Tall tales around the table: Jackie Goldstein revives her father's stories into book

Around the dining table in her childhood home, Jackie Goldstein’s father’s stories came to life: finger prints on a fish, bear attacks, frogs without legs and whatever combination of believability and imagination he spoke to life on a given night.

Everyone who heard John Lutes’ “tall tales” would vividly remember them for years to come.

“He had a way of mixing truth and fiction by adding things you knew to be true that gave validity to the story,” Goldstein said of her father, a career salesman.

Now Goldstein has revived his stories in a new book, Fish, Fog, Frogs (and Other Stories) (penned with her maiden name, Jackie Lutes), which she hopes will bring back the power of storytelling she felt in her childhood.

“I hope the reader can envision the family sitting around the table,” she said. “Grandparents will remember how the dining table was the gathering place before everyone rushed back to the TV or off to a little league game after eating.”

The book is appropriate for a fifth through sixth grade reading level, but Goldstein said the stories are for everybody.

The first of 10 chapters opens by setting the scene around Goldstein’s family table as her own children listen to their “Gaga.” The book goes on to tell eight of his beloved stories in his voice.

Goldstein’s children, Jennifer and Jonathan, both MBHS graduates, provided the illustrations for the stories.

Mary Ann Glazner, who taught Goldstein’s children years ago, has stocked Smith’s Variety with copies of the book and held a book signing at the store last month. She was eager to share the stories with her grandchildren.

“I love the book, it’s absolutely precious,” Glazner said. “It’s got old stories that you would sit around the table and your father or grandfather would tell you. They are hilarious. It makes you think of stories that you heard growing up.”

When her father passed away in 1980, their family kept his memory alive by remising about his stories. Soon thereafter, she wrote down the stories and distributed photocopies to family, friends and colleagues.

More recently with the advent of self-publishing, her brother encouraged her to distribute the text more widely. So last year, she brushed up the copy and recruited a retired English professor friend to edit them. Within months, the paperback book was in stores in Mountain Brook, the community that has been her home since 1966.

Goldstein, a psychology professor at Samford University, is continuing to pursue writing. She is currently working on a memoir about her travel experiences as well as a book about the positive role communities can play in reducing the trauma of mental illness.

But she is also working to distribute her kids’ book to share its stories both for the sake of nostalgia and of the present.

“I hope the book will encouraging people to seek out their own family legends and keep their memories alive,” she said.

Fish, Fog, Frogs (and Other Stories) is available at Smith’s Variety and Crestline Pharmacy as well as on amazon.com for $7.95. To learn more about Goldstein’s writing, visit jackiejourneys.com.