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The art of telling a good story
Wenatchee storyteller Rocci Hildum believes that parents should read to their children and pass on stories from their families through oral storytelling as much as possible. Hildum, a social worker by day, tells stories to area school children and various groups of people. He visited Quincy elementary schools last week at the invitation of the Quincy Girl Scout troop and leader, Debbie Koehnen.
"I grew up in an Italian family," Hildum said, "and it was a cultural expectation to tell stories. A lot of cultures are embodied in stories. Oral tradition tells a society's rules and expectations," he went on to explain. "Read to your children," he said, "because it encourages deeper thinking."
Hildum entertained school children at Pioneer, Monument, and Mountain View, and then returned for an evening session of storytelling for parents and their children at Pioneer Elementary last Thursday evening. He has been a storyteller for 13 years and says he enjoys it tremendously. "It started by accident. I was a stay-at-home dad and took my daughter to the story time at our local library. I was eventually asked by the librarian to help out with the story time and that turned into my part-time profession," he said.
Storytelling is something that Hildum feels good about and believes in. "I know lots of stories x97 original, folk, some from books," he said. He prefers to entertain audiences of mixed ages with his versions of myths, legends, and fables.
"I tell absolutely true stories," he told the wide-eyed crowd then explained, "Everyone can find at least one thing that is true to them in each of my stories."
Hildum appreciates the cultural variations in the stories he knows and tells.
"There are differences in stories from different continents," he told the audience and used the example of long and ponderous stories from Australia as an example.
He added that many stories span different cultures and times and referenced coyote tales. Hildum shared that across cultures, it is usually the elders, religious and spiritual leaders, or shaman who are the storytellers.
For a man who desperately despised public speaking in his younger days - Hildum dropped the required communications class six times while he was in college before finally making a speech and passing in his seventh attempt - speaking in front of a crowd has become a pleasurable pastime. Hildum maintains a website: www.storyteller.net/tellers/rhildum.
