SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: OLD MAN DANIKER

One of the Great pleasures of my life was being able to work, somewhat tangentially, with the legendary storyteller Jay O'Callahan.  For several years Kitty and I were house managers of an Actors Equity theatre in Massachusetts and we were privileged to have Jay appear for several runs.  No set was needed; it was just Jay standing alone on the stage, relating some of the most marvelous stories we had ever heard.  He wrote his own stories -- many for kids and many for adults, ranging in themes from the romantic to the historic to the fantastic to the humorous.  If i had not known it before, Jay O'Callahan taught me the importance of Story in our lives.

With October around the corner, here's a little story for Halloween:  "Old Man Daniker."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsAwSFYgsQE&list=PLTKxiyHfQSSDzMU1BWprAi3RMnaaCSO9A&index=2&t=339s

Most of Jay's stories have been recorded and are available for download.  I am especially partial to the collection Village Heroes, because I was able to see the audience reaction to several of these tales:  "Edha Robinson " was a love story that had several members of my staff in tears, and "Hary Janos" was a delightful tale of a Hungarian folk hero (the basis of an epic poem by Janos Garay and a 1926 folk opera by Zoltan Kodaly); Jay's take on Hary Janos was one that I have never forgotten, nearly forty year later.  Also well worthwhile are his amazingly researched story of NASA, Forged in the Stars, and the true story his uncle,  His work is available at his uncle, U.S. Navy Chaplain Joseph T. O'Callahan, who saved the USS Franklin after it was set ablaze by Japanese aircraft in World War II, Father Joe:  A True Story.  Jay O'Callahan's work is available for download at his website,  https://www.ocallahan.com/.  I strongly recommend you heck it out.  You won't be sorry.