Beginning in the early seventies, country comedian Jerry Clower made us all laugh with his tales from his hometown in rural Mississippi. I was honored to meet him in the eighties when he came to UNA to perform to a packed house. While working as a fertilizer salesman, Mr. Clower became known for his funny stories with which he entertained potential buyers. The right person heard him and offered him a record contract, and Mr. Clower stopped selling literal fertilizer for a living. Jimmy Neil Smith, a journalism teacher in the tiny town of Jonesborough, Tennessee, was listening to his car radio one day and heard Mr. Clower tell about hunting in Mississippi (knock 'em out, John). Mr. Smith loved storytelling, and wondered if the city of Jonesborough might start a storytelling festival. In 1973, on a sparkling October day, the first National Storytelling Festival was held. That October weekend birthed the renaissance of storytelling, and more than forty...
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