Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 0 56 The storytelling tradition finds many rivulets. In Missoula, Tell Us Something brings together storytellers. They have a podcast and YouTube channel. See tellus- something.org TEDx talks bring together local people around a particular theme. See TEDx Bozeman for examples. Pechakucha: Freestyling on short ski www.distinctlymontana.com/pechakucha201 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL Surprisingly, some of PechaKu- cha's biggest stars have been people who have never talked in front of a group in their lives. One of the biggest crowd pleasers from PK's early days was artist Joslin Field's story, "Barbie… love her or loathe her." Joslin, who overcame her own fears of public speaking had the crowd in her hands from the start. When her daughter and hus- band purchased the Barbie from a local thrift store, Joslin confessed to being "aghast"—worried that the plastic sex symbol blonde Barbie would "warp" the way their adopted Chi- nese daughter, Cecily Cary, "saw the world." Instead, she was impressed at all of the creative situations her daughter put her new Barbie in—from a climbing wall to hunting bison with a group of equally outdoorsy Barbie friends. A few months later, Tom Dickson, a magazine editor from Helena, stunned the audience with "My Left Kidney: Why I Donated a Perfect Organ." It was an important topic we can all relate to, presented with humor and highlighted by engaging and amusing photographs. "I've never been interested in working in a soup kitchen or read- ing to the elderly. In fact, I didn't even really want to be around people in need," said Tom in his rather deadpan style. "My problem is that I like the idea of helping others, but not actually doing it." e idea of donating a kidney appealed to him, he says, because he had two healthy kidneys while 90,000 people in the U.S. did not have one and because he would always know that he'd done something great for at least one other person. Tom's other presentations have included "e Lost Art of Hitchhiking" and "I was a Teenage Carny.' Stories about local history or at least history with a local connection have also proven particularly popular topics. Dede Taylor, an art history professor, told the story of her mother's hometown, LeRoy, NY, dubbed "the town that JELL-O built." Dede's grandfather, Ray Ferguson, was head chemist for the company, which was hailed for its role in "democratizing" dessert. e importance of JELL-O to America's families was depicted in the 1920s art of famous illustrators Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. e dessert was so popular that dapper JELL-O salesmen actually went door-to-door with recipe books and free sample boxes. In September 2015, retired architect George Mattson offered his wonderful reminiscence of growing up in Yellowstone. When George was nine years-old his family moved into a three-story, stone duplex next to the Visitor's Center in Mammoth Hot Springs. When he was not in school, George's days were spent swimming at the outdoor pool at Mammoth and the magnificent indoor pool at Old Faithful, skiing from an old rope tow 5 miles East of Mammoth, climb- ing local hills, including an ill-advised climb of Liberty Cap, a 40-foot- high travertine cone, the site of an ancient hot spring. A presentation in April 2015 about building a teardrop trailer by Mark and Kelly Harro has been viewed more than 12,000 times on the Bozeman PK YouTube channel. Kelly, who studied industrial design in college, fell in love with the trailer's "iconic aerodynamic shape." e trailer first gained popularity during the Depression among do-it-your- selfers; Kelly and Mark decided to build their own because, as backpack- ers, they were looking for a stylish base camp they could pull with their four-cylinder Subaru, but still have a kitchen and mattress. After the show, audience members delighted in checking out the trailer parked in front of e Ellen eatre. And, remember that Japanese exchange student? Mizuki Ono from Nara, Japan, came to the Montana, excited to try out his English and sample staples of the American diet he had heard so much about, includ- ing Twinkies and fast food. But his first venture into a fast-food restaurant did not go quite as planned. "I am hamburger," he told the perplexed server. When the server looked confused, all that Mizuki could do was repeat the refrain, "I am hamburger." Seven months later, Mizuki was making a PK presentation in English without notes. His inspiration, he said, came from another ambitious foreigner, Napoleon Bonaparte who famously asked, "What are circumstances? I am circumstances." An improvement, perhaps on Mizuki's "I am hamburger," but definitely not as funny. Penquins of Antarctica PK Bozeman NOW ROUTINELY ATTRACTS 750-800 PEOPLE FOR THE TWO NIGHTS, CERTAINLY ONE OF THE LARGEST AUDIENCES FOR A CITY OF ITS SIZE.

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