The first flock of story-tellers arrived in Clinton Friday for the 31st annual RAP Story Weavers Chicken Festival.
RAP stands for River And Prairie, as the group is based in Kansas City, on the Missouri River, but draws members from the Kansas prairies. Every year the story weavers have a winter gathering, called the Chicken Festival, where they practice their art of spinning a yarn.
It is, as Linda Kuntz pointed out, the second largest chicken festival in the country.
“And the others involve live chickens,” she said.
Linda, RAP event coordinator, arrived in Clinton with 10 other RAP members last Friday. Three of the story tellers entertained a small group who braved the cold temperatures to gather at the Clinton Senior Center. Ron Stewart of Liberty kicked off the session with a folksy tale about an older couple, Ollie and Marie, and Marie’s efforts to keep Ollie, a cobbler, active and engaged when all he wanted to do was sit in his chair and take afternoon nap.
Linda shared her husband’s favorite story, about a road trip from Kansas City to Colorado that ended up with her being left behind at the gas station. Linda said the incident ended with the words no man wants to hear from his wife: “Give me the keys.”
Rich White had everybody laughing at a tall tale told from the viewpoint of a 16-year-old boy who had to drive to southern Illinois and pick up his Aunt Edie and drive her back to Chicago. The trip along the Illinois River Road involved the boy having to retrieve Aunt Edie’s wooden leg, which she had propped on the dashboard, after they hit a pothole and the leg flew out of the car and ended up in an eagle’s nest. He also retrieved her artificial arm, which his aunt took off and used to knock the leg out of the nest, where it was picked up by a squirrel, who used it to row across a stream to a beaver dam.
Rich, who is from Blue Springs, won the Kansas Storytelling Festival Tall Tales and the Missouri Liars Contest.
The description of Aunt Edie’s other removable parts, including her glass eye, which she used to shoot marbles, her false teeth and her wig, also invoked laughter. Ron Stewart concluded the story-telling session with an account of a random act of kindness at a restaurant.
After lunch, RAP storytellers hosted story-telling sessions for more than 150 students, third grade through high school, at the Henry County Museum. The event drew students from the Clinton School District, Catholic schools and county schools, Linda said.
Some elementary students may have left with the impression storyteller Ramona Crawford from Kansas City had a chicken brain in the back of her head, Linda said, although Ramona explained it was just a story.
“Gary Kuntz did not help by pointing at the back of Romana’s head and nodding,” Linda said of her spouse.
Rich White and Ron Stewart enthralled high school students with tall tales, Linda said. After Rich told a story about a driver with two glass eyes, some students were overheard questioning how you can get a license with two fake eyes, Linda said.
Jean Goth of Overland Park, Larry and Linda told scary stories, tall tales and true stories, to the 6th, 7th and 8th graders.
“Larry confessed his story about a Cat-a-Pult was not true, and no animals were harmed,” Linda said.
That night, RAP members donated their talents to a fundraiser at the Delozier Theater for the historic Dorman House, which the Henry County Historical Society is restoring.The event, which started at 6 p.m, featured a chili and taco or chicken soup dinner, followed by live music by Larry Brown and stories by Denise Grow of Harrisonville, Alice Nathan of Blue Springs, Larry Brown, Ron Stewart, and Fran Stallings of Bartlesville, Okla.
Linda, who lives in Gladstone, said they expected about 40 more storytellers to arrive for the Chicken Festival on Saturday. Five members who planned to come had to stay home on water pipe-watch, she said, including a man who had to feed his wood stove, his only source of heat.
Saturday’s schedule included a chicken-sock give-away to those who had told stories Friday. A raucous auction was held, featuring hand-crafted items, during which “chicken stress balls” were tossed into the crowd. The storytellers adopted the festival name after a person noted that they had told stories about animals, but not chickens, Linda said.
Storytellers walked to lunch and dinner on the Square, Linda said, and although looked for the Chick Capital of the World mural, did not find it.
RAP Storyweavers hold their winter festival in a different location every two years, for the purpose of promoting the art of oral story-telling in different communities. If you missed it this year, “We’ll be back next year,” Linda said.
A survey of chicken festivals around the country reveal they are more focused on eating chickens rather than exhibiting fowl. The World Chicken Festival held in London, Kentucky, celebrates the life of Colonel Sanders. A National Fried Chicken Festival is held in New Orleans, and Knoxville holds the Big Kahuna Wing Festival.
Poultry farmers in Lebanon, Missouri, attend an annual Cackle Hatchery Chicken Festival in October. The Cackle Hatchery Festival features show birds as well as poultry costume contests and egg-eating contests.
Where do you get a chicken costume? The Henry County Museum recently received a costume with a checkered past, donated by Linda Lampkin, who restored the carousel in Appleton City. After Linda noticed an article about the Chicken Festival in the Clinton Daily Democrat, she got out the chicken costume she wore as an employee of Ralston Purina to give programs to school students about raising chicks, and donated it to the museum. Her program included taking live chicks to classrooms, as photos in the Kansas City Star attest.
The prize for the weirdest chicken festival goes to a town in western Colorado, Fruita, which every spring, celebrates Mike the Headless Chicken. A symbol of survival, Mike was a rooster who lived 18 months —and toured the country on exhibit —after his head was cut off.
The River and Prairie Storyweavers will return to Clinton Jan. 10, 11 and 12, 2025, and are already booked to perform a benefit concert for the Clinton Senior Center.
RAP Storyweavers hold meetings in person on the third Thursday night of the month and the third Saturday of the month in Kansas City, and also on Zoom. For more information , go to riverandprairiestoryweavers.org.
