Storytelling

• A local legend died the day before yesterday. Southerners tell good stories; just think about all the authors we have: Harper Lee, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Margaret Mitchell, Alice Walker, Eudora Welty, Kate Chopin, and Zora Neale Hurston. All that to say, the ability to tell a good story is practically innate here in the South. But for as long as I've been alive, much longer, actually, Catherine Tucker Windham was the best of the best. I doubt her books are widely known outside the South, but here they're truly a rite of passage. In the '60s and '70s she authored a series of books Thirteen (Insert state here) Ghosts & Jeffrey. There were two books about Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Southern (from several states), and there may have been one about Florida. When the school library put them out around Halloween each year the list to check them out was a mile long, but I read them all. There are thirteen stories in each book, plus the story and photo of Jeffrey. Jeffrey is the ghost that haunts Mrs. Windham's Selma house, and a picture of him appears in each book. I never got to hear her tell stories in person, but I often listened to her on the radio. I especially liked her stories about her days as a UA co-ed in the 1930s. Her tales were a very important part of my childhood. In fact, I'm about to dig out my copy of Alabama Ghosts. I'll post again tonight and give y'all a quick recap of each of the stories. Otherwise, you'll never know what you're missing. :)