mama know you don't go to church? Well, do you have, I mean, well, what about reincarnation? Do you really think there's a plan? And, and then all I can do is just revel in the Lisa and Melissa. Oh, by the way, her dog, Melissa, it's a black lab and she's named after us. Melinda, Lisa. That was the little sister's doing. So I nervously said to her, she's walking ahead of me and I said,"Lisa, I've been thinking about this thing that happens sometimes when I'm by myself or in the woods or in a park or just in my mind, I'm walking along and it feels like the space between my physical world and the spiritual world are melding together, and it feels like if I just boom or jump out, reach my hand real quick, I can be there, I can feel the divine." And she stopped, turned around and said,"You are crazy." So I said, okay. So I thought I'd try it on her. So she turns around and she's making a point to me and she is walking backwards on this trail and I can't hear her cause all I can see is the sun coming down through the canopy and illuminating her face and her blue eyes, sharp and her tongue sharp and her, which has gotten us into plenty of trouble. And I just am taking it in because I'm so grateful to be with her and in her energy field. Now you can smell Lisa usually before you see her. She smells like patchouli and it, it, she leads with it that or a song way before you lay eyes on her. Dry mouth. So we get in there, we've been hiking about two hours. We set up camp. We said, you know what, this is a dry here. We couldn't believe it. It was dry. We put up our little tent and then I ate a little bit and then I see Lisa getting restless and we smelled the campfire. We hadn't seen anybody. Um, so we start walking some more toward the smoke and uh, we're going to go explore. And the forest is just getting, it's just dank and spiderwebs hitting us in the face. And then we see the fire and then three guys sitting around a campfire and we're like, Oh wow. And so they came to the bank like,"Hey, what y'all doing?" And we're just, you know, doing a little hiking. They go,"Hey, y'all want to come over here and smoke a joint?" Now where I kicked back in the day, I'd smoking a joint with strangers made instant community. So I, so I, so we looked at each other and said this, the sun's high enough in the sky. It's mid, mid day. We're good. Cause we had to cross that river to get to the three Southern boys. And uh, so Melissa, our canine companion, is already over there and exuberance, you know, barking. Come on, come on, come on. So we have a shallow spot. We get over there, it's freezing. That water is just freezing, and we welcomed that blazing fire. So we're sitting around small talk with three Southern boys. It's, it's easy, it's nice. And then I'm noticing one guy, he hadn't smoking any weed and he, I start talking to him and he's the Eagle Scout and he knows those woods inside and out and we're chatting it up. He's telling me some things I don't know, which was a lot. And then I, then I hear the water and uh, right about that time I'm looking around the campfire and a guy comes out of the tent with a bottle of whiskey. Now, I don't know about y'all, but whiskey is a different animal than marijuana. And I knew my little sister was going to gonna want to take some hits of that bottle. And we were young. So this was before the time that alcohol had played havoc in heartbreak and our families, our generation. And so I said, Lisa, I'm going to go to the river and look at the water. I don't, I'm hearing it. And I wasn't hearing it before. So I get to the river and it is flying. They'd had risen and it was so fast. Uh, I D I, I'm like, Oh my goodness. So I turn around and I look over and to where Lisa is and said,"We got to go." And meanwhile I'm watching whiskey guy leering at my sister and my hair went up on the back of my neck and I said,"Oh no, we're getting across that river." And so I'm walking, she's coming behind me surly and a little tipsy and I take three steps into that water. And boom, sorry that was loud. The, it was like, I hit this wall. I could not move any further. I didn't understand it. I, I couldn't make it out like what was happening and then I, all I yelled out was,"We can't cross here," but Lisa goes around me and says,"Move out of the way. I'll go first," and, and I'm as I'm telling you saying no, she is down in that water and I've caught the back of her shirt just fast enough where she's on her back and bobbing. Now I can't move my legs, the waters at my knee, if I turn my toes to the left, I'm gone. I'm with her. If I turn them to the right, I'm on my face and going with her. So I'm just holding her. This is all in nanoseconds and she says,"Melinda, let go of me." I said"No." I knew that my arm took her out of the water and threw her back to the bank where Eagle Scout guy was there quietly. I didn't know he was there and he grabbed her and then his voice, he guided me back the three steps and then grabbed my shirt and we were on, we were on the shore and we thanked him profusely. We had to find a place to cross. The sun was in the canopy so it was looked darker than it was. And Melissa, on the other bank,"Come over here,"she says, and she's barking and we're following her and, and she stops and she barks and barks and we, we realize the place that she stopped was easy. We could cross without falling in. Well, we were in, we were freezing. We got to other side, we go back, walk into her tent and we're quiet. It's too much had happened. And uh, anyway, we were quiet and we change into our only pairs of warm clothes and I start crying and I can't stop. I said,"Why did you tell me to let go with you? Who are you thinking? How could I let go of you?" And she said,
Speaker 4:"Well, yeah,
Speaker 5:I didn't want to take you with me." I said,"Well, you would have drowned. I really believe that in all my heart." And she said,"I believe that too, but I wasn't going to take you with me." And then I cried harder. It's like, don't, don't, don't tell me that. And, and, and so then she says,"Melinda," in know-it-all-ness, when you repel up rock," like I am ever going to repel up rock,"hen you're repelling up the side of them mountain, if you're at the top and you're falling, you say,'Falling.' So the people below you can get out of the way and you don't take them with you." Well, I just cried some more and said,"I'm just so grateful that I didn't have to pull you out of a river or both of us, that I didn't have to make that choice." Now we get in the tent, we're all warm and cozy. The three of us and I turn over, I say, I love you. And I got to think. So I turn over and face the tent, and I face what I know to be true. That time on that bank was divine intervention. I never had called the helper my angel before, but this night I said,"I know it was you. I would've walked in that water. I know me. I'd walked in that water. You stopped me, and you used my arm to throw my sister onto a bank. Thank you. And I promise I will listen to you as much as I can, as much as I hear your voice and pay attention." And I knew when I left that forest the next day that I was going to be okay. No matter what happened in my life that it was gonna be all right. Now for y'all, I'll just say that for y'all. I don't usually tell angel stories, not in public and not to strangers because I worry that I will be labeled a flake. Oh woo woo. You know, I don't know. You know about her. So no matter who else I am, that label gets slapped on ya. And that be, who you become is that girl. And I tell it tonight because what happens is if you don't tell your whole truth, you leave back. You should keep a little bit private. That that really, that whole story, if I told it any differently would make me look like I saved my sister and I did not. Now I challenge all of you to think of a time that you felt misunderstood or that you kept something private because we all do it. Something private that you were afraid you'd be labeled, judged or criticized, and you didn't show your whole truth. And think of a time when you did that to somebody else and they were telling you something that was not in your frame of reference and it didn't fit and you, you couldn't make room for it and you labeled them and judge them and that is the only thing they became. So I invite everyone tonight and remind myself to let's just get a little bigger and a little fuller and allow people to have their experiences and their own truths and that there's room for everybody.
Speaker 4:[ Applause]
Speaker 3:And that is a rap. You can make sure to hear the other episodes from our Season 9 Intro to Storytelling graduates by subscribing to Campfire at Home, wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked what you heard, please leave a review on your podcast listening platform of choice. You probably hear it all the time, but it really does help others find our podcast and it supports our students. If you're in the St. Louis area, we'd love to have you come out to an event or take a class. You can visit cmpfr.com, that's C M P F R.com for all of the details, and for those of you that don't live in St. Louis who just want to know more about the work we do here at Campfire, you can also visit our website cmpfr.com, that's C M P F R.com. As always, a big thank you to the Campfire team, Mariah, Ethan, Gabriela, Molly and Jess, our photographer Sarah Wilson, our videographer and podcast producer, Jeff Allen and home for our classes, TechArtista. Tonight's stories were recorded live at the Focal Point in Maplewood, Missouri. Thanks for listening to Campfire at Home. I've been your host, Stephen Harowitz. Until next time.