A Story
toTell
He did
everything
he could
think of —
journalist,
businessman,
politician, and
sometimes he
lived off
the land —
while the
dream of the
great novel
simmered.
by Jack Betts ’ 68
Barnie Day ’ 75
wouldn’t take
no for an
answer.
Barnie Day hung around when the grownups gathered to tell stories. His Uncle Dub had a dry wit and told stories in an understated, deadpan way that
cracked you up. His mom could replay
parts of conversations with devastating
accuracy, hopping nimbly from one side to
the other.
The young Day just listened, soaked it
up like a sponge.
“We had three books in our house:
a Bible nobody read, The Dickens Digest,
which I still have, and an Uncle Remus.
The people I grew up around were not
readers, but they were world-class story-
tellers. Not just good, but fabulous. They
were funny, they were descriptive, and
they could draw it out. They became the
touchstone for me, the stories did. It was a
reaffirmation of who we were.”
Fifty years later, Day still soaks up vivid
anecdotes, stray facts, funny yarns, interest-
ing combinations of words and images and
anything else that might become part of a
story. They came in handy to a newspa-
perman, and in the county courthouse and
in floor debate in the Virginia House of
Delegates (medical clinic administrator,
STEVE EXUM ’ 92
