{"id":18438,"date":"2016-12-10T10:06:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T15:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=18438"},"modified":"2019-01-12T15:04:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T20:04:12","slug":"tell-us-all-a-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2016\/12\/10\/tell-us-all-a-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Tell us all a story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tietying\"<\/a>This week Nathalie and Baylee from the Adirondack Center for Writing dropped by the station for a working lunch to plan out details of the next season in our live storytelling collaboration, The Howl Story Slam<\/a>. As the two of them had also acted as hosts and houseparents for the unruly bunch of writers in my recent two-week residency, I had to tell them what a shock it had been to return to the work-a-day world, and to confess that my writing output had now fallen back to its usual glacial pace.<\/p>\n

But the banter that day in the station kitchen reminded me of the informal story sessions we held after dinner during the residency, and of a confessional story I told one night. “That should be a poem,” they said. Now it is.<\/p>\n

Tie in My Pocket<\/strong><\/p>\n

Among things I learned from my father:
\nhow to shave with a Gillette adjustable razor–
\nhow to tie a necktie.<\/p>\n

But by late in the turtleneck ’70s I had lost
\nthe knack of it and stood like a schoolboy
\nwhile he tied one for me once again.<\/p>\n

Care for one’s dignity also being among
\nmy father’s lessons, I loosened the knot later
\nand tucked the still-tied tie into my suit coat pocket.<\/p>\n

There it stayed in years afterward, ready to deploy
\non those few occasions so formal as to require
\n“the noose” — my father’s funeral among them.<\/p>\n

By the ’90s the tie sported a down-at-heels
\nfunkiness, a set of permanent wrinkles
\nalong with a spot impervious to OxyClean.<\/p>\n

With reluctance I consigned it to the bin
\nand soldiered on toward the millennium by
\ntie-defying recourse to round-collar shirts,<\/p>\n

which left me ill-prepared in late 2000 when
\nI suspected the guise of male respectability
\nmight be to my advantage in a job interview.<\/p>\n

Fatherless now, nearing fifty, too shamed to solicit
\npeer support, I went to www.dressforsuccess.com
\nand downloaded pictograms from tietying.html.<\/p>\n

Printed out and tucked into the pocket of the same
\n(now vintage) suit coat, they comprise a virtual
\nstand-in for the discarded family relic.<\/p>\n

I still pull this cheat sheet out on requisite occasions
\nto guide me at the bathroom mirror until the knot
\nis neat and the narrow end is tucked behind the wide.<\/p>\n

Emerging well-kempt, my throat is constricted
\nin cruel conformity to masculine rites
\nand by the memory of lessons lost.<\/p>\n

OK. Now it’s your turn. Tell us a story in a comment below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week Nathalie and Baylee from the Adirondack Center for Writing dropped by the station […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6128,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18438"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18443,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18438\/revisions\/18443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}