In 1980, two children's librarians from the St. Louis City Public Library were promoted. Instead of tears of joy with their career good fortune, the two women wept tears of grief at losing their most precious assigned duty -- that of telling stories. Sylvia Duncan and Irene Eveland lamented, "We're going to be working with adults now. We'll never be able to tell stories again."

The women then had second thoughts. "We like stories! We're adults. Let's go out to dinner and go back to a library and tell stories to each other." So Sylvia and Irene invited six other librarians to dinner. After dinner the group adjourned to the Buder Branch Library and told each other stories. The informal gathering over a meal followed by story swapping in a private dining room of different local restaurants continued. The group's ranks began to grow with the attendance of a few more librarians and other interested story devotees. The group had no name, no rules, no officers, and no dues.

The group eventually found an ideal dining and meeting room facility in the Salad Bowl Cafeteria on Lindell. Every gathering of the group at this point in time, however, was accompanied by anxiety over achieving an attendance of 15 people so as to qualify for the free meeting room. Sylvia and Irene would breathe a big sigh of relief from their vigil at the meeting room door when they had counted that baker's dozen plus two of people carrying their food trays into the meeting room.

In 1981, an organization titled "St. Louis Gateway Storytellers" (a.k.a. Gateway) was founded based on the need to deal with the receipt of $50 from the Missouri Botanical Garden for storytelling services by members of the group for children who were waiting to have their pictures taken with Santa. A constitution was written, officers elected, and the $50 was deposited in the "St. Louis Gateway Storytellers" bank account.

Since its founding, Gateway has continued to be a group of individuals whose mission is to promote the enjoyment of storytelling as an art form. Membership dues have remained constant at $15/year. Gateway members include professional and amateur storytellers as well as story listeners. In addition, one-time interested guests are welcomed at meetings.

Meetings are held the fourth Tuesday of every month from 6-9 pm at the Salad Bowl Restaurant. The agenda for the evening is a snippet of a business meeting, when necessary, and then, the performance of seven or eight stories by volunteers who have put their names on the program of tellers.

The following facts describe Gateway as a group in a prime state of organizational and networking health:

• Average membership 50-80 people (all time high was 120)
• Average attendance at meetings 40-50 people
• Newsletter published bi-monthly beginning in January
• Bank balance in black ink
• Catalyst for the founding of other local storytelling groups
  • MO-TELL (MO)
  • Riverwind Storytellers (IL)
• Co-host of the 2007 National Storytelling Network National Storytelling Conference in metropolitan St. Louis
• IRS tax exempt status of 501(c)4 organization (since 1988)
• Member on the National Storytelling Network Board of Directors
• Supporter of the St. Louis Annual Storytelling Festival (also founded in 1981)
• Supporter of annual November Tellebration in metropolitan St. Louis
• Sponsor of several storytelling workshops

Adults, and sometimes even children, from all walks of life have stood up (sometimes for the first time in front of an audience) in front of the Gateway community assembled at the Salad Bowl to swap a favorite story from folk lore or their personal life. The response of the audience at a Gateway meeting to the teller is always predictable -- appreciative, attentive, and affirmative.