The Path of Story
Jay O'Callahan's Keynote Address
Sharing the Fire 2007

In 1982, the town of Harvard, Massachusetts, commissioned me to create a story that would capture the spirit of the town for the 250th anniversary. My task was not to create a history but rather a story that touched the essence of the town. I began by sitting with a couple of dozen people who were in their sixties, seventies and eighties and had grown up in Harvard. Notebook in hand, I listened. One woman said, “I remember getting penny candy at the general store. I used to love to go there.” Everyone agreed and got talking about the store of Kerley, Reid and Bryant which was clearly the heart of the town. As they talked about the smell of coffee, kerosene and cheese in the store, a balding man, who turned out to be a selectman by the name of Mario Barba said, “I remember Edna Robinson. She was the clerk.” They all remembered Edna Robinson. “She was in the cage,” another person added.

“The cage?” I asked.

“Yes,” Mario said. “There were wire mesh walls. That’s where Edna Robinson kept the books.”  It was clear people admired  Edna Robinson. They talked of the town doctor, Dr. Royal, and his little bottle of blue medicine which he sold for a quarter and could cure anything.  They also talked of the Shakers and Still River and the ice cutting in winter. Then they went back to talking of the general store and couldn’t seem to get away from it. For three hours, I made notes, asked questions then went and sat on the town green which they called the Big Common and tried to get the feel for the town.  On one side of the Big Common were the big old houses you expect in New England and I thought the story might be about Dr. Royal who owned the brick house on the corner.

Back home in Marshfield, I poured over my notes, took crayons and circled certain words like “coffee, kerosene and cheese,”   “Edna’s cage,”  and “Still River” and hungered for lots more information. Back I went and knocked on Mario Barba’s door. Mario kindly drove me down Depot Road to the railroad tracks and said, “I grew up here, on the wrong side of the tracks. My mother spoke only Italian and I was ashamed. I promised myself I’d be important in the town someday.” After that Mario and I went to visit Carrie Blue, who had been at the living room meeting. Carrie, an Afro-American, told me stories of her roots in the town and she too spoke of getting penny candy in the general store. When we left Carrie Blue’s, Mario told me stories of the ragman, Bicycle Kelly, who lived in a cave in the town in the 1920s and pushed his bicycle all day gathering old clothes to sell.  Mario went on to tell me about a well-educated hobo called Blueberry Jack who also appeared in the town in the 1920s. Blueberry Jack dressed in an immaculate blue shirt and trousers.  He’d come to the town in the summer, pick blueberries, live in an abandoned house near the railroad tracks and then Jack would disappear in the fall. I got intrigued when Mario said, “If you asked Jack anything about his background, that was the end of the conversation.”

This was all fascinating and unexpected.  I had thought Dr. Royal might be the central character in the story but all these people were far more colorful and added real spice to the town. I went back and back to the town talking to people, walking, and building up what I call the compost pile. The compost pile for this story was made up of people, places, names, sounds, smells, trees and everything else that I found out about the town. As my compost pile heated up I discovered that Edna Robinson, the clerk in the general store, was to be the central character.

In the 1920s, Edna Robinson was red-haired, beautiful and nothing stopped her from getting to work. She would walk, almost march, two and a half miles every day to the general store. Edna was so determined that an image flashed in my mind of her “bruising the air with her elbows.” When I asked more of the town’s people about Edna, it turned out they knew very little about her even though she had lived there her whole life. Mystery is what the imagination loves and mystery can lead to insight. I had two mysterious characters; Edna Robinson and Blueberry Jack. What if, in my imagination, they met? What would happen? This is where it’s nice to have creative freedom.

I’m led by images and the strongest image was Edna Robinson bruising the air and the next  powerful image was that of Edna keeping the account books “in the cage.”  Here was tension, confinement, and isolation which are all very much part of small town life. 

I decided to set the story in one week beginning September 19th, 1921. Fall is a time of change and in addition the town of Harvard is strikingly beautiful when the leaves are changing. Apples from the town of Harvard were sent to London and Paris giving the town a touch of international dash.

As my story opens we meet the town plumber, Herbert Lambert Fillerbrown, getting out of bed in his plumbing shop. He’s an older man, a real eccentric, and he’s like a father to Edna Robinson since her father died. As Edna walks home the night of September 19th, she’s struck by a leaf and is so startled she realizes her life is getting away from her. Edna goes to Fillerbrown and tells him she “wants someone to love her or at least care whether she lives or dies.” From this moment on Edna opens her heart. At the end of the story Edna has fallen in love but is devastated because the man she loves, Blueberry Jack, is leaving town. As Edna walks home the last night of the story, she says to herself, “I’ll go to London and Paris but make my life right here. It’s a welcoming town. Not just the Royals are here, but the lonely people and the different people are here. The Shakers, Bicycle Kelly, and even the hobos like Jack.”

I felt it was my task to capture not just the surface of the town of Harvard, but the deep emotions which were underneath. And I wanted the “different” people to have a voice in the story for it was these people who gave the town it’s special life. All of these seemingly ordinary people like Blueberry Jack, Bicycle Kelly, Mario Barba, Carrie Blue, Fillerbrown and Edna Robinson herself lived in that town and gave it it’s very special character.

I had been given wide creative latitude to capture the special spirit of the town and felt I did it.