Western Carolina University WCU University of North Carolina Asheville UNCA

Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all
University of North Carolina Asheville (6) View all
WCU - Oral Histories of Western North Carolina

Interview with Patricia "Miss Patti" Mclure

items 2 of 2 items
  • record image
Copyright Download
Item 1 - Interview with Patricia "Miss Patti" Mclure

Interview with Patricia "Miss Patti" Mclure

HL_HIST474_Lansford_Mclure_2009-10-09

Interview with Patricia "Miss Patti" Mclure

HL_HIST474_Lansford_Mclure_2009-10-09_transcript
Item
?

Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • Patricia “Miss Patti” McClure relates how she began using storytelling techniques she learned from her mother to engage with her students, being asked by other teachers to tell stories to their classes, and eventually becoming a professional storyteller. She states that she started by telling children's stories for the younger school children and recounting the ghost legends of North Carolina for the older kids.
  • Interview with Patricia "Miss Patti" McClure Interviewed by Laura Lansford October 9, 2009 Miss Patti's home, Franklin,NC NOTE: Miss Patti has known me since my birth, and prior to recording Miss Patti and I engaged in personal conversation that may have affected the beginning of the interview. Laura Lansford: Alright, there we go. This is Laura Lansford interviewing Miss Patti McClure, and today is October the ... 91 h. I really need to get my days straight, school is keeping my days a little bit funky. Ok, So where are you originally from? Patricia McClure: I'm from Eastern North Carolina, in a small town called Wellburn, Noth Cuhlina. It's called the rockfish capital of the world. It's on the Roanoke rivuh where they catch really big rockfish. [LL laughing] LL: Did you, you grew up there, or did you move there? PM: I was born and grew up and graduated from high school from Wellburn High School. LL: Good deal. Did you have a big family or a small family when you were growing up? PM: We had a ... average size. I had a older brothuh, a older sistuh, and a younguh sistuh. We all grew up in Wellburn. LL: How old were you when you first started to tell stories? PM: Oh, I would say I was probably about 30 ... 32 when I started tellin', really tellin' stories. And the way I started, I was in Lincolnton, North Carolina, where I was teachin' school, and I was tellin' stories to my class and a teacher walked in and heard me, and she said gollyyy! Would you come do that for my class? And I said sure. And when I did it for her class I immediately started doin' it for all the classes in Lincolnton. And from that school I went to another school, so that's ... LL: What made you start telling stories? Was it just to get a point across to your class, or ... ? PM: No, my mothuh was a really good storyteller and as the children were growin up, she read to us a lot, but she would always tell us stories and she would just mesmerize us with her actions with her hands, and she would be the characters and she would talk like they did, so I thought, you know, I'm gonna try that with my class. And they loved it! And as I told stories to the children, they would start tellin' stories, and it was just a fun thing! And really children watch you more intensely when you are tellin' stories than when you are readin'. They ... you can always say somethin' or HEY! Or get their attention or jump, just your actions, and the children loved it, and adults! Storytelling is not just for little children, storytelling is an art. And mine is a god given talent, I truly believe that. But adults as well as children, when you're tellin'stories, I don't care what ages, they all become children. LL: Do you generally tell stories with like, a lesson in them, or is it just, is it Appalachian stories, any particular type of story that you tell? PM: Well when I first started tellin' stories I did a lot ofthe ... I was in lower grades, I did a lot of the children's stories. And my favorite stories, when I first began tellin' stories were the Uncle Remus stories the Tar Baby, and now you cannot do those, and it's a shame because they were great stories. And then, I started telling to the older children the North Carolina ghost legends, and I. .. those stories are some of the best stories that I tell. The children love 'em. And then I have some real funny stories, like I tell Herman the Worm, and when I tell [slips into a tongue­tied dialect] datthstory I tawt lite im tun tied betud de wuhm he tannot tawt pwain. And dat deweh I tawt, and that gets the children's attention, and a lot of times I tell stories and I use facial expressions and the children will be watching me and I will notice that if I'm doing like this [makes a sideways face] or this[makes another face] they're do in' the samething, they sorta take on mah charactuh. LL: Did anyone teach you how to tell stories when you started telling stories, besides like watching your mom? PM: No, nun uh, absolutely not. And as I told stories I just became, you know, I would just take on the charactuh, like if I'm tellin' the story of Rumplestiltstkin I dress up like Rumplestiltskin. If I was goin' in and playing a part of. .. anybody, when I do Three Billy Goats Gruff, that story, I take on the charactuhs, that type of thing, the Three Little Pigs, you just sorta make everybody come alive with your voice. LL: Which is nice. [laughing] How do you think your upbringing and being raised in Eastern Carolina, how do you think that affected the stories you tell and how you tell them? PM: Well, I guess my accent is the one thing, I don't care where I go to tell stories, people wanna know why I talk so funneh. Because they say you've got a funny accent. Is that the way they talk, I say yeah in Eastern Nawth Cuhlina they do. But I think I tell a lot of stories, and I go back to Eastern Noth Cuhlina, to the coast, to the beach, you know, that type of thing. But I tell people I do talk funneh, but I speak grammatically correctly. [laughing] LL: Let's see here ... now, do you use a lot of audience participation with your stories? PM: YES! I sure do! I use a lot of the audience when I tell stories. I'll have them respond back to me, you know, when I do things, I sure do. LL: When the audience responds a certain way or doesn't really respond does that affect how you're telling the story, like do you try and change tactics or something? PM: Not really, because when I'm tellin' stories the children almost know, or the people, I will say be my echo in this story, or I'll say 'riddle riddle riddle ree, do what I do after me'. And I'll say, now when I say that I want you to say what I do, but I want you to do what I do. And so I might start offlike Riddle riddle riddle ree, and they'll go 'riddle riddle riddle ree', and I'll say, do what I do after me, and I'll be pointin' back and forth and they'll just pick it up, it doesn't make any difference how old a crowd it is. And the stories that I tell, one of my favorite stories at Easter is the Easter is the story of Ping, by Marjorie Flack. It's about a little, little duck that is lost from his family and he has, he lives with his momma and his daddy, and his three brothuhs and his four sistuhs, and seven aunts, and eleven uncles, and his forty two cousins. And when I tell that enough times, and I. .. I'll say and he lives with his ... and the children pick up. And that, they keep, you know, they're right with you, they can tell you everything right down to the end. LL: Let's see here ... has there ever been a time that you noticed something that's going on in the wider society like ... a weird political climate or war or something has affected what stories you tell or when or where you can tell them? Have you noticed at all ... ? PM: Well the only thing that I've ever noticed about is my stories do not have anything to do with politics but when we integrated, the schools integrated way back when, and the Uncle Remus stories, Joel Chandler Harris stories, were wonderful stories, and because they use the negro dialect like 'bless yo' soul' you know, or [unintelligible] yo' bones', those ... the black people did not want us to use that dialect, even though it was the dialect,. Just like when I moved to the mountains, I had never heard the phrase you'uns. Never! I did not know what they wuh talkin' about! That's a phrase everybody up here uses. You'uns come on to my house or 'They law!' I didn't know what they were talkin' about! They law! Colloquial expressions. But when they took, when they made us stop tellin' the Uncle Remus stories it was sad because they were beautiful stories. And when you took the dialect out of them they weren't the same. They just. .. LL: The flavor of the story changed PM: The flavvuh of the story, that's a good word, the flavvuh was taken out. LL: Have you noticed your style of storytelling changing at all over time? PM: Nope [laughing] No I've used bout the same style. LL: Now, I know that you have had other occupations besides storytelling. Is storytelling more for fun for you, just to tell the stories, or is it more like, another job. PM: No, !would not say it's another job at all. A lot of people do it professionally, I do it and I go all over. I go from state to state, I was the first storyteller on the SS Norway cruise line, for a week. I enjoy it. It's very rewarding to get up and tell stories and see people enjoy it so much, and they do, it duddn't make any difference how old they are. It is a real delightful time for me. And I have a Ukulele and I have ... that I play when I tell lots of stories. The playing goes along with my stories. I have .. .I always tell stories that I can use my ukulele with, I use my keyboard when I get up there to start off with, and then I tell stories and I have lots, I'll show you my little room, I have lots of animals that I use to tell my stories with. When I tell about Peter Rabbit I have the rabbit, Peter Cottontail, I have all those little charactuhs in a basket, and I show the children the charactuhs and I pass them out and let them hold them as I tell the story about them. I have a charactuh for everybody, the gingerbread man, I've got the gingerbread man, I've got Ping the Duck, I've got Where the Wild Things Are, I have Knights, I have animals and puppets for every story just about. Except the ghost stories. I can scare them to death with the ghost stories with just myself and my bodies and my sounds. LL: I remember, when I was younger, you were telling a story at the First United Methodist Church here in Franklin, and you throughout the story changed into a different persona PM: A Witch? LL: Do you do that a lot, or is that ... PM: Oh yes, at Halloween time I used to do it all OVER Macon County. And what I'd do is I'd go in and I'd have this huge skirt, elastic, and have four children to come up and they each hold a corner and they'd make it big enough that I'd step into that skirt. And while, then I'd have them pull the skirt up to about my shoulders as I take off my slacks and I pull them to the floor and kick 'em out. And then, I'd have on a black top when I go in, with a pair of jeans and then I'd pull the skirt down and there I am with a black top and a black skirt, and I say: what else does a witch need? You gotta have with boots! I have a pair of authentic leather boots that tie up that are 100 years old. And they're black and I let the children put them on and they lace them up and I'll say do I look like a witch yet? They say no, I say well what do . .I need a cape! So I put a cape on, and then I say do I look like a witch .. ? No no, and tehn I make my face green, and then I green my face and I say, I don't look mean do I? But I say I'm onna be a funny witch, but I still wanna look mean. So then I take a black crayola crayon and I make HUGE black eyebrows, and then I take a small black line pencil and make wrinkles, and make my eyes black all the way round, and then I say, but don't I have good lookin' teeth? And I show the children my teeth and they say oh oh! And I black 'em out. Now when I black the teeth out I really am beginning to look bad, but not until I put on that wig that is grayish that hangs down to my waste. When I put the wig awn, then I have the children close their eyes, and then I put on the hat and then I go AAAAAHH HAHAHAHA [cackle maniacally]. And it scares them to death. If I had known I had scared as many children in Macon County as I had, I prolly wouldn't have done that. [laughing] But now my kindergarten children would say: Miss Patti, we we ... we don't like you like a witch! You look so bad! But I'm noted as the good witch of Western Noth Cuhlina because once I dress up like a witch I talk like a witch and I say [takes on Eastern European accent] I am goink to poot a hex on you! I am goink to feex it so you cannot eat cahndy fo anothuh yeah! And that's the way I talk and I walk funny, but I never ever amm a bad witch, I am always a good witch, and I tell them I am a good witch and there's no such things as ghosts and goblins. They're make believe! LL: When somebody asks you, like, what you do, do you tell them 'I'm a teacher' or do you say 'I'm a storyteller'? PM: I tell 'em I am a mothuh, first of all, I tell 'em I am a wife, a mothuh, a storytelluh. I tell 'em a teacher, and a poet. I write lots of poems, that's what I do. LL: What do you think that storytelling as an art, as something you do for kids and adults, does for the community? How do you think it helps the people that hear the stories? PM: Well storytellin' to me is a real art, and many many years ago, before ... even before people could really write, you know, they could tell things. They could tell stories, and they could tell about their childhood and pass it on down, because, I'm talkin' bout a hundred years ago, before people ... a lot of people could not write but they could tell stories. And the stories they told , you know, I could sit here and tell you stories about things that happened to me yesterday or the day before. And it would tickle you to death! I mean, I spent an hour looking for a lettuh yestuhday, I mean I could have really made that into a story. And it's like I'm tellin' children, readin' is nothin' but talk put down on paper, so storytellin' is the same thing. You read a story and as I've told my children in school, they say oh I wannabe a storyteller! And I say find you a story that you really like, read it, and when you learn it, tell it. Go home and tell it to your mothuh, your daddy, brothuh, sistuh, anybody could be a storyteller. But it takes, it takes practice to be a GOOD storyteller. LL: Do you feel like new technology like internet and like, texting on cell phones PM: And facebook! [both laughing] LL: Yeah, do you feel like that has influenced how people get stories, or storytellers? PM: Personally? I do not. .. think it has. You might can get on the internet and FIND storytellers, and there are a lot of storytellers around. And before I had my heart transplant I had planned upon retiring, to go on a ship. I was gonna be, I wanted to be a storyteller on a cruise ship. That's what I really wanted to do. But after I had the heart attack and didn't want to get goin' far away, in case somethin' happened. So I still, like I went to Richmond, Vuhginia. I go anywhere anybody calls me, to go. And when I am here in Macon County, it is not ajawb. I do it for nothin'. When I go places if they wanna take up, what they call a love offering, and give it to me, that's fine. When I went to Richmond Vuhginia, back three or four months ago, I went for a friend and they took up a HUGE offering and I was paid well but I did not charge 'em. And that's just. .. I feel like it is a real gift from God. And I probly could've done it professionally, had I wanted to, and I probly could've done it at the age of probly 55 and still had a lot of years in, because I'm 70 years old now, and STILL tellin' stories! LL: Still goin' strong, What, Let's see, how do I phrase this question ... What importance do you think that storytelling has for the people who tell the stories, like, how has it affected your life? PM: Well, it's one of the most gratifying things I've ever done. I mean, I don't care where I go to tell a story, the compliments are so ... overwhelming, and it maybe just. . .I don't know, it's just a wonderful feelin'. To make somebody happy, they truly come up and just huuug ya, and the people come up n say 'oh that's so wonderful, how do you do it?' I mean it's like, you think hey .. .l'm something special! It is a .. .it is the most gratifying thing and like I said .. .I was a two year business mayjuh when I graduated from college, and I worked for J.P. Stevens in the [unintelligible] Cannin' department, and I'll never forget it, a office with six men and one other woman. The woman was about 55, she sat in the back corner, and I looked at her and thought Mmmmmhmm ... that's gonna be me if I stay in Cannin. And I said I'm goin' back to school, I'm goin' .. .I always loved children and when I was growin' up I did a lot of babysitting, and I knew that I was in the wrooong profession. I went for business because I couldn't afford to go to college but I could get a year in and got a job, But I got two years in and got a really good job, but that's when I realized I was in the wrong profession. And I loved every minute I was in the classroom teachin' school, I LOVED tea chin'. Taught for 30 years and my storytellin' was an asset to the classroom. LL: Well, since you're a teacher and a storyteller, have you taught any people storytelling? PM: Oh yes, oh yeah, I've taught several classes on just storytellin'. That's what I was tryin' to find, and I will get it to ya, but oh yeah, I have done several workshops on storytellin'. I did one for the state, and then I did one for the .. .I've done some for the schools, I've also been to other states and done storytellin' workshops. I went to Columbia, south Cuhlina several years ago and did a workshop for the teachers AND for the children. LL: Well is there anything else you want to particularly tell me, about storytelling that we haven't talked about? PM: Well I think you about hit everything, Laura. I think, I hope that storytellin' continues to be enjoyable and that we don't let it die out. You know a lot of these arts seem to die out and I think storytellin' will hold its own. I still I go to all the schools just about. And I'm not goin' to many of 'em right now, because of the flu. We've got a lot of flu goin' on right now, and I'm stayin' out. And of course every year I lead the parade for Octoberfest, I'll either be a pumpkin or the witch, or whatever, and I do the Halloween contest and then I'll tell stories down there. I always tell stories on the square at Halloween. And the children will all get around me and we do One little, Two little, Three little pumpkins, and we siiing, we tell stories about Halloween. LL: Alright, well I think that about does it, I'll go ahead and turn off the recorder here. PM: [chuckle] Ya better see if it got us.
Object
?

Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).

Related items

Part of Collection

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina

These interviews document the communities and culture of Western North Carolina. Topics include the building of the Fontana Dam, the history of WCU, stories from local veterans, integration of the...

View collection Read introduction
panzoom image
converted_cover_pdf