Meet Author John Durham @ The Myers Inn Museum

Description

John Durham will talk from 4-5 p.m. on Friday, July 21 about the value of collecting family stories!  

Meet and greet & book signings to follow from 5-7 p.m. in the Myers Inn Museum Meeting Room at 45 South Columbus Street in Sunbury.

In the 1930's when Lloyd Ross married Winagene Granger, Sunbury celebrated by belling the couple.  Many years later an aging Winnie had trouble remembering the present but was very clear on early events in her life and shared them with her grandson. One of her stories is of her belling. John adapted her story into a picture book, The Belling, which is told from the perspective of a small boy.

John grew up in Columbus and occasionally visited Sunbury as a small boy. He graduated from Otterbein College and started an overseas teaching career.  He has taught in Latin America, the Caribbean, Central Asia, and China.  He met his wife in Hondurus. Currently they are working for Quality Schools International and are in Baku, Azerbaijan.

When John emailed asking to have a book event in Sunbury he was surprised to get a photo back of his mother, Linda (Ross) Durham and Polly (Whitney) Horn on their first day of school.  Lloyd Ross grew up on Ross Road. He worked for Bill Whitney at The Sunbury News until they moved to Columbus.  Lloyd’s sister Bess married Polly’s uncle the late Judge Oatfield Whitney.

The Belling is a delightful picture book.  Reading it and looking at the illustrations is a good lesson for all storytellers.  When we tell a story there is no way to determine how the listener will see the story in his mind.  Both the teller and the listener bring their own information to the story so it will change as many times as is its told. The important thing is to record the story so it is not lost.

The church bells were the old Methodist Church near the cemetery entrance on Columbus Street.  The fountain was a drinking fountain on the northeast corner of Sunbury Square.  Alligator Pond evolved from the goldfish pond in the yard behind the house on the north east corner of Vernon and Morning Street.

The custom of belling was a popular Midwest custom from 1805 to the 1950s.  The newly married couple would settle into their home for the first night to be rudely awaken by neighbors, family and friends who would serenade by banging on pans, ringing bells and made a lot of noise, while the groom pushed the bride around the community in a wheelbarrow decorated with signs and tin cans..   They usually ended up in some public venue for refreshments and fellowship.

Another word for Belling was shivaree from French for headache often a result of a belling.  Tin cans tied behind the vehicle which took the couple away is all that remains of the original belling tradition.

Copies of Durham’s book will be available for $8.50 in the Myers Inn Gift Shop which he will autograph that evening.  There is no fee for this program!  For more information visit the website at http://BigWalnutHistory.org or stop my the museum 12-3 Thursdays Fridays and Sundays or 10-3 on Saturdays.