The Filson’s Haunting Fireside Stories

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Join the Filson Historical Society for a haunting storytelling event at Oxmoor Farm. Col. Bob Thompson, Mary Hamilton, and Them Calloways will share spooky regional stories.

Dread, deception, death and dismemberment – these are ingredients in Kentucky tales that have fed nightmares for generations. Mary’s haunting story repertoire includes mostly Kentucky tales, retold in her conversational storytelling style. She won’t have time to tell her full repertoire of haunting tales, so she’ll make her final story selections based on the composition of our audience.

Bob will tell personal stories of growing up, coming of age and other adventures. His stories are rooted in far western Kentucky and at the confluence of the Twilight Zone and Huckleberry Finn, where glimpses and passages through the veil between dimensions often occur. His stories are meant as witness to conversations and energies flowing through the boundary layer of time. From any single dimensional perspective, Bob’s stories might seem, ‘beyond reality’, and from that viewpoint, of course they are.

Barbara and Robert will tell a true, haunting tale that spans from 1917 to the present day. It will be told in two parts and will include some spooky musical interludes.

When Mary Hamilton takes the stage, the show unfolds in the hearts and minds of the audience. In her straightforward “just talking” style, Mary uses her voice and her body to tell stories. Audiences watch, listen, imagine, and create worlds. Hamilton, a professional storyteller, lives in Frankfort and grew up in Meade County, Kentucky. Storytelling has been her profession since 1983. Her work has been recognized by numerous awards, including a Circle of Excellence ORACLE Award—equal to a hall of fame for storytellers—from the National Storytelling Network.

Bob Thompson is an author, storyteller, engineer, handyman, dome builder, tree hugger and explorer of other dimensions. He was born on the banks of the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky, 86 years after his Great-Great Grandfather died at the exact spot during the Battle of Paducah. He is the author of two books, Hitchhiker, Stories from the Kentucky Homefront and Stitched Together, Stories from a Kentucky life, both published by the University Press of Kentucky. Retired from nothing except his 30-year engineering-technical-storytelling career, Col. Bob is the self-appointed “Commissioner of Kentucky Front porches” and was the “Resident Front-Porch Philosopher” on the long-running WFPK, Radio Louisville, radio show “Kentucky Homefront”.

Barbara and Robert Calloway – aka “Them Calloways” are a husband-and-wife duo who are retired and now living their best life making music together and telling stories. Besides being a business owner, Barbara led the Spirits of La Grange Ghost Tour for 13 years, and as a teacher, Robert taught storytelling and traveled with his students to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee.

For more information, please visit filsonhistorical.org/events/upcoming-events/