Improbable Anecdotes
Introduction
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live" --Joan Didion
I like to tell stories.
When I taught theatre management at Illinois State University, I believed part of the value I brought was sharing my experiences (good and bad) in the field. Students learned they could liven up a lecture by asking a question or two and sidetracking me into horror stories about commercial theatre production or non-profit management.
My love of storytelling led me to participate as a book in a Human Library project, and I have been a featured storyteller at McLean County Arts Center's Story Slam.
But some of the best experiences were sitting around the living room with friends, cheese, and scotch. Because I had the privilege of a range of offbeat and entertaining experiences in life, I'd tell stories.
"You should write a book!" they would say. So here we are.
Everything in this book is true, to the extent that my memory serves. The events all happened, though as with all historical accounts, some of the subtleties have been flavored by time. The same facts that seem mundane when an event occurs can become poetic when turned into a memory.
This is a book of stories. Although the chapters follow vaguely chronologically, the reading doesn't need to be linear. If you'd rather not begin with Getting Started and want to skip directly to Drugs or Lounge Lizard, go for it.
Together, the stories form a sort of autobiography. Not a complete one. Gaps could mean that there were no interesting stories from that time, that I don't remember them, or that the statute of limitations has not expired.
The book covers over 60 years, and during that time, I and the world have changed. Some stories couldn't possibly have happened the same way ten years (or 40 years) later.
The people around me make stories enjoyable, so many are mentioned or inferred. If I use someone's first and last name, that is their real name. If I only use the first name, it may or may not be accurate. It might be I couldn't remember their name or was afraid of their reaction. I expect that some of my friends will read this book terrified I used their real name in connection with a story, and then, after reading it, be disappointed I didn't.
I hope some readers don't know me and just find this an entertaining set of stories. Others will have been a part of my life, looking to explore those sections in which they played a role and finding themselves surprised (maybe shocked) by details they didn't know. My grandnephews and grandnieces may someday wish to find out who that guy was who shows up whenever they type "Guither" into Google.
And there's one other reader for whom I write. Myself, when I'm old, and my memory is shot, so I can pick up this book and think, "My, what an interesting fellow I must have been!"