(This article first appeared in the August print edition of the Hendersonian)
Nearly 20 years ago, one of my favorite Hendersonians stopped by the house on a Sunday afternoon
He’d had an idea, and he was champing at the bit to share it.
What if, proposed storyteller/humorist/retired educator/musician Bob Park, he took the semi-biographical characters he’d created for more than 700 “On The Front Porch” spots that ran each morning after the WSON radio public affairs program “Speak Up” and turned them into a stage show?
And that’s how My Life In Taffy began.
A stage show was something now retired Henderson Fine Arts Center/Preston Arts Center Technical Director Steve McCarty (also a community theater enthusiast) suggested to Bob.
He saw it as a way to take the imaginary characters Bob had based on real people he knew when growing up in the tiny Ohio County community of Taffy to another level.
And later that year, the lovable Bum, the Barney Fife-like Marshal Marshall, the gossipy Curl Up and Dye proprietor Esterlene, the county fair beauty queen Ruby Mae, the piously profound Preacher Newton and many others came to life on the stage of what is now Preston Arts Center.
In that first show I was an unmemorable frumpy old maid named Miss Johnson-Iris. I must have been very convincing at being unmemorable since the character faded from the Taffy cast lists pretty quickly.
But I’ve managed to keep tying my apron strings and appear as a version of that same character in eight out of nine Bob Park plays, with the tenth (and Park’s final) coming in August.
My favorite character has been Gertie, mostly because I get to appear with my sassy stage sister Myrtie (portrayed by Stacey Howell, the real thespian.) We are savvy businesswomen having started baking and selling “Mama’s Comfort Pies.”
It was funny how it wasn’t long before Taffy became a magical, nostalgic place that was hard to resist and felt completely familiar.
In the third play when the Taffy folks were organizing their last Christmas parade, and vocalist Leslie Hoskins sang “Why Did Those Little Towns Die?,” it was hard not to feel the pain of remembering rural towns just like Taffy that have faded away.
Small towns that have seen their general store be overwhelmed by shiny new shopping meccas in more populated areas. Small towns that lost their heart and soul when the community school is consolidated with others and relocated a few miles down the road.
To help get us deeper into the fabric of a community that already seemed oddly familiar to almost everyone involved, cast members have visited the real Taffy. It’s not that easy to find, but it’s do-able with an eager guide named Park.
On one occasion we packed a basket of fried apple pies and made a Sunday afternoon field trip to Taffy to visit the cemetery where the inspiration for Cousin Otto rests in peace.
We just had to see where the places delivered by Bob’s imagination were (including Bells Run, Park Ridge Road, the Taylor School and, most certainly, the Taffy Church of Choice where Methodists and Baptists shared a worship space.)
And it wasn’t hard to imagine Jimmy’s Store, because most people have a place like that in their lives, a place of comfort and inclusion.
In Bob’s generation it was a spot for penny candy, a cold soda pop pulled from a cooler of ice-cold water and a spot where the “loafers” gathered to gossip, tell stories and claim “the liar’s chair.”
That was life growing up in my “Taffy,” too.
There’s been a running inside joke among cast members with each of the last three or four “Taffy” plays that the one we were working on was the last one.
And then, a couple of months after the final curtain, he would drop by the house.
“I have an idea …” he would start.
And that would be that. Because once you’ve been to Taffy, it’s hard to stay gone.
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“Taffy Shenanigans: On The Air” will be performed at 7 p.m. Aug. 23 and 2 p.m. Aug. 24 at Preston Arts Center. General admission tickets are $20 (ages 12 and younger are free) and available at Henderson Tourist Commission, ABBA’s Music, The Olive Leaf, Day’s Garden Center and Henderson Area Arts Alliance. They will be available at the door. Ticket proceeds will benefit HAAA. Bob Park will sign copies of “The Fat Lady Has Sung,” a collection of stories about what ultimately happens to his “Taffy” characters following each performance. Donations for the books will go to St. Anthony’s Hospice.
