Tennessee – Day 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tennessee – Day 3

At 6:30 AM, the toes were wiggled again. “No!” I screamed mentally, “not yet; not now!” I stumbled through breakfast and my new ranger escort came through the door, her crisp starched uniform a stark contrast to my whiny insides. At School #1 ( 3 programs: K-2, 3-5, and 6-8) the gymn was hot and the pretty little principal way too perky. I looked at the Tiger mascot snarling at me from the wall and thought, ‘how am I ever going to get through this?’ But then the kindergarteners started filing in, smiling, waving, excited. Silently, steathily, I stole as much of their energy and enthusiasm as I could and began. Ten minutes later, we were ALL having fun!

Then, at the end of the morning as the middle schoolers filed out, an unexpected blessing: my afternoon school was cancelled – a water pipe problem. God bless burst water pipes!  Etta, my escort, and I celebrated at Subway. Later, as I sat in a rocker on the cabin porch, the cicadas again began to hum. ‘I might take a hike,’ I thought. But Etta had said to watch out for copperheads; they’ve been really abundant this year….I decided to use the hot tub instead.

 

 

 

After supper, we did a brief lighting check at the festival site. The tent was huge and lined with hay bales. Faye said that weather permitting, they expected somewhere between 1500 – 3000 people. It may be one of the largest free outdoor storytelling festivals in the US.