Telling stories has always been a way of life for Herman and Patsy Lawson, the president and founder of Hendersonville’s own story telling group, Explorastory. Descendants from two feuding families in Hancock County, a rural agricultural town with small farms and no railroads, their main form of entertainment was sitting on the porch and telling stories.

For Patsy, her house was always home base for her family of four as well as her mother’s family of ten. “It was like growing up in a boarding house, except they were all my family.  Someone was in and out all my life.  It was always a question of who will be here this weekend,” she said. 

The story of how Herman and Patsy dated, broke up, dated again and eventually married is great story that the two like to tell, and is always a crowd pleaser. 

The Lawsons ended up in Middle Tennessee in 1978 after Herman came to Vanderbilt University.  He had been teaching in Chesapeake Bay, Va. and Patsy was still trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her Master’s degree that would also allow her to be with her child and do volunteer work in the community.  

Eventually, the Lawsons ended up at Volunteer State Community College.  Herman began there first as a math professor and Patsy, who was a certified family counselor but didn’t have a desire to start her own business, became a psychology professor and they spent over 30 years at Vol State together. 

Patsy found her story telling really start to evolve when she found herself in a classroom trying to explain psychology concepts every day at Vol State.  The terminology was not easy, and story telling proved to be the best way for her to really be able to help her students to connect with what she was teaching. She would use stories from her family and her history to help them understand.

Ten or so years before retiring from Vol State, Patsy and Herman starting learning about and attending the International Storytelling Festival once a year in Jonesboro, Tenn. This festival draws more than 12,000 people from everywhere to spend a weekend listening to stories.  The Lawsons were blown away from their first experience and started going to the event every year and trying to learn the art.

“I didn’t plan on doing storytelling.  It was something that I did all my life, it was the only way that I knew how to communicate.  We were talkers; constantly dialoguing,” said Patsy.

Patsy spent time organizing her stories and trying to figure out her style.  In the classroom, her students were her audience.  “As a teacher, you are a performer,” she said. “The speakers that you love the most are good story tellers.  I could really identify with motivation speakers.”

Even though teaching had brought Patsy much joy, it was becoming increasingly hard to stay up to date with all of the technology.  She knew retirement was not too far away, but decided to “retool” for the technology age, something she still is thankful for today.

“I knew that retirement was close and I wanted to have a plan,” said Patsy. “People who have a plan for retirement, retire well.  They do beautiful things.  I now knew technology.  Technology training kept me on the cutting edge so that I didn’t retire obsolete.”

After her retirement, Patsy began to write her stories, but she had no one to bounce them off of besides Herman.  “I needed a group of people who were willing to share and listen and be honest about story telling, what works, what doesn’t work.  Rock Castle invited us to come and share out stories at their location and now Explorastory is in our tenth year,” she said.

Herman draws a lot of his own stories from memories of coaching.  “Sports are a big part of our life.  I coached college basketball; our sons played travel soccer.  One of my stories, ‘Baseball’ is a very poignant story about fathers and sons.  It’s a great Father’s Day story,” he said. 

“I’d like to encourage more men to come out to Explorastory.  Women tend to come at story telling more easily but I’d like to help men to see the value of story telling.  To help them tweak those precious moments with their children, to help men connect over grief.  We’d like to get more male voices,” said Herman.

“At Explorastory, people come and listen then sometimes they want to tell a story and sometimes they just sit and listen and enjoy the honesty with each other,” said Patsy. “Herman came and listened and after a while started telling our own stories. We are helping each other be better storytellers.  It’s a wonderful thing for writers and retirees. Explorastory nights are about a different way of connecting with others.  Everybody is sharing a personal story from their life and really getting to know each other.”

The Lawsons' goal for Explorastory is to one day bring a story telling festival to Hendersonville.  “Ten years ago, story telling was unknown in Hendersonville and we’ve been able to put it on the map,” said Patsy. 

Explorastory has been involved with programs at the Tennessee State Museum as well as a recent fundraiser at Spring Haven, “Christmas in the Mountains” where Herman and Patsy performed pieces together with dinner and musical accompaniment.

The Lawsons have also recorded a few of their own stories with “Story Corp”, a group that travels around the United States collecting stories and archiving them to record the “American Experience.” Those stories are now in the National Archives and “Story Corp” stories will occasionally play on National Public Radio.

“People connect with storytelling,” said Herman. “People can relate to our stories because every family has these stories, they just need to organize them and be able to pass them on to their children.  This is something you can learn at Explorastory.”

Explorastory performs often at Park Place, a retirement community in Hendersonville.  With their Appalachian Stories from the 50s, 60s and 70s, the nostalgia plays very well in assisted living and retirement centers.  “It helps them to connect to each other better,” said Patsy.  “They laugh and cry at the stories we tell and find similarities from their own pasts.  It gives them something to talk about and to find connections with others.”

In addition to Explorastory, Patsy also speaks to business groups and others about change and the refusal of change and she is a regular contributor to Mature Lifestyle magazine.

. 

Explorastory meets on the first Wednesday of every month at Rock Castle from 6:45 to 8:30 and it is open to the public.  For more information, check out the Explorastory of Hendersonville Facebook page or contact President Patsy Lawson at 824-2861. 

By Shannon Hargis