In his bow tie and ill-fitting suit, Donald Davis looks like the avuncular uncle who entertains at family celebrations with stories about the relatives. Stories like how much he enjoyed being the baby, the first in the family, and how little he liked at age 3 yielding the title "baby" to his new brother. At age 5 he liked something even less — having to watch the baby while his mother did laundry or picked beans in the garden.

His momma didn't care. "What you have to watch out for with mommas is when the spaces between the words are as big as the words," Davis said, midway through a 20-minute story about how to get fired from baby-watching.

"Get — in — the — house — and — watch — the — baby."

Chilly temperatures did not discourage throngs of schoolchildren from all over Southeast Missouri and many adults from attending Friday's opening day of the first Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival. The tent at Main and Merriwether streets overflowed for the performance titled "Stories That Make Us Laugh" by Marilyn Kinsella and Priscilla Howe.

Convention and Visitors Bureau director Chuck Martin estimated the attendance at just under 1,100 for all the morning and afternoon sessions. That included about 700 students from as far away as Poplar Bluff, Mo., and Cairo, Ill., and as near as Jackson. Martin said no Cape Girardeau schools participated.

An evening performance on the River Campus by the festival's four nationally-known storytellers was expected to add significantly to the attendance total. That tent holds 500 people, and 400 passes good for all three days of the festival have been distributed so far.

The festival resumes at 10 this morning with stories by Sheila Kay Adams in the tent at Broadway and Spanish Street and Missouri Tales by storytellers Jim "Two Crows" Wallen, Joyce Slater and Doug Mishler in the tent at Main and Merriwether streets. The performances continue through 4:45 p.m. downtown, with another evening performance on the River Campus at 7 p.m.

Davis was one of seven storytellers who entertained audiences Friday. Dan Keding told stories from Africa, Croatia and England and even expertly played the spoons. His stories tended to have a lesson about greed or injustice. Marilyn Kinsella told American Indian tales about monstrous beings and used suspense so skillfully that rows of startled students turned around quickly when a gust of wind whipped against the back of the tent.

Joyce Slater told a Chinese story that explained how the Man in the Moon got there. Willy Claflin and his language-challenged puppet Maynard Moose made the students from Immaculate Conception School in Jackson laugh uproariously with a tale that explains "why mooses can't fly." It has to do with bubble gum and "an extremely uglified pig."

Barry Robinson, co-owner of Cup 'N' Cork in downtown Cape Girardeau, said the festival created lots of business Friday. "We've been swamped from 11 o'clock until now," he said at 1:30 p.m. "You could tell they were new faces."

Martin said he and the organizers are "extremely gratified" by the turnout and positive reactions to the first day. Friday's nippy temperature did make them decide that in the event of cold the tents will be outfitted with propane heaters during next year's festival, which is already being planned. "This is indeed our first rodeo," he said.

Davis and his cousin made a mess of watching the baby the day his momma needed to pick beans. They liked to play a game called Make the Baby Cry. They teased him with cookies and stuck a rattle to his forehead, creating a "big sucked up red place" they tried to camouflage with calamine lotion. Of course, Davis' momma saw through the subterfuge.

"Can't mommas get mad in a hurry?" Davis asked. "She totally lost her punctuation."

                                               
 

Dan Keding played the spoons on his cheek Friday morning, April 4, 2008, during the Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival. (KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com) [Order this photo]

                                                    
 

Joyce Slater told a Chinese story Friday morning, April 4, 2008, during the Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival. The story addressed getting what one needs and what one deserves. (KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com) [Order this photo]

Sacred stories kicked off the final day of the Storytelling Festival Sunday in downtown Cape Girardeau. The storytellers were, clockwise from top left, Donald Davis, Jim "Two Crows" Wallen as Noah, Sheila Kay Adams, Marilyn Kinsella and Dan Keding. FRED LYNCH ( ) flynch@semissourian.com [Order this photo]

 

Donald Davis moved from one story to another like walking into a different room at a family reunion Sunday. He told not just stories but life lessons learned through family tales and weaved around punch lines to keep the audience entertained and interested.

Davis was the last storyteller to perform individually at the first Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival, which ended at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The three-day festival sold "well over 500" tickets and drew people from all over the country, said festival co-producer Chuck Martin, also the executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau. That number does not include the 700-plus school children who attended Friday.

The chairs have been broken down and the tents are gone, but the memories of the first-ever event are fresh.

"We loved the moose, Maynard — Maynard the Moose," said Donna Sanders of Cape Girardeau. She and her 14-year-old daughter Kristyn were leaving the festival Sunday afternoon.

Master storyteller Willy Claflin used puppets like Maynard Moose, Boring Beaver and Socklops to tell his stories. Sanders' son is in Boy Scout Troop 21, which stayed in the tents each night to keep watch over the sound equipment. Her son and husband stayed in the Southern Convenience Store tent on the River Campus on Saturday night. Boy Scouts or fraternity members from Southeast Missouri State University stayed in each of the tents Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

"I guess I didn't think they would be as professional as they are," Sanders said. She and Kristyn went to a few stories Saturday and all of them Sunday.

"I liked the funny stories," Kristyn said. The two agreed they would come back next year for the different storytellers.

Martin said a least four new storytellers are signed on for the 2009 Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival. He said the festival next year will be basically the same as this year's.

"The fact is that when 95 percent of the feedback you get is positive, I don't think you need to change much," Martin said Sunday as he separated chairs that had just been full of festival goers. "I think we'll tweak it a little bit."

He said next year they might expand one tent and play with scheduling some to give people more time to walk around, eat and shop downtown. Martin said he "couldn't be happier" with the weekend turnout and that he would "be totally surprised if we don't double the turnout next year."

"Most importantly, I think I learned that storytelling will fly in Cape Girardeau," Martin said.

The storytelling brought out more than just people from Cape Girardeau. Ned and Kathy Carter drove about nine hours from Muskogee, Mich., to attend the festival. Ned belongs to a storytelling group and had been to a few daylong festivals, but said this was a new experience.

"I like this because you get not only a variety of stories, but you get a big variety of storytellers," Ned said.

"I'm surprised," Kathy said, "for your first festival, you've had a lot of people."

This was the Carters' first visit to Cape Girardeau.

"You know," Ned said, "this town has got the friendliest people in it."

The couple planned on staying through the night to have dinner and drive around town, then leave today.

"We've had a good time," Ned said.

 

charris@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246