Putting the STORY into history

I have been putting together programs about history since 1977 for Eden Valley Enterprises. But these shows are intended to be just that -- SHOWS about historical events. SHOWS that tell the STORY from the past.

When did our teachers forget that history is made up of STORIES? When did they forget that everyone loves a good story?

Before college, I thought history was pretty boring -- just a bunch of names and dates. Except for a few historical books I stumbled upon like APRIL MORNING by Howard Fast and SHOWBOAT by Edna Ferber, I never saw the STORY in history.

Then I went to Baldwin-Wallace College and began working on an Independent Study on the history of the college. One of my theatre professors suggested I read a book by George Condon called CLEVELAND: THE BEST KEPT SECRET. The book changed my life - literally (pun intended). That book was so full of life that no one could claim the history of Cleveland was boring. I knew that was the kind of story I wanted to tell about B-W. And since then, it has informed the way I want to tell ANY non-fiction story - and let's face it they're ALL stories!

Anyway in that book, Condon talks about something called the "Ohio-Erie Canal" It was an exciting and important development in the history of Ohio that ran from Cleveland to Portsmouth. It was IMPORTANT - it brought money into the state.

Well, I grew up in Garfield Hts, a suburb of Cleveland which sits on a "height" above the Cuyahoga River Valley - above the Ohio-Erie Canal that ran next to the River! I lived Right Next To the Canal and I had NO idea that that's what it was! NONE of my teachers had ever told us its story! I was so mad at all of my teachers at that moment. How could that happen?

So now, I try to tell those stories. After all, you could say that the Ohio-Erie Canal brought prosperity to Ohio and let it go at that, OR you could tell the story of the workers who dug that 300 and some mile long canal by HAND and worked for about twenty-five to thirty cents a day and a jigger of whiskey. Which version would you want to hear?