Fishtrap Fireside – November 1

Fishtrap Fireside
Friday, November 1, 2024 at 7:00pm
Free Admission
Or watch it online at fishtrap.org

Fishtrap Fireside continues its 12th season of readings and stories from local, Wallowa County writers on Friday, November 1 featuring Kendrick Moholt, Jennifer Piper and Adele Schott.  Light snacks provided and drinks are available for purchase.

Kendrick Moholt

Kendrick Moholt spent much of his youth at a remote natural history field station far from paved roads with drinking water too precious for showers and electricity only in the kitchen, darkroom, and laboratory. A sun-tanned adolescence was spent roaming sagebrush and rimrock canyon. Phones were something used once or twice a season. Each day he worked long hours, swam the John Day River, and ate meals in the dining hall. Every evening the old-timers entertained the youth with wild stories—the ancient oral tradition that has defined humans for hundreds of thousands of years. 

As a young man, conditions were even more primitive. The warm months of the year were spent in the woods living in feral camps with no facilities more advanced than a truck, a cooler, a folding chair, and a campfire. Every night around the fires, conversation flowed as freely as cheap beer. Entertainment did not include electronics or phones, but the coolers had ice. Storytelling skills were honed.  

Decades pass as Kendrick morphs into the old timer. Out of habit and convention he still practices the tradition of storytelling even when confronted with strange social situations like cocktail parties. Some people only expect small talk as he launches into long rambling tales about strange creatures or a combination of conditions that led to a near death experience. The confused looks from well-dressed people sporting clean fingernails only confirm his sad belief that humans are losing that ancient skill of campfire conversation. 

Jennifer Piper

Jennifer Piper hails from Wallowa County and spent most of her young adult years on the West side of the state – all the way to the Oregon Coast. After returning home, Jennifer has taken full advantage of her inclinations as an avid outdoorsman and can be found hiking and climbing mountains at every opportunity. When not in motion, Jennifer has been scribbling stories for as long as she can remember and she refers to much of her work as “Probably Bad Poetry.” These days, her writing frequently takes on more challenging themes, as she considers the intersections of wealth, class, privilege, and power — and how these forces shape our understanding of opportunities and the spaces we occupy.