One day about 50 years ago, Tim Jennings was riding in a van with students from the Mountain Road School in Jeffersonville, returning to campus with a class after a trip to the library. Winding through Lamoille County, the young teacher told the students a story called "Dimwit," a so-called "three brothers" tale in which two older boys are unable to do something that their youngest brother, clever and lucky, can do. "Telling that story in the van was the first thing I was able to do that the kids actually liked and gave me some credit for," Jennings said. The oral tradition had interested Jennings, both as a listener and a teller, for some time before he told "Dimwit" that day. And it continues to fascinate him all these years later. After decades of performing as a storytelling duo with his late wife, Leanne Ponder, Jennings is now revving up his solo work, with plans to present a selection of pieces to the public. The East Montpelier resident will appear in an hourlong show, "So I've Been Told," on Wednesday, May 24, at his local Kellogg-Hubbard Library. He calls the free, upcoming event his "grand reentry." Jennings, 75, has fond memories of his grandmother telling him stories when he was a boy in Philadelphia. But it was only after getting a positive response from his students at Mountain Road School, where he taught for four years, that he sought out and found more opportunities to tell stories — and to learn about and practice the craft. "I heard about somebody who had become a storyteller for pay," Jennings said. "And I thought I was more qualified to do this thing by my standards than he was. I was a cocky son of a gun." He went on to fashion a career telling folktales. The practice involves crafting original treatments from traditional stories (tales typically set down in print), interpreting them, and reciting or performing them for an audience. For three decades, Jennings worked and performed with Ponder, who died on Christmas Eve 2021. The couple achieved a wonderful harmony both in their method of gathering and preparing material and in their performances, according to Jennings. Not long after her death, he told Seven Days that in the "narrow field" of two people telling stories together, he and Ponder were the best there was. "I miss Leanne like…
One day about 50 years ago, Tim Jennings was riding in a van with students from the Mountain Road School in Jeffersonville, returning to campus with a class after a trip to the library. Winding through Lamoille County, the young teacher told the students a story called "Dimwit," a so-called "three brothers" tale in which two older boys are unable to do something that their youngest brother, clever and lucky, can do. "Telling that story in the van was the first thing I was able to do that the kids actually liked and gave me some credit for," Jennings said. The oral tradition had interested Jennings, both as a listener and a teller, for some time before he told "Dimwit" that day. And it continues to fascinate him all these years later. After decades of performing as a storytelling duo with his late wife, Leanne Ponder, Jennings is now revving up his solo work, with plans to present a selection of pieces to the public. The East Montpelier resident will appear in an hourlong show, "So I've Been Told," on Wednesday, May 24, at his local Kellogg-Hubbard Library. He calls the free, upcoming event his "grand reentry." Jennings, 75, has fond memories of his grandmother telling him stories when he was a boy in Philadelphia. But it was only after getting a positive response from his students at Mountain Road School, where he taught for four years, that he sought out and found more opportunities to tell stories — and to learn about and practice the craft. "I heard about somebody who had become a storyteller for pay," Jennings said. "And I thought I was more qualified to do this thing by my standards than he was. I was a cocky son of a gun." He went on to fashion a career telling folktales. The practice involves crafting original treatments from traditional stories (tales typically set down in print), interpreting them, and reciting or performing them for an audience. For three decades, Jennings worked and performed with Ponder, who died on Christmas Eve 2021. The couple achieved a wonderful harmony both in their method of gathering and preparing material and in their performances, according to Jennings. Not long after her death, he told Seven Days that in the "narrow field" of two people telling stories together, he and Ponder were the best there was. "I miss Leanne like…
