Remembering Kathy Storfer of the Bedford Hills Library

After years of mindlessly pursuing computers, I finally figured out that I was a writer. So in 2002 I took a journalism course at NYU. I was focused on writing personal essays, and when we were assigned an interview, I almost didn’t do it. But I figured, I’m here, why not. So the task was who, and apparently, I already knew what made a good story.

Previously seeing Kathy Storfer do an unforgettable reading for our kids at Mt Kisco Childcare, I had my subject. I contacted her, she was happy to help, and we sat down for an interview. She was endlessly interesting, and once putting the article together, the instructor said my piece was bordering on wonderful.

Eventually the piece became my first published article, and whenever I popped into the Bedford Hills Library, I had to say hello. At some point later, I heard Kathy had cancer. When I eventually saw her, Kathy remained in line with her upbeat character, and expressed no interest in the subject.

Not too long ago, a Google search revealed that Kathy had died and all that remained was a website. As I remember the page, the content was definitely not in search of mourners, but a destination for those who wanted to celebrate the way Kathy lived. So in keeping, I've to republished my first break and thank her again.

Storytime at the Bedford Hills Library

“There was an old lady who swallowed a cat

BURP

Well fancy that, she swallowed a cat.”

Only half the kids caught the burp, but all the parents did and everyone ended up laughing anyway. If you’d like to see more, pay a visit to The Bedford Hills Free Library every Friday to see storyteller Kathy Storfer work her magic. Remember to bring your kids, though.

Now, Storfer does not have the classically chiseled face of say Iman, but that is thankful. Then all those Coyote Ugly faces she makes would be far less effective in grabbing your child’s heart.

That’s not to say she's lacking in looks with her blonde hair and blue eyes. On the contrary, what parents will find to be chiseled is her act.

As such, she makes a nice living. But anyone who has seen her perform knows that there has to be more money in this than the fee she garners from reading seven to ten times a week throughout Westchester.

So, who knows if she really got herself out there. With some appropriately targeted PR, maybe she could hit the lecture circuit for early childhood development at colleges all over the country.

She’s not interested and would miss her real audience. “It’s watching them grow and watching them develop and seeing the way they think and the way they see the world,” Storfer beamed.

It’s all an act.

She seems to like all the hugs too, and you can imagine when she pulls off copy like this. "Fuzzy-wuzzy, fuddy-duddy, loosey-goosey, lovey-dovey, kissy-kissy, huggy-huggy, rink-a-dink-a-doo, gaga-gaga, rah-rah, go-go, so-so, frou-frou, goo-goo, pooh-pooh, woo-woo... rick-rack, eager-beaver, lucky ducky, comfy-domfy fat cat!

Oh and remember to do it faster, and raise the book over your head with your back to the audience. Don’t forget to rotate the page too because the words form three concentric circles on the page. And finally, your audience has a pretty low tolerance for a bad performance so don't get it wrong. “They will practically punch each other out, if they get bored," she joked.

Don’t worry, Storytime, as the kids call her, gets it right every time and you’ll be holding back tears. Of course, the children will be astonished as they laugh with joy.

But there’s more to it than child’s play, according to Storfer. “Studies have shown, if children can do eight nursery rhymes by the time they are five," she said, their reading ability is far higher.”

Always a Storyteller and Drama Queen

She doesn’t recommend hurting yourself on the above ditty from Double Trouble in Walla Walla, though. Fortunately, Storfer has no problem taking the risk from a long history of experience.

Starting when she memorized the soundtrack to the Wizard of Oz as a five-year-old, she reigned in a roomful of rowdy kids at a neighborhood party. “I sang and acted out scenes from the movie,” she said.

The ruckus eventually made its way to the parents. “They thought I was like some creature from Mars,” Storfer remembered.

In high school, she was a self described theatre queen, which isn’t as serious and Shakespearean as it sounds. In her estimation, the drama kids are easily the most interesting group in high school—despite what the football players and popular kids think. “They’re well read, creative and expressive,” said Storfer, “and not to mention, a bunch of sick puppies.”

She’s got rhythm and so do the kids.

Kathy was on her way. Although before getting there, she learned that playing to the beat wasn’t just a part of her comedy act. “All language and every dialect has its own rhythm. You can hear children mimicking it when they don’t have words yet. And if they don’t understand rhythm within reading, they become the kind of reader who halts and stops and doesn’t understand the flow,” Storfer asserted.

In turn, they won’t enjoy reading as much and probably won’t comprehend the material as well. At the same time, Storfer extends the theory beyond words to ensnare future readers.

In Horton Lays an Egg, the educator alternates pitches and tones with various characters. So a listen to the old Jewish Brooklyn man, and the arrogant English big game hunter almost sounds like a melody.

In step, parents can easily detect the calming effect on the children. So much so that the reading room seems to sway like the Titanic.

No need to look for an iceberg, Storfer is big enough to assign credit elsewhere. “Parents who read to their kids help in her ability to create rhythm in the library,” she said.

But Dawn Meyerski of Mount Kisco Childcare Center doesn’t buy the modesty. “While it is true that reading to your children and participating makes the storyteller’s job easier,” she said, “Kathy could work the room, if the parents fell asleep and were all illiterate.”

An unusual path set Storfer on her journey.

Despite all the insight, Kathy took an unusual path to make her journey. She was drawn, for reasons unbeknownst to her, to major in Special Education for the Hearing Impaired.

The discipline obviously doesn’t sound like an avenue to hone her skill to reel off fairy tale tongue twisters, speak in Texas drawl or execute precision burping. But it did. “The deaf have very strained voices, and if I could create what they did with their voice, I could teach them how not to do it,” Storfer explains.

Smart, creative people have a way of coming up with solutions using their personal gifts, and Kathy is no exception. But working with the hearing impaired was not where she wanted to go.”

Bob Hope, Armand Hammer, Sam Wanamaker and Shakespeare

After college in 1979, she worked for five years at public relations firm in Manhattan called The Kalmus Corporation. There Storfer worked primarily with Bob Hope and various sport’s organizations.

This included an eight month period where she was involved in the effort to rebuild the Shakespeare Globe Center. Armand Hammer was the chairman, Gordon Getty the vice chairman and actor Sam Wanamaker headed up the project. Unfortunately, the funds for her division were swallowed up by lawsuits with the London government, and her involvement in the project was cut short.

Again, the experience sounds like she wasn’t preparing herself for her future career. “Public relations is storytelling, because you’re trying to get someone interested in your story, your client, your product,” she said

Eventually, Storfer left the field due the on call nature of the business, and the stress it put on her family. No problem, from 1986 until the birth of her second son in 1992, she worked as a press agent at The New York Renaissance Fair. Not quite as exciting as Bob Hope and Armand Hammer, but she managed to keep herself occupied.

Three Act Drama

Nonetheless, all the exposure to theatrics lead Kathy to intertwine her belief in rhythm with drama. The rhythm of the reading is encased in the classic three act story structure. First, she sings open/shut them, open/shut them so they know it’s time to start. On the other hand, it doesn't really matter that they are mesmerized and immobilized as soon Kathy walks in the door.

Of course as the toddlers start to squirm after about 25 minutes, she gives them The Wheels on the Bus. But that isn’t Kathy enough.

So she pulls out The Seals on the Bus. “OK everybody, flap your flippers and “Orf, orf, orf – Orf orf orf,” she wails.

Turning the page at 4:35, the children are crawling away, looking around and falling asleep. So she usually gives them a big thing like a puppet or a flannel board. This time it was The Three Billy Goats Gruff that eased them to the end. “So long, it’s been good to know you,” she sung, and provided crackers for the ride home. Of course, there’s lots of hugs and smiles before the minivans hit the highways.

A Kind Word and a Cookie

But storytelling wasn’t always this easy for Kathy and had to be easier than facing Madison Avenue. “It’s harder with children, because they are more demanding, their attention span is less and if you’re not on top of it, they’re lost, you’re done,” she reasoned.

The first time she filled in for the previous storyteller in 1988, she was terrified. “I was pulling out all the major big tricks,” said Storfer.

Eventually she took over and grew into the position but still gets nervous anyway. Don’t worry, you won’t be able to tell.

So has Kathy ever written any children’s stories? She’s written two, but she can not get an agent.

You needn’t worry, though, because she has a simple philosophy. “All anyone ever really needs in this life is a kind word and a cookie, and if they get the kind word, they’ll probably forget about the cookie,” Storfer said

So she can’t lose and neither can your children.

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