Sharing the story of a Christmas truce

Elizabeth Rowe’s father, Duncan Macpherson, was a great storyteller. Born in 1893, he’d seen a little of everything and he knew how to tell a tale. He could talk about the first automobile and the turn of the century and seeing workers start to dig out the Erie Canal. He could also talk about what it was like to fight in the First World War, though he didn’t talk about that much. When he did, though, Elizabeth Rowe was a great listener.

“He didn’t talk about it a lot, and in fact he was injured in the war,” said Rowe, an Oceanside resident.

But when Rowe was 12, he father told her a most remarkable story about a spontaneous Christmastime truce, when amidst one of the most brutal conflicts in history, soldiers ceased to be enemies if only for a day. Now Rowe is a great storyteller.

“My father was in a Scottish regiment, and they had a bagpiper,” she said. “As they settled down in their bunkers on Christmas Eve, the bagpiper started playing. Suddenly, voices started calling out requests—voices from the German side. The British side joined in, then the French. Some of the men had harmonicas, and soon they were all singing together.

“The singing emboldened them. The next day, on Christmas, the soldiers started coming out of the trenches, into what are known as no-man’s land. They each had packages of things like cheeses and wines, and they shared these gifts with one another. They even played a friendly soccer match that day. Of course, the officers had to go along with it, but it was all totally spontaneous.”

The Christmas spirit prevailed for a day. The following day, the guns were put back to use. The war went on for another four years.

To help commemorate the 100th Anniversary of that war, and in honor of Veterans’ Day, Rowe has prepared a presentation both harrowing and inspiring and altogether unforgettable. She’s appearing in a series of events in the coming weeks, including: Nov. 13 at the Garden City Library (time to be announced), Nov. 14 at the Elmont Library at 12:30 p.m., Dec. 2 at the Freeport Library at 3:30 pm, Dec. 9 at the Cornelia St. Café in Greenwich Village, NYC at 6:00 p.m., Dec. 12 at the Port Washington Library at 12:15 p.m., Dec. 19 at MILL 2 in Rockville Centre at 10:00 a.m. and Jan. 24 at Mt. Pleasant Library, Westchester County, at 2:00 p.m.

Rowe has also appeared at the Hewlett Woodmere Library, the Bethpage Library and the Long Beach Library. As a member of the National Storytelling Network, she tells family and personal stories about growing up.

The overall message to her audience, she says, is “tell your stories.”

You can also visit her web site, www.storytellerowe.com , which describes all the storytelling programs she’s created for various audiences, both adults and children.