The Storyteller

Meet Frank Gillis. He has curly grey hair, and often wears a coverall suit with the name Peter on it. He enjoys green tea and swears by organic vegetables, fruit and meat. He has recently discovered a love for a parsnips, lightly coated in salt and pepper and olive oil. Frank knows everyone and everyone knows Frank.

Frank started fishing at the age of 12 and he has not looked back since. While most people were sleeping at 4am this morning, he had probably already put on his green rubber boots and was headed to his boat for a long day of lobstering. He will probably be on the water for 11 to 12 hours.

There is not much that Frank has not done during his life. He has fished, he has raised cattle, he has perhaps even bootlegged. I have learned more from Frank in the past week than I would have learned in any classroom. I am happy every time he knocks on our back door, as is our dog Jack, whom he often takes on drives around the village.

With all of his life experiences and his lovely personality, Frank is the perfect storyteller. And he has certainly told a few hundred stories the past week. Frank never leaves out any detail, and when he realizes that we are stumped by a word that he has used, he offers up an explanation, which often requires him to stand up and act it out. Listening to him throughout the week and especially last night, I started to wonder if my generation has produced storytellers like Frank. When I think of our dinners with friends, we tend to focus more on the present, the latest sporting victory, or perhaps what is happening in Canadian politics. We never seem to tell retrospective stories, and if we do, well I don't know...it just seems different. Is that because we just don't have enough 'life experience'? I am not convinced. Our amazing groups of friends, have been in some incredible places and have been a part of many historical events. Could one say that storytellers are usually from smaller communities or are they also city dwellers? I am not convinced that we can generalize...I am however convinced that our generation is not carrying the storyteller torch. At least not yet. This week has created lots of lasting memories, all of which would make up a great story...

My mom is a great storyteller, and we have for a long time tried to encourage her to write children's books based on the experiences of our dogs. Her imagination is vivid and we are convinced that she would write a bestseller.

I will miss Frank's visits and I am already looking forward to more stories when we are back in May.