6-minute Stories

From "That Southern Thing" (PSPP 2020)

Life in eastern North Carolina’s tobacco country had some useful lessons for a young teen from the city.

—gewgaws all gone.

Aunt Polly’s collected things collect themselves on table tops and counter tops and in boxes in the basement.

a foretaste of glory divine yet to come -

Artist, writer, and athlete Bill Gramley of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, recounts his discoveries of Southern cooking and describes the delectables offered up from the table set by his mother-in-law on a 1960s North Carolina farm.

– a hushed-up story.

A family-history mystery uncovered long after the departing of everyone involved, everyone loved.

Coming from the Mountain West fifty years ago, a new bride discovered what “small town” really meant in South Carolina.

This episode was the first of Season 2 and began the sharing of stories from “That Southern Thing—living, loving. laughing, loathing, leaving the South,” the third anthology of the Personal Story Publishing Project. We hope you enjoy it again.

—say the words -

“Trained up right,” a messenger arrives unexpectedly, lingering just long enough to stir up an enduring lesson.

f these walls could tell our stories -

Kentucky writer Barbara Chandler wanders through an old family homestead of her childhood and reflects on years gone by and the people gone with them in the hopes of passing those memories onto another generation.

– a wild razzee

The “replacement child” and the incompetent Uncle Will confound the social hopes of the mother who takes to bed with a sick headache—again.

Season 3 begins March 3 with stories from “Luck and Opportunity,” the fourth anthology from the Personal Story Publishing Project. Editor Randell Jones shares the introduction from the collection giving listeners a preview of stories to come. Episodes will be announced on Facebook @6minutestories. Upcoming Calls for Personal Stories are announced @personalstorypublishingproject and at RandellJones.com.

Becoming America -

250 years ago from March 5, 2020 occurred one of the most infamous and least understood events in American history. And, just before it, a murder hardly anyone remembers. A year after that 250th anniversary the story of the Boston Massacre takes on new meaning in the wake of a modern mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. This important story of our becoming America is worth revisiting..