Yesterday, as we bowed our heads and stagecoach driver ‘John Morehead’ placed his sou’wester over his heart to read the final words of our Shoalwater Storytellers presentation, “…leaving a record of devotion to duty seldom equaled…”, my thoughts were a bit of a jumble.  That moment marked Dave Immel’s debut as a Shoalwater Storyteller and my final appearance after thirty-two years of performances.

Memories flew to mind, unbidden, of the hours and days and months that Lawrence Lessard and I developed the scripts for our readers’ theater concept.  I combed the old Sou’wester magazines looking for first-hand accounts, preferably with a dramatic quality, that I could script and Lawrence could adapt for the stage as only he could.

I thought about the fun we had when there were six of us – Noel and Pat Thomas, Bob and Senta Cook, Lawrence and myself – performing for pennies wherever we could, but only if the audience numbered more than our cast!  And I thought about how Lawrence and I rewrote the scripts for the just two or us a year or so later when the Thomases and Cooks dropped out.  And of how willingly Nyel stepped up when Lawrence moved away in 1985.

And, of course, I thought of the glitches that always occur in live theater, like the time that Bob was playing the stagecoach driver and, when he was cracking his whip, inadvertently let go of it and it flew into the audience!  Or, Bob again, who lost his place in the script when he was playing George Easterbrook, an early lighthouse keeper.  The rest of us were backstage and all we heard was Bob saying over and over “I was forced…”  I was forced…”  I still laugh when I think about that.  Or the time that the seat of Lawrence’s pants ripped out at the top of the show and he had to play every part without revealing his backside to the audience…

But overriding all my memories yesterday was the joyous thought that, though Nyel and I are now “retired” from the Storytellers, the performances will continue.  Kitt Fleming will be Dave’s partner and we have already begun working on the “transition.”  It’s not that I don’t want to ride that stagecoach again or reenact the hanging of Lum You or take part in the 1893 kidnapping of the county seat.  It’s just that it’s time.  Time to turn over the reins.  I can’t think of any two people we’d rather have carry on the tradition!  Bonne Chance Dave and Kitt!