JON SPELMAN / Once Time: Recent Episodes
JON SPELMAN
Take a hike with Jon Spelman through a world of tall tales, folk stories and the winding woods of the Appalachian storytelling tradition. Sit by the fire while overnight hikers Council Register and Route Hog tell Jon about such happenings as the fight between a frog and snake, a magical rabbit whistle, Polly the dancing witch, the mermaid in the cow pond, and how Jock the trickster fools his way into riches. Once Time is a story in 11 episodes full of tales a little too magic to be real and a little too real to be totally made up.
Once Time is written and performed by Jon Spelman / Directed by Phil Stoesz / Audio Design by Garrett Unterreiner.
In tandem, Hog and Council tell Jon a traditional “crazy tale” about a Gal named Sal. Jon asks Council and Hog to please finish the story about the battle between the giant frog and the huge snake. That story is finally finished. The three trail buddies break camp and start their separate hikes back to their homes. A week later, Hog and Council telephone Jon in the middle of the night to tell him one more true tale about the haint house and Polly the dancing ghost.
Council finishes the story about the mermaid and the fortunate country folk who escape her wicked clutches with the aid of a magical old woman who lives in a trailer on a nearby mountain.
At breakfast, Council tells the first part of a story about a sneaky mermaid living in a crick pool in West Virginia. Then Route Hog tells a story about three magical apples, a big hairy booger man, and a basket full of truth.
The campfire burns low, as Council tells Jon and Hog about Polly the dancing witch who came to be the ghost that haunts haint house. Jon, unable to sleep, imagines that Polly comes after him. The next morning Jon asks Route Hog to return to a less scary story, the “one about the giant frog and the huge snake”. But something else comes up and that tale remains unfinished.
William Gates’s mother is revealed as an ogre who wants to cook up Shaneale’s children but is prevented by her chef. Jon hears still more about Jock the Masterful Thief and how he gains possession of the haint house. Jon, Route Hog, and Council Register crawl into their sleeping bags for the night.
Council Register tells Jon and Route Hog the story of Shaneale, a young woman who is scratched by a church key and must sleep for one hundred years before being waked up by a wealthy young man named William Gates.
Jock the Masterful Thief continues his comic crime spree. Council Register arrives at the campfire where Jon and Route Hog are sitting and spinning tales.
Jon still wants to hear more about the haint house. Route Hog describes Mary’s desperate escape from Mr. Wolfe’s house and how she is saved by her four brothers. Night has now fallen on their campsite; Hog begins a long narrative romp about a later resident of the haint house, a fella called Jock the Masterful Thief.
Route Hog tells Jon he will not finish the story about Randall Wolfe and Mary, “lest that Jon’s heart’s blood should run cold”. Instead, Hog tells a ridiculous story about his uncle Foetus and Emily the kicking mule.
Route Hog tells Jon about an eccentric rich man named Randall Wolfe who builds the haint house, and how Mr. Wolfe courts a young woman named Mary Rose. Mary stops by Wolfe’s new house and makes a terrible discovery.
Jon hikes past a haunted house in the woods. That evening, sitting by a camp fire, an old friend who calls himself Route Hog tells Jon about a real-life spook show at the haunted house, which Hog calls a “haint house”.