CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Outside the big bright windows of the Cleveland-Bradley County Library’s new community room, the last of a summer evening’s sun dapples the trees beneath which intense joggers and slower walkers pass by.
Inside, behind the windows, is a different time and place.
A group of people are listening to Rick Love, of Athens, Tenn., tell the tale of a young man who comes south to the Great Smokies, finds the love of his life and builds a cabin where they face the bitterness and sweetness of a rugged life a century ago. Then he faces a life-and-death struggle with a bear trap and the poachers who set it. He loses. But the story goes on.
That’s how it is when a bunch of people who love to hear or tell stories have a meeting. After nearly a decade, the Cleveland Storytellers Guild has returned to its roots, the public library.
When they meet, stories come first. If there’s time left when the telling’s done, there might be a short business meeting, too.