title: The Story Collector: Thirty Three True Stories - One Ordinary Life
author: Bill Gurnon
description: Bill Gurnon first learned of the power of personal storytelling in 1999. He studied and practiced the craft of oral storytelling with mentor, Don Forsberg, along with other storytellers in a group known as Real Lives Aloud in Northfield, Minnesota. The group met weekly for about ten years and performed several times in storytelling concerts at the Northfield Arts Guild Theater. Bills oral stories were met with surprising interest and some were even recorded and aired on Twin Cities Public Television and Minnesota Public Radio. When Real Lives Aloud disbanded and formal oral storytelling was no longer part of his weekly routine, Bill decided to transcribe his oral stories into written stories with the purpose of including them in a book for family and friends. This volume is a result of that effort. For Bill, writing is a passion, and he presents this book written in his own words and in his own style. His ultimate goal is your entertainment.
zlib_text: **Copyright**
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either
  the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely
  coincidental.
  
  Copyright © 2020 by Benedict Brown
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any
  manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of
  quotations in a book review.
  
  First edition June 2020
  
  Cover design by **info@amapopico.com**
  
   **Contents**
  
  Welcome Note
  
  Prologue
  
  Chapter One
  
  Chapter Two
  
  Chapter Three
  
  Chapter Four
  
  Chapter Five
  
  Chapter Six
  
  Chapter Seven
  
  Chapter Eight
  
  Chapter Nine
  
  Chapter Ten
  
  Chapter Eleven
  
  Chapter Twelve
  
  Chapter Thirteen
  
  Chapter Fourteen
  
  Chapter Fifteen
  
  Chapter Sixteen
  
  Chapter Seventeen
  
  Chapter Eighteen
  
  Chapter Nineteen
  
  Chapter Twenty
  
  Chapter Twenty-One
  
  Chapter Twenty-Two
  
  Chapter Twenty-Three
  
  Chapter Twenty-Four
  
  Chapter Twenty-Five
  
  Cha