Former Eisenhower teacher returns to Jacksonville school to hold recording session
By Ben Cox
Hugo Kringle, often disguised as long-time Jacksonville storyteller and former teacher Mike Anderson, made a stop at Eisenhower Elementary School on March 18 to record a special Christmas audiobook for children to enjoy around the world.
Anderson has been spinning tales for children for five decades. He made his first recording of “The Cat Came Back” in 1975 at the Jacksonville Public Library in front of mostly students of Jacksonville School District 117.
He described his recording at Eisenhower on March 18 as a full-circle moment, returning to the school he once taught at for several decades.
Anderson says that the layout of the school is much different than the wide-open layout concept that he was used to as a staff member. “This used to be the locker room,” Anderson said while setting up equipment for his recording, “I never imagined that this room would now be the school’s music room.”
Anderson’s former students were all around the recording session. On-site engineer Steven Varble was an Eisenhower alum and Leslie Terwische, whose class was the captivated audience, was crowd control for the students who provided the necessary ambiance Anderson was searching for in the recording.
The roughly two dozen students provided Anderson the call-and-response he was seeking in spinning four new Christmas tales that were not part of the Hugo Kringle tales that he’s spun for many years now. However, Kris Kringle’s surly brother Hugo did appear in one of the new tales, much to the audience’s delight. Entitled Christmas Cookie Crumbs, the audiobook is expected to be released later in the Spring after some post-production work.
“I am going to add some music underneath the recording and then send it to my sound guy,” Anderson said.
Anderson wanted to record the audiobook in front of a live audience because it didn’t have the feeling he wanted: “I attempted to record it at home in my studio and it just sounded too flat.”
Once the post-production work is done, the audiobook will be released through Listen and Live Audio worldwide.
Terwische’s second grade class will get the first listen, though. Hugo promised those students that he would deliver a finished copy to their teacher for them to listen to as soon as it’s complete.
Anderson says that a physical book may also accompany the audiobook, which likely won’t be available until later this year.
It will be another mark in Anderson’s lengthy discography and bibliography that’s been winning awards for several years. Hugo says he’s available year-round to bring Christmas cheer to anyone, even in the manic weather of an Illinois Spring. To book Hugo, visit hugokringle.com or find him on Facebook.
