The city is the most diverse city in the most diverse state according to Governor Phil Murphy and while that has sometimes lead to conflict Murphy said it's also a point of pride he took that message to mount his guy African Methodist Episcopal church Sunday morning. When one of the 2 attack. The church is less than a mile from the market where 2 shooters killed 3 people and then died after a gun battle with police authorities say they also killed a police detective in a nearby cemetery and are suspects in the death of another man a few days before Jeff Brady n.p.r. News Jersey City Marathon u.n. Climate talks in Madrid ended with a slim compromise that sparked widespread disappointment and go shaders for nearly $200.00 countries postpone debate about rules for international carbon markets for yet another year and major polluters requested resisted calls rather to ramp up efforts to keep global warming at bay Kayser who is with Greenpeace in Germany says the failure to reach an agreement is a low point for the international effort to fight climate change it's now up to the European Union with the Green Deal to go ahead with a clear vision of a carbon free neutral economy and set a precedence for other income economic Grecian to get out of this Spiro don't want Spiro here in the negotiations the meeting went beyond the scheduled Friday close of the 2 week talks ending today as negotiators endorsed a general call for greater efforts to tackle climate change the Hallmark Channel is facing backlash after pulling an ad by the wedding side Zola that shows a lesbian couple kissing at the altar the network pulled the ads after a complaint from the conservative group 1000000 Moms West Hallmark's remove content showing same sex couples You're listening to n.p.r. News from Washington. An actress who helped to find the French New Wave has died at the age of 79 as N.P.R.'s Neda Ulaby reports and Kareena died in Paris of cancer she starred in number of movies that helped revolutionize filmmaking in the 1960 s. One was and of outsiders for 164 in the black and white film and a career as a young girl seduced into robbery by a pair of male thieves they lined out some more now classic steam in a crowded cafe. In a forest if ever her ponytail and a from people skirt Kareena is still fluidly in a public glamorous the film was directed by her then husband could Are they made more than half a dozen films together Kareena grabbed partly in foster care in Denmark she escaped an abusive home by hitchhiking to Paris at age 18 and became a model she would have the course of her life right novels sing several pop hits and Storen and direct her own movies Livy n.p.r. News in Italy more than 50000 people were evacuated from the southern port city of Brindisi as experts work to defuse a World War 2 bomb officials say that operation is the biggest peacetime evacuation in Italy the British bomb believed to have been dropped on the city in 1941 was found by chance last month during renovations at a movie theater the device was taken to a quarry where the t.n.t. Inside will be destroyed in a controlled explosion Asian markets are trading mixed territory at this hour the Asian a quarter of a percent the Hang Seng in Hong Kong down nearly 4 tenths of a percent I'm Janine Herbst n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the n.p.r. Shop where visitors can browse Public Radio nerd tiny desk and n.p.r. Gear at n.p.r. Shop dot org and the listeners like you who donated this n.p.r. Station. Support for the Moth Radio Hour comes from Dr Cicely Roberts. From Jackson this is the mark Radio Hour I'm Jennifer Hudson is true stories pulled from the headlines of someone's life all these true stories are told in front of a live audience with no known in this hour dreams redemption flamenco boy scout party planning speeding tickets headless skeletons a little darkness and a lot of light you'll see. Our 1st story is from Auburn Sandstrom we discovered her at a mosque stories land in Michigan here's offering sounds from telling her story live in Northampton Massachusetts where we partnered with New England Public Radio in. The year was 1992 and Arbor Michigan. I'm curled up in a fetal position on a filthy carpet in a very cluttered apartment. And I'm in horrible was drawl from a drug that I've been addicted to for several years now. In my hand I have a little dilapidated piece of paper I've been folding it unfolding at there's a phone number on it. And if you've ever had an anxiety attack that's what this felt like I'd been having like a nonstop anxiety attack for the last 5 years and I'd never been in a more dark or desperate place as that night and I would have just gone screaming out of there my husband was out running the streets trying to get a hold of some of that. Some of that stuff that we needed and I knew if he succeeded he was not going to share and if I. Could I would have jumped out of my own skin and run into the streets but right behind me in the room sleeping was my baby boy. Now I wasn't going to get mother of the Year Award in 1992. In fact at the age of 29 I was failing at a lot of things. It had started out fairly auspices Lee I was raised in comfort and privilege I was that girl who had the opera lessons who spoke fluent French who had her expensive undergraduate college paid for I was that person who when my checking account run out I would say something to my parents and $200.00 would magically appear I know when the revolution comes kill me 1st right. So I had the year abroad I was I had a masters degree I was you know had agreed but as you get to. Your twenty's someone like me I ended up in Ann Arbor and I started noticing things like poverty and injustice and racism and it was it was a huge revelation to me and I came to the faulty conclusion that the thing I needed to do with my privilege and all the comfort that I'd had all my life was to destroy it rip it in half spit on it and set it on fire you know every time I've made a major faulty conclusion the man comes right after that will help me live it out and this is. This was no different. Man he was beautiful 40 years old and a radical revolutionary fine ass poet from Detroit I'm 24 he's 40 and I was in love it was stoic citing who he was how he talked the way he looked at the world and. It was beautiful for a while until he introduced me to want to his old activist friends who introduced us to the drug I was now addicted to and so I had tried to transform myself I wanted to shed my class I if I could have I would have shed my race instead of transformation you have me in Ann Arbor in 1992 going 90 miles an hour down I 94 with my poet with a car full of alcohol illegal drugs paraphernalia the babies in a car seat covered it's probably not a regulation car seat is covered in candy and chocolate because you have to keep the baby entertained while you're taking care of your business get yourself some relief. This particular night it was. It was bad because if we were to have been pulled over one of those many times that we were going down that highway I was on parole he was on probation we would have both been locked up and our child would have been taken from us. So underneath my withdrawal and terrible anxiety was a sure knowledge that I was leading the life that was going to lead to me losing the most precious thing I had ever had in my life. I was so desperate at that moment that I became willing. To punch the numbers into the phone. And the phone number was something my mother had sent me now mind you I hadn't been speaking to my parents or anybody else for 345 years but she'd managed to get this number to me in the mail and she said look this is a Christian counselor and since she can't talk to anybody else maybe sometime you could call this person. I'm not trying to hang with any particular religion at this point but I'm so desperate and I'm so anxious and I'm in such a desperate state I was I'm a she had it covered in bruises. I punched in the numbers. I hear the phone pick up I I hear a man say hello and I say hi got this number from my mother do you think you could maybe talk to me and I heard him shuffling around in the bed like you know you could you could tell he was pulling some sheets around and sitting up and I heard a little radio in the background I had any snapped it off and he just became very present and he said yes yes yes what's going on. And I hadn't told anybody including myself the truth for a long long time and I told him I wasn't feeling so good and that I was scared and that things had gotten pretty bad in my marriage and you know before long I started telling him other truths like I might have a drug problem and I really really love my husband and I wouldn't want you to say anything bad about him but he has hit me a few times and and there was a time when he pushed my child and me out into the cold and slammed the door behind us and then there was a time when we were going 60 miles an hour down the highway and he tried to push us out of a moving vehicle but I love him and don't say anything bad about him I started telling those truths and this man didn't judge me he just sat with me and was present and listened and had such a kindness and such a gentleness tell me more oh that must hurt oh and you know I've made that call probably 2 in the morning and he stayed with me the whole night until the sun rose and I was feeling calm. I was feeling Ok I was feeling you know I can do I can splash my face with water today and I can probably do this day. I would have cared if the guy was like a Hari Krishna or a Buddha it didn't matter to me what his faith was I was very grateful to him and so I said hey you know I really really appreciate you and what you've done for me tonight aren't you supposed to be telling me to read some Bible verses or something because that you know that be cool I'll do it you know right and he laughed and he said Well I'm I'm I'm glad this was helpful to you and we talk some more and I brought it around again I said No really you're very very good at this I need to tell you how grateful I am How long have you been a Christian counselor and he said. Ok Auburn I've been trying to avoid this subject I need you right now not to hang up. That number you called. Wrong number. I didn't hang up on him. I never learned his name never talked to me again I don't think I took in a visit device but I need to tell you that the next day I experienced something that I've heard called peace that passes understanding because I had experienced that there was. Random love in the universe and that some of it was unconditional and that some of that was for me and I can't tell you that I got my life totally together that day but it became possible. And it also became possible. To take that sticky chocolate covered baby boy and raise him up into a young honors scholar athlete who graduated from Princeton University in 2013 with honors. This is what I know. In the deepest Blackest Night of despair and anxiety it only takes a pinhole of light and all of grace can come in. I am I am that was far from. Done many great things for the license that she's won awards for her writing has a master's degree and a school principals license. She told me that telling this story healed something that 22 years of distance hadn't been able to touch it felt good to be proud of something from such a dark period in our life about the man on the other end of the line that night never heard from him again so we don't know who he was. Listening right now if you're listening right now if this story sounds familiar please get in touch with us at the org. Everyone. Up the phone it to help strangers is a sympathetic thank you for the light that comes through the cracks. I next story is by Rabbi Daniel Judson and involves the law not rabbinical lot but Boston traffic Rabbi Judson told it at an open mike wants stories where we partner with you can ph and. Here is doing the drugs. I was really really late. And I was driving like I was kind of driving like a maniac. And I was late for a Bible study actually sounds a little weird to say. Rabbi and I was around I for about 3 weeks this was about 15 years ago so I look like I'm 20 now I look like I was 10 and then I sat around for about 3 weeks and this was this Sabbath with this Saturday before the most important holiday of the Jewish year and I'm driving way to fast track that's police pulled me over about a mile from my synagogue. Comes out and I say thinking that this might be of some help and maybe I can slide my way out of this I say. I'm the rabbi of the synagogue about a mile up the road. And I'm going to Bible study. Says . It's like rabbis can speed campaign I place is registration release. And I actually don't carry my wallet on Saturday it's a long story you can skip it but I say. I don't care. Since sorry about some religious sorry and he says those books like rabbis can speed and they don't have to carry a wallet son Saturdays I. Goes back to his car it is that thing that. Comes back he says for get out of the car going to have to impound. Scuse me. You have to have a car I'm going to impound sphere it's my God I hadn't changed over plates so I said what I think any man of the cloth would say that she can our moment. But I believe he says to me. You're a rabbi I so I did a good job there's actually another good cop says look you pay a $100.00 for something a $100.00 and we won't him you know you can drive the car off of your synagogue and I said I remember the money as well. If you do so they take me to this guy that I'm the rabbi of and I'm in the back seat of a police car having been there for 3 weeks and someone told me later that night is living in Goldberg 85 years old who would come to my Bible study every day for 10 years every 10 years she'd come she said this was you look at the Winter said oh look there's that nice new rabbi coming in the back of a police car. I hope it's not your answer sets I. Collect the money I pay my car next day I'm in my office not going to do a synagogue lawyer comes and fight a rabbi fight it just say you don't know what you're doing and say the police are going to not just fight it they won't press charges you know I was speaking I really was he walks away. Diana Goldberg walks into my office right here's what I'm saying to you you're wearing a collar this town that when it happens you know I'm saying Rabbi. I said really no I was it's Ok it's. Phone call Father Jacobs the physical priest Dan I'm upset about this we should not have happened so really I was so. On the phone 3 days later with my with my mother actually who says Honey the holidays the holidays are coming I just want to see he said. Make sure you're going somewhere that I said mom that I became a rabbi to you for your calling me to see if I'm going to synagogue on the hour as I came in and we had this conversation I'm going to be a rabbi you said lawyer I said Rabbi said lawyer I said Rabbi you said what were the weekly Bridge Club think I said I could care less what the rig you student I could care less what the weekly bridge club thinks and she said of course well at least the weekly bridge club calls me every week i Phone call waiting. Hold on. This is starting Berkowitz so they can produce depart and. I say he says we need to come we need to we need to talk to you so I put him on call waiting and I go back to my mother and I say to her what every mother wants to hear I'm going to go it's the police are calling me and to talk about something I. Started Berkowitz and now I'm imagining a line out come the police roll call that morning if he can police department is that kind of an Irish town imagine them running through the roll call who's going to call the rabbi this morning you know such and Callahan says I'm not doing it Brian says I'm not doing it Berkowitz work with maybe Berkowitz. So I can go down to the police and. Sergeant Berkowitz is there says let's get rid of his ticket I said I was really speeding he says Father Jacobs called me this woman is a not call me I some lawyer call me if I were get it just it's Ok so. 7 years later. I'm on the same strip. Priest imposing rolls down the window asked me for my license registration I started to say don't happen again and he says aren't you that rabbi have I he says. My buddy policy over that day he was being a jerk you just go ahead and have a good night I said. He said God Bergson Strangeways. Was Rabbi traffic to Feds He's also a professor at Hebrew College rabbinical school in Newton Massachusetts he'd like you to know that this story took place a long time ago and these days he follows all the traffic laws he always wears his seat belt and while he doesn't carry his wallet on Saturdays to remind him not to spend any money he does carry his driver's license just in case. When we come back with the reporters Boy Scout camp and a 40th birthday party. Support from the mob comes from new offering a personalized weight loss program that uses psychology small goals and technology designed to help people change habits and keep the weight off for good at noon and 00 am. Radio hours produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole Massachusetts and presented by p.r. X. Support for f.m. Anyone comes from a sense of place Art Gallery on Van Ness near Fresno high with holiday gift ideas including paintings pottery and jewelry all created by local artist gallery hours and more information can be found on Facebook at a sense of place. Resolve your holiday shopping challenges with some musical suggestions or at the very least some welcome and lovely musical distraction this week on the slim Shamrock. Tonight at 8 am Valley Public Radio. I'm David out inviting you to join me from the evil one to midnight for Sunday night jazz classics you love introduce you to musicians who maybe haven't heard yet and together we'll discover the best release is from today's or it's all better and more on Sunday night. Tonight at 9 on Valley public. This is the Moth Radio Hour from p.r. X. I'm Jennifer Hudson this next story is from Terri. She told in Miami where we partner with public radio station and the theme was balance Here's Terry live in Miami. My 1st real job at The Miami Herald was covering the graveyard shift on the police beat I was. Over protected human girl. Who had. Pretty much everyone so who had you know managed way into this really cool job and I spent the whole 1st year feeling like I was on the shaky ground so they sat me next to the 2 most veteran crime reporters of the newspaper and one side was. Just brash and bold and whose method of reporting was just screaming into her phone in Spanish like if she was being burned at the stake by Fidel Castro passion and then on the other side was Arnold Marco Arnie or with if you really really liked you and he was wild with like a shock of white hair and his like white beard that would claw in frustration if someone is being especially stupid and I was frequently both. And because Arnie was kind of hard of hearing he had. To this bright white light like. Need to navigate foggy conditions it was like. Every time the phone would ring the light would flash in our you would pick up the phone and scream Margot it's what you got. It was like terrifying but he was a legend unstoppable and scuba Bull every criminal and cop knew him and I was determined to impress him so that 1st summer Arnie gets a call that there was a break in a cold case he had covered years ago Doc adds There was a guy who had disappeared on the way to an Indian casino at the edge of the Everglades Arnie gets a tip that they found his car at the bottom of a canal of chrome so he sends me out to go to the crime scene and see if they pulled any remains from the submerged car so I'm driving out to homestead like in the middle of the night in the middle of a thunderstorm somehow managed to talk my way into the crime scene and I'm standing there like ankle deep in mud and they're winching up his old sedan and one of the cops opens the car door and sure enough it's a tangle of bones and muck and we didn't mention the bones. So. I scribble in my notebook and I get the hell out of there because by now it's like 10 minutes to deadline and I have to Carney so I feed only my phone is dead of course. So I am driving in like a blind panic in the rain just like completely unhinged praying for a pay phone you guys remember pay phones. And they see like in the distance like in the distance Denny's with a payphone in front of it screech out like a maniac I jump out of the car and I run for the payphone and I notice out of the corner group of pot. Heads but I don't even pay attention to them I throw my coins in the phone and I call Arnie he picks up Mark what's what you got and I tell him everything in the car the canal the bones because Arnie's kind of hard of hearing I have to yell all of this at the top of my luck So you were like happens if you want to. You know I'm a dark and stormy night this is what you would have seen a chubby Cuban girl from. Her legs caked in mud her eyes streets with green and tears a miscarriage wailing into a payphone like a banshee they found us but not us. I like to think that years later they still talk about me and my. Bro remember that . She told him murdered someone right. So the next day at work I get some and there's a note on my keyboard that says just simply. Welcome to the craft signed. And it was the best love letter a man has ever written me. That was. A great Terry and r.t. For wits as we now have both the Miami Herald Arnie retire Terry left after 15 years when she had kids but they stay in touch. On Facebook has been a headless Erikson in that car I'm not sure it sounds not good. Next stop Tom Schieffer who comes to us through our Pittsburgh story slam who we partner with publicly is facing us for years. So I did something awful to my wife on her 40th birthday. The only thing she told me her 4th birthday was that she did want to party and I decided that was a perfect time to and I carried my party planning skills and invite 85 people to our house for a surprise birthday party. And. You know I've never ever planned anything like that before anything of that scale any party planning and so it's really stressful when you're trying to get everything together and I was like it at the end of my rope because a surprise party is basically like a long format lie that you have to sustain up until you spring the surprise and see how it goes. And I thought I had everything under control pretty well like 3 days before the party I come home from work I walk in the door and I can see it in the kitchen which is a good thing I walk in the kitchen I walk in the kitchen and the wallpaper that had been on the wall that morning was like hanging strips on the floor she said you know there was a there was a piece it was loose and I was sick of the wallpaper and I decided to just take it down and the 15 year old neighbor's daughter is standing behind her mouth think oh my God I'm. Like that's going to help. And just to make sure I run upstairs and hang myself she goes and you know I ordered 15 yards of mushroom a newer for the landscaping and it's going to be here any minute now I told to put it in the driveway. She said you know what I do in this we can we can paint the kitchen this is what you know for painting the kitchen this weekend maybe we don't need the mushroom and or how about if I try to cancel that and of course it's too late so. I have to run outside. Routes I'm still I'm suit I run on side I'm in the lot in that they come out next door with a one more run over bricks and rocks trying to make the spots at least the horse isn't like in the driveway where people have to walk through and come back in and she's got all the paint chips laid out on the counter she decided she wanted to pay the kitchen orange which normally I would oppose. It with every fiber of my being because orange is a safety color it's not a kitchen color and she said. She's got so she's got all these laid out there she's quite cheap points this hideous origin and I can that's that's great I'm going to get paid right now I believe. I believe that I'm back on the dry when I look over there and it's literally steaming there's this feeling not the right because it's mocking me from the from the lot saying I'm a metaphor for the next few days here I know that I work that night so we're working in the kitchen and it's 11 o'clock and she doesn't want to go to bed night and I was totally strung out and exhausted by like you know I'm 2nd when I think I'm going to work so I stay up all night I work all night go to work the next morning come home start work on the kitchen and that night say thinks like I'm going to bed I said you know mom don't do it all right I will stay up for a little bit and I work the entire night so the morning of the party the kitchen is done it's painted like this Horst Koehler. And so she leaves with a couple of her friends they go to this they go to this thing and I tell my kids and my kids knew that you want to party so my kids were having a surprise party for mom and my 8 year old immediately goes Mom I want to party why are we having a party and. I'm telling the truth I don't look for something for like a nano 2nd I thought it was a good idea and I started inviting people and it got completely out of control and that's how the last 2 world wars started and we're just going to do it I there because I could tell that they're thinking mom is going to kill Daddy Mom is going . Going to jail what are we going to do. I just I said just stop crying and Chloe help you. So. So it ends up she she ends up coming back like directly on time it happens to be the same time a late arriving guest is standing in the front yard holding a potted plant like inexplicable it's like the enormity and the catering truck pulls up at the same time and she still doesn't get that there's a prize party going on and I like flying out the door. What with the part about hey come on. And I walk and I asked the girls what's with that truck like they're going to know it's all find out so I go over to him and I said it's a prize party that says be a surprise drive away. Which he does and I catch up to the back of the door we walk in and 85 people jump out and scream surprise and I could tell by the look on her face that she would have been happier if they would have surprise continued past her and likes to be into little bits. And said We're leaving now we know you don't want to hear. And. The party actually went really well my wife pretended to have a great time. Everybody everybody else did have a great time and I really thought I thought that that she would see how well the party was going and all her friends were there in that everything would be fine but she did really manage to hold a grudge to this very day. And I'm not kidding. But really really the the moral of the story is if you're going to have a surprise party this is really more of a public service announcement a story for you have a surprise party don't do it there's more productive things you can do with your time you can volunteer help. If. Friends don't let friends have surprised. With the. Travel time. Shaver he lives in Pittsburgh with his wife their 3 kids and dogs writes bikes flips houses and volunteers with animals and he swears that he has retired from surprise party plans but his wife remain suspicious Todd's kitchen no longer on. The net storyteller is my friend Ray Christian he told the story in Asheville North Carolina in Asheville we partner with the d.c. Us this story takes place in Virginia circa 1701 please be mourned the story includes some of the racial slur the theme of the evening was firsts Here's Ray Christian I was the last boy in the troop to get his uniform I was the last boy in the troop to pay his $10.00 to go to the big camp Jim great troop was the last one selected out all the troops in the whole state to go more than $200.00 troops all together. When we got there we were the only black troop there now as soon as you get there one of the 1st activities that you need to participate in is this women Tess to swim and test the terms what activities you can participate in whether you can play with the boats whether you can swim alone go with the canoes or any kind of water activities at all everyone the boys in my troupe fail to swim Tess. I was the last kid and the last exercise and the only black here for the swimming test the last test was treading water I was treading water and I watched the scout master lifeguard point to the different boys and say you can get out you can get out you can get out I tried to get out he said no no no you stay until another scoutmaster came up and he said How long has he been in that water then he said to me you can get out well now I've got to swim a badge but it didn't work out well work with me. But it didn't quite work out the way I thought it would because every time I would show up to get a boat get a canoe get in the swimming pool I'd get yelled at hey stop let me see you swim a tag I was showing I would say oh and then I would walk away one time I was swimming in the pool by myself in the deep end and I heard one of the scout master lifeguard yell out you you get out I want to get out I want to really know I thought there was a crocodile a snake snapping turtle and he was so frantic he jumped in a water to grab me by the arm and I said well I must be something dangerous because he's trying to pull me out he's trying to save me but I realize he wasn't trying to save me when he slapped me in my face and he said Nigga Who told you to get in the pool. I'm 11 years old so I get out. One of the last activities they have at the camp is the mile swim I'm no only black boy scout out of thousands is even eligible to try out for it so I do I'm the last kid assigned to the last boat could each one of us about 10 in a group would have to swim beside this boat and if it is a point you could give up or anything like that you get inside the boat 10 boats they all move ahead on the last one we start going you have to make 3 rounds around his big lake the equal up to one mile as soon as we start on the 1st lap have to boys have already given up and gotten inside the boat on the 2nd lap I was being traumatized by all the boys in the boats who are yelling at me Come on man you don't need to do this give up stop Come on get out of get out of the water getting a boat or get around to the last and final lap the 3rd lap I'm starting to get delirious and I see what appears to me has a slick in the water kind of looks like. A corn meal until I swim into it and I inadvertently take a gulp and I recognize immediately what it is it tastes like powdered eggs that we haven't eaten that morning. I wonder boys further up in front of me is the one to give it up the phone. So. We're getting closer to in my arms start to feel like spaghetti. Moving in. Front of me about 2 football lengths and I can see the other people starting to get out of the water I have so little in it and the boys are still yelling at me coming you know stuff you know but I keep swimming and I'm so exhausted I can't even keep open because I don't have that much straight less I close my eyes I keep stroke and stroke and stroke and it was just seems like I'm not moving anywhere and all of a sudden I feel like a 1000 hands on me at once I'm snatched out the water and I see all these brown and everybody's Yellin is screamin and tossed in the open air and I'm yelling I'm crying and I'm so happy I'm not only black boy who had ever done it now. But in the big picture of things what I did it's not that important is not that significant I wasn't The Last Boy Scout to do it I was in the fast as I won the. Purchase But day in that place at that time. It was 1st. A retired trooper he lives in North Carolina with his wife children dogs and chickens to see a picture of Ray's an 11 year old boy the same age he was in this story is at our Web site where you can also find a link cast he drives a long way to get to the. North Carolina and it pays off at the time of this recording he's won something like 5. Unstoppable. When we come back. A story about a little girl from Louisville Kentucky who falls in love with flamenco dancer. The Moth is supported by new who is yellow green and red approach to categorising helps you make better choices with the goal of losing weight and keeping it off for good learn more at new and. Produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole Massachusetts and presented. On this week's edition podcast heading to college is a big. What if you're aging out of foster care at the same time you're trying to negotiate classes. And have you ever tried community supported agriculture where you get a box of seasonal fruits and vegetables each week all locally sourced a lot of c.s.a. Is in this valley of abundant produce have failed we find out why the things that we heard from our customers was you know you provide. But they still have to go to the store because we don't have. And later we preview Swede Fest founded by 2 Fresno based film buffs down the valley Edition podcast your connection to the San Joaquin Valley anytime anywhere you're listening to the Moth Radio Hour from I'm Jennifer Hicks and our final story is from Mary for a long cool Mary tells stories at the moth stories at headliners and Louisville Kentucky here's Mary for a long live at the mall. I grew up thinking that a life partner in a dance partner should be the same person thank you Fred and Ginger. I never had that much trouble fun and then a buddy to marry me. Until I gave it up myself as something of a youthful folly. Dance partners while not exactly plentiful or not totally absent either and these days even though now if I would like to dance bring out my most my cornpone Magnolia blossom x. And. Young Man I'm wondering if I could persuade you to bring some joy to my declining years. By dancing with me. Now I'm going to talk a lot about dancing I don't want you to think I'm really a good they answer a great dance or anything I mean I can hear the beat usually. We can see that I am not possessed of that classic dancers body that makes us all wonder where they keep their internal organs. I grew up in Louisville Kentucky and in my generation gently reared young ladies were treated to tap and ballet lessons by their parents. Also in their parental pack each was attendance at the ballet and in our case in Louisville Kentucky once a year holds a great deal came through with his flamenco company and even then you could see a lot of flamenco dancing on the Ed Sullivan Show I completely fell in love with that type of dancing. The cast the net the fans the shawls the loud clapping of the feet and everything course she couldn't study it back then where I was from but I felt that somehow or other this was mine I just wanted to do that. And so when we had our dance recital and there was a dance. In that recycle and it was given to another child. Who got to wear the black and red costume and probably could tell her right from her left. She was a better dancer I have to say but I was just devastated and the fact that I was 12 years old I'm still talking about it should. Kind of convince you that I'm serious about this whole flamenco thing. So life happens you know 30 or 40 years pass the normal things you know I have a wonderful child I taught school and. You know things just go along in a flamenco was on lead this to ensure and every now and then you see a little some on t.v. Or in a movie and think yeah I remember how I used to feel about wanting to do that. Then when I was about 65 moving right along. I had a really rough time. I lost a little money I think a lot of people did. I retired and it felt very sudden to me. I met somebody who just knocked me off my perch I have to say and I thought what is going on you know I'm like becoming an old lady and I have this huge crush on this man who's just who seems to like me to my God you know I had the rest of my life figured out and this was not in it but that I have to worry because nothing ever really came of it it ended before it started now of course now I'm heartbroken you know I'm like What am I going to do well know that I hold dear and so I have you know I was very depressed. And so you know that kind of falling is one thing but then I fell down the stairs too. Messed up my shoulder. I opened the freezer to get a frozen bottle of water out and it fell on my toe when I broke my toe. And over the years you know I had a little dancing but now I was I just hurt and I showed her I told her my heart hurt I just you know obvious just really down and really sad. And even though all I in my depression and my weight gain and all that you know I knew the exercise was the answer to everything but I also knew I would think going to do it. Because I just start all over you know what was really really difficult time I felt really old I felt span and I just it was just really difficult time but you know time passes and I crawl about it that whole somehow. Bought a Fit Bit. I was always very reluctant in this area but I just push myself and force myself. So that I heard about this dance not too far from my house at this v.f.w. Post and it turns out and I was like the youngest person there. It wasn't really supposed to be a senior citizen Day answers just posed to be a day and so they just all got old you know. The ones who didn't die and and so they had this really big dance floor and you know this guy plays music not a band but live music I mean he's alive and. And. I didn't really expect them baited they has with me and then finally this one lovely gentleman he's very nice he's 89 and. There's just so cute at that age. He started you know asking me to day ends and. Criticize and my hair in. One night he said you know for a woman your age you don't really have all that many wrinkles. You know I'm just sweet. So you know that sort of motivated me and then you know you get a little momentum going and one day I'm sitting in my house and on Facebook and ping there's something on there from this girl I know she wasn't directing it at me she just said Well is there anybody out there who wants to teach the senior citizen fitness class at the y. We just can't find anybody to teach those people and messenger has to take that down right now give me the number. You know I'm just thinking why not I had been I had actually attended a class a few years before and I thought I could probably. Maybe do that. Plus it would get my sorry self out of the house 2 days a week 2 classes almost 2 days she gave me the number and 2 days later I was hired though she said Now you know we have quite a bit of training you have to take c.p.r. And. Those that think I'm supposed to know in the name of you know the fibber later thing that they're hanging all over the place and they learn how to please. Please I hope everybody stand. Right now but. Anyway you know in Columbus Ohio take the Silver Sneakers training and Silver Sneakers are very strict you know you're dealing with a fragile demographic here and you know I have to remind them 3 times every class you know to drink water and I have to say the chairs if you need it and I have to do all this stuff so finally they let me you know teach and so between the people on Sunday night the dancers on Sunday night and then my classes on Tuesday and Thursday I mean I'm supposed to be motivating them but I mean these people show up on you know Rowley things and all that stuff and yes they do die but not in not in class. Yet but. But they you know the thing is it's not an activity that's taking them down it's something else because they're dance and. You know they're working out to the end and I thought this I mean their in their eighty's and ninety's I found this very inspiring. So one day I was walking past flamenco Louisville we do have one of the finest flamenco schools in the whole that whole area and I thought to myself Ok I've got the money. I've got the time I believe I have the stamina and look there is the opportunity. So I just went into flamenco Louisville and I said What's the story they said well we have a beginner beginner class. And I thought Don't you dare say it's 8 o'clock in the morning because even my love of flamenco I don't know if I could do it she says 1 o'clock on Saturday. So Ash. At 1 o'clock on Saturday for the beginner beginner class that was September of 2000. 14 I'm still on the beginner beginner class. You know you can't you don't get promoted until you learn a whole lot of stuff. But you know I mean. I'm committed progress not perfection I put that on the shirt progress not perfection and I never got worse at anything I practiced I didn't always get better. But I never I never got worse so every Saturday and sometimes every now and I have a private class paid for by the y.m.c.a. Salary. And I just go and when I go to Spain in 2 months time I will be going as a tourist but in my heart I will also be going as a dancer thanking. Members Mary for one update on Mary's trip to Spain she loved it the food the people the scenery the flamenco all beautiful and then one night in Seville she happened to be in a little pop up pub during this big festival that happens in a club there was a great flamenco band playing but nobody was dancing Finally she inquired isn't someone going to dance they invited her to try and even though she wasn't dressed for the occasion she was wearing crocs and an old black sweater which is basically flamenco blasphemy She worked up our courage and took the stage was she great there's no footage but she told me people really did go kind of crazy with clapping at the end so I'm going to go with this she was mindblowing way incredible all those years of yearning came together a dream born circa $1048.00 finally come true to see a picture of Mary wearing some of her proper flamenco garb because it's the moth award I hope you do because she's really good that's it for the Moth Radio Hour thank you for tuning in and hope you'll be back next week. Hostess salaries Jennifer Hicks and Jennifer also directed the stories in the show the rest of the most directorial staff includes Catherine Burns Sarah Habermann Sarah Austin John as and make bowls production support from moose 80 thanks to w. S.p.l. In Louisville Kentucky Most stories are true is remembered and affirmed by the storytellers recording services by Argos studios in New York City supervised by Paul. Marking music is by the drift of the music in this hour from Ben Harper guy who says 2nd John Zorn lawless music style wagon symphony and Jose Greco you can find links to all the music we use at our website Mark Radio Hour is produced by me Jay Allison with Vicki Merrick at Atlanta Public Media in Woods Hole Massachusetts this hour is produced with funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting the National Endowment for the Arts and the John d. And Catherine team MacArthur Foundation committed to building a more just verdant and peaceful world the most radio hours presented by b r x For more about our podcast for information on pitching your own story and everything else go to our website. Dot org. This is Valley Public Radio f.m. 89 n.p.r. For central California Kavi p.r. Fresno and k p r x Bakersfield listen on your smart speaker Kavi p.r. Dot org and the k.v. P.r. App support for f.m. Anyone comes from the Celtic shop in Campbell California offering Irish Scottish and Welsh imported gifts for over 37 years information available at Celtic s h o p p e dot com. Hello and welcome once again it's that the sling shot. This is. Our 1st musical gift for you this week.

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