Did you collect rocks as a kid? Did you love playing in the creek? Chances are, this will bring back a few memories for you!

David Matlack, DVM, Storytelling Arts of Indiana, tells us more about “The Stories in Our Stones” event and how you can be a part of it!

About: 

Storytelling Arts of Indiana presents “The Stories in Our Stones” told by David Matlack as part of the Frank Basile Emerging Stories series on Saturday, November 3, 2018 from 7:00-8:00 p.m., with a reception to follow at the Eugene and Mary Glick Indiana History Center, 450 West Ohio St., Indianapolis, IN, 46202. Tickets are $15/Advance or $20/Door and can be purchased online at www.storytellingarts.org, or by phone at 317-232-1882.    

David Matlack, BA, DVM is the featured storyteller on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 for Storytelling Arts of Indiana’s next big show of our 31st season. Matlack is currently the Director of the Physiology Teaching Labs at Indiana University Bloomington, but in his spare time, he loves to research, write and tell stories with Hoosier ties. This original piece, “The Stories in Our Stones” chronicles David’s fascination with the unique geology of Indiana, specifically the Whitewater Gorge’s famous formation of fossil-rich limestone. He first became interested in it as a boy growing up in nearby Richmond, Indiana. These geological formations serve as the backdrop to 450 million years of history.  

About David, as answered by him: 

1.  Not a lot of people know there are different kinds of Indiana limestone depending on which part of the state it comes from. There’s the kind used for building and the kind known for its fossils. Although you’re a professor at Indiana University, which is known for its limestone buildings, you’re more interested in the fossil-rich limestone?
 
I grew up on the Whitewater Formation in Richmond in Wayne County, which is world famous for its fossils. It was one of the first natural exposures from the Ordovician period (450 million years old) to be discovered and studied in this country.
 
2.  This love of fossils has been a life-long obsession?
 
It started when I was six years old when we moved to a neighborhood with a creek in our backyard. There was a bluff on the creek that was an exposure of the Whitewater Formation. As I grew up and worked around the country, I drifted away from this obsession (and some areas had no fossils) but then I picked it up again 20 years ago down in Florida and have been at it ever since.
 
3.  Why write a story about it?
 
I should point out I’m not a paleontologist. I’m a veterinarian and on the faculty at IU School of Medicine, so this is definitely just a hobby. The story is mostly a tribute to my great teachers – the adults who helped me with this hobby, my mother, and Ansel Gooding and Chuck Martin, who were Geology professors at Earlham College and my neighbors.
 
4.   What can people expect when they come see your show on Saturday?
 
This story is full of nostalgia for growing up in the 1960s and 1970s and playing in the creek. There will be just enough science to understand the historical importance of the Whitewater Formation in paleontology, but mostly it is a nostalgic story about childhood obsessions, growing up in Indiana and our great teachers along the way.
 
About Storytelling Arts of Indiana
Since 1988, Storytelling Arts of Indiana has introduced the art of storytelling by creating environments where Indiana residents can hear and share stories and by showcasing tellers who inspire diverse audiences. SAI provides programming year-round, including public performances, the As I Recall storytelling guilds, weekly storytelling at the bedsides of patients at a local children’s hospital, summer performances in 15-day camps, Indy Story Slams, the Life Stories Project and “Two Truths and a Lie” in various Indiana State Parks.   
 
To learn more, visit: 
 
www.storytellingarts.org
 
https://www.facebook.com/storytellingart/
 
www.instagram.com/storytellingartsofindiana198
 
https://twitter.com/Storytellingart
 

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