Folklore Star Date 2.09

COMMUNITY AND BOUNDARY: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE STORIES OF MUSHROOM COLLECTORS BY G.A. FINE

SUMMARY:
 First off, not the type of mushrooms I was expecting. The type of mushrooms I was hoping for, and this would of been a whooooooooooooole different story! Sad to say, this story was about regular mushroomers. My father taught me how to collect wild mushrooms, which we could eat, which we couldn't, how to prepare them and when and where to find them. Saying that, this was a pretty boring story. I mean, it's about those who look for mushrooms...for fun. And then they meet about these mushrooms and....I just like mushrooms on my steak, not to talk about on my date. Non the less, the stories described as 'mushroom' stories, are those where someone finds a treasure, in this case an actual mushroom.

RESPONSE:
As I stated in my summary, this was pretty boring. Some of the stories were funny but I'm not apart of this group so many of the jokes I didn't quite get or think were funny. For example, the story where the kid told one of the collectors his mom said the mushrooms were poisonous and they found that funny. I don't find that very funny as I see a concerned mother telling her son this to prevent him from eating whatever he found. I don't see this to be a joke.

Q&A:

1. Why are they called mushroom stories instead of treasure stories?
2. This a pretty old article (1987), how would this compare to current states of affairs in regards to the same community?
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STORYTELLING STYLE IN THE PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF HOMER SPRIGGS BY J.E. ATTEBERY

SUMMARY:
 This article explores the storytelling of a Homer Spriggs of Indiana. The paper details his style, rhythm, subjects, repeating characters, subjects, elements and so on. Several of his stories are included in the paper to illustrate these points.

RESPONSE:
I love how this guy speaks like a Hoosier. Example: instead of writing "seeing that it is full" it's "seed it full" which is how a country hoosier would speak. Mr. Spriggs is also very wordy, which is true of hoosiers. We like to repeat our words a few times over, just to get the point across. It was funny, that as I read this I could see my grandfather narrating in the same manner.

Q&A:

1. It just says he's from 'Rural Indiana', but where exactly? It says he was a blacksmith, so I imagine the southside...
2. Near the end, the author notes the ratio of verbs to adjectives. Is this characteristic of this story style?