Under the sun (and the tent)...

A few hours in the car...a little NPR..a little chatting with the kids on the cell phone, and I pull up to the Indiana History Center to begin the 20th anniversary year of the Hoosier Storytelling Festival.

I am a day or so late which can't be helped with school and theatre obligations, but none-the-less, I arrive with two minutes to spare to hear Bill Harley. He is professional and funny and we all end up singing to songs that we danced to as teen agers! Memories flood around me as I listen. I whisper to Ellen that we should go up on stage and dance..but no one else seems to be thinking that...so we don't.

I stay at Ellen's although she is too busy to chat with this festival...so many details..Her Dad makes my early morning coffee as I am up early...a habit I will never get rid of as I roam about the house watching the dawn's night sky with diamond stars.

My room is cozy with my own quilt and a new mattress from a Christmas a while back. The room is tucked under the front eaves, and I feel a bit like Little Orphant Annie...especially on these lovely Autumn days.

So three days under the tents...stories...friends...connections. It is family and home for me.

Lou Ann

Lou Ann Homan-Saylor lives in Angola, Indiana which is nestled in the hills of Northern Indiana and spends her summers on the wind swept island of Ocracoke. You can find her gardening or writing late into the night under the light of her frayed scarlet lamp. She is a storyteller, a teacher, a writer, an actress and a collector of front porch stories.