Photo by Bob White
Storyteller Odds Bodkin adds one of his customary flourishes during his Library program at the Senior Center in November.
On November 5, families with young children and adults of all ages gathered at the Suffield Senior Center on a grey Sunday afternoon for a Kent Memorial Library program performed by Odds Bodkin. Since Mr. Bodkin began storytelling in 1982, he has performed widely, including at the White House and at Lincoln Center, and has received numerous awards along the way. In Suffield, he wove stories about a shepherd in Italy who outwits a witch; an Irish girl who dances with the devil; and a train engineer who is saved by banshees just as he approaches a damaged 300-foot trestle over the Colorado River. The Senior Center was filled with music as Mr. Bodkin accompanied himself on six and twelve-string guitars and a Celtic harp. His rich voice changed to become different characters, and he enhanced his tales with his own vocal sound effects, imitating the wind, an ogre, tiny fairies, and a puffing steam engine. The audience joined in to help create the sounds of galloping horses and wailing banshees. This delightful program was paid for by the Friends of the Library.