The True Story - Making Goat Cheese in the Catskills - Laurie McIntosh Storyteller

CATSKILL MOUNTAIN — How does a girl from Long Island become a storyteller in the Catskills, passing on the traditional songs and stories of the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains and getting to sing extraordinarily well with Catskill royalty, Jay Unger and Molly Mason? Well, start by going to college in Chicago and majoring in French literature.

Move to New York City and get a job waitressing at the Spring Street Naturals restaurant. We've all said, "as fate would have it..." There are few examples of fate as wonderful as the story of Laurie "Story Laurie" McIntosh coming to the Catskills. Fate placed an Uruguayan Chef who gifted her a packet of maps of the NY State wilderness, a boss who needed a house sitter, a YMCA in said wilderness and a series of fortunate events in motion. It started with the impossibility of convincing NYC diners that Laurie was "only a waitress."

No one in New York City is only a waitress. Every waitress is an actor, a dancer, a sculptor, a writer... so when people would ask the freshly arrived Laurie what she "really" did, she'd tell them, "I just wait tables." They'd press and press, sure that there was some secret Laurie, Laurie the novelist, Laurie the dancer. However, she would insist that, no, she was only waiting tables. They'd press on. So, since they didn't believe her in the first place, she decided she'd make something up, and it would have to be a good one.

"I'm an apprentice goat cheese maker on the weekends" she'd say. "My customers loved it. They'd ask to be in my section and bring their friends to meet the waitress who spoke French and made goat cheese." There was one problem however. If a customer really dug deeply, asking questions, she really knew NOTHING about making goat cheese.

But, fate and a series of fortunate events later, she found herself waiting tables at the Bear Café in Woodstock and I'll leave it there. Laurie will take you on the journey of the tale should you ask her, and you should!

Shortly after settling into her job at the Bear Café, it entered Laurie's head that she should be a storyteller. She wasn't sure of what that was, but something (fate?) told her that it might be for her. She had the good fortune to find Avis Gebert. Born in 1930, and also known as "Grandma Avis," she told stories and Laurie listened to her with rapt attention. More than an apprenticeship, Grandma Avis threw Laurie into the deep water and she had to swim. She showed her the myths and story section of the library and then, a week later, asked her, "in two weeks, can you fill in for me?"

At first, it didn't seem like an easy gig. The children were in an upstairs room. First they'd hear a story read by the librarian, then the storyteller would tell a story and finally they'd watch a sixteen millimeter film projected by a clicking and rattling projector.  Laurie had practiced her story again and again, telling it to friends, to co-workers, and strangers on the street. As the librarian read, the children were fidgeting, fussing and moving around. She thought that this was going to be a difficult audience. She was sure the noise and activity would throw her off.

Laurie sat down in the chair in front of them and the storyteller within her took over. She started to tell the story and the children fell into rapt attention. Teller and listeners were carried along by the living tale. She was also experiencing the narrative, looking down at herself and the children in a singular out of body experience. She knew she had found what she was meant to do.

This led to a life of seeking out folk tales of the Catskills and Adirondack Mountains and tales from other countries and cultures. She began to find patterns, similarities among diverse cultures. This is hardly surprising when learning within the oldest art form, an art which predates painting and sculpture. Before all but dance, most likely - there was storytelling.

Storytelling is more than history, it connects us with the soul of a region. A story of the moving of everything during the drowning of towns for the reservoirs, becomes a love story about an empty grave, a prematurely buried bride rescued by poor friends driven by poverty to rob her grave. Each element presents us in a human voice with the fears, the loss and joys of our deep past.

Storytelling led Laurie to find her voice as a singer. She had sung to herself all her life but never thought of herself as a singer in the sense of a performer. However, she'd sing refrains in stories and the reactions led her to sing more and more. After releasing a CD, Laurie's work has evolved. Now, she sings more, and often engages in group songwriting with classes. The songs are on a wide variety of topics, mostly themes of nature, the environment and watershed themes.

You can find videos of her singing online, singing to small groups or singing with Ira McIntosh and Jay Unger and Molly Mason at The Ashokan Center's 2013 Maple Fest, in Olivebridge, NY. The gem of online video is a Catskill sledding version of "Charlie on the MTA" performed the day after it was written, thirteen years ago, with daughter Ava Rose McIntosh, standing on a chair between her parents, to bring her up to head level. Little Ava Rose isn't shy to sing at all and as Laurie announces the song, She reaches out to hug Laurie and Ira to her, so they can sing head to head. Then she reminds Mom, to tell the people, "There's a girl here to sing with you also!" Laurie does and Ava Rose does.

Storytellers learn from the beginning that the listeners are part of the experience. The teller becomes in tune with the listeners and at times the story grows in the listening. Laurie was telling stories and singing to a class in the Downsville Elementary School. She sang a traditional song about the devil at the bottom of a bluestone quarry. She explained that these things happened over a hundred years ago when men quarried bluestone in the Catskills. She told them that it was hard and dangerous work and then sang the old song to the class of third or fourth graders.

After the song, a tentative little hand went up and Laurie called on the timid little child. "My Dad works in the bluestone quarry." Then another and another hand went up. Most of the class were children of bluestone quarry workers. This is where traditional stories meet folk tales. Traditional stories are the old stories, some of which have been handed down for millennia. They can become classical, separated from the world in which they grew. But then, there are the folk tales. Created and passed on by the community who lived them to teach the generations of people - those who own that history.

Children often ask Laurie if a story is true. Stories are predicated with the understanding that there is not a singular truth, but rather there are truths. Stories attempt to convey a transcendent truth, a truth in cultural context. At times that truth is more enlightening than the empirical truth, which may be accurate in detail but convey a misunderstanding of the cultural history of a time and place. So, yes, Laurie's stories are true. But don't ask her how to make goat cheese. 

To book Story Laurie McIntosh or learn more about her performances and work, you can find her by going to https://www.storylaurie.com.