Founder and producer of Every Family's Got One storytelling show featuring family stories

About Every Family's Got One

Barbara Herel is the founder and producer of Every Family's Got One. She is a writer and storyteller, wife and mother, and a recovering middle child. (You bet she has some stories to tell.) You can find her work in places like, Scary Mommy, Motherly, Adoptive Families, on page 135 in the anthology Tick Tock: Essays on Becoming a Parent After 40 (published by Dottir Press), and right here on Every Family’s Got One.

Announcing the 2018 Cast of Every Family’s Got One
Announcing the 2018 Cast of Every Family’s Got One

Announcing the 2018 Cast of Every Family’s Got One

Every Family’s Got One Founder – Barbara Herel I am excited to announce our cast. But first, I need to tell you we were floored by your response! Audition videos came from... Long Island, New York City, Westchester, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Let me tell you, Family, there are amazing storytellers all around us! What’s more, the quality of the work was astounding. You just blew us away. And you happily made our casting decision a difficult one. Most difficult in fact! We spent many hours in our café eating our way through the casting process. (But seriously, we forgive you.) [...]

Every Family's Got One2019-11-18T12:19:33-05:00July 25, 2018|8 Comments

A Story About a Girdle and a Best Friend
A Story About a Girdle and a Best Friend

A Story About a Girdle and a Best Friend

By Every Family's Got One Guest Writer -- Mary Shea Most people remember their first kiss. I remember my first girdle. It was 1964, I was 14-years old and my best friend Sue and I were invited to Peter Murphy’s birthday party. My party dress was beautiful, but a little tight around the waistline, so my mother bought me a girdle. On the night of the shindig, I was excited and tried to get ready quickly. But the girdle that was holding me in... was also holding me up. I found that squeezing into it and then struggling to [...]

Every Family's Got One2018-07-16T14:13:26-04:00July 18, 2018|7 Comments

A Story About Sleepaway Camp and Finding Confidence
A Story About Sleepaway Camp and Finding Confidence

A Story About Sleepaway Camp and Finding Confidence

By Every Family's Got One Guest Writer -- Neil Kramer When I was eight years old, I attended my first year of Camp Kinder-Ring, a sleepaway camp in upstate New York. Our first breakfast of the summer was served in a wood-framed dining room, where bunkmates sat together at large oval tables. The waiters, 16-year-old campers, served us soggy scrabbled eggs and individual boxes of Kellogg’s cereals, my favorite being Sugar Pops. In the center of each table was... an aqua blue plastic pitcher which held the watered-down orange juice. “Can you pass the juith?” I asked another bunk [...]

Every Family's Got One2018-06-29T10:46:15-04:00July 11, 2018|2 Comments

A Story About Miscarriage and New Beginnings
A Story About Miscarriage and New Beginnings

A Story About Miscarriage and New Beginnings

By Every Family's Got One Guest Writer -- Kathy Radigan “Well that’s it, I’ve finally flipped,” was all I could think of as I spent the 45-minute commute into my office obsessing over the fact that we didn’t have enough life insurance on my husband. I couldn’t understand why I was obsessing on this, considering that our family was Joe, me, and our cat. Obviously, it was time to take my fertility doctor up on her offer to give me some referrals to a therapist familiar with infertility issues. It finally happened, I’ve slipped into the abyss. The past [...]

Every Family's Got One2019-11-18T12:22:04-05:00July 4, 2018|3 Comments

A Story About Receiving First Holy Communion
A Story About Receiving First Holy Communion

A Story About Receiving First Holy Communion

By Every Family's Got One Guest Writer -- Keith Gottschalk I officially received my First Holy Communion on April 17, 1971. I unofficially received it a few months earlier. And my mother damn near killed my dad over it. First, my mom was a cradle Catholic and a Polish Catholic... which, like many other ethnic Catholic groups, has a whole lot of lore and custom surrounding them. For Polish Catholics, a deep, reverential respect for Catholic tradition and a fanatical devotion to the Pope are hallmarks of their tradition. And butter in the shape of a lamb blessed by [...]

Every Family's Got One2018-06-29T17:48:00-04:00June 27, 2018|Comments Off

A Story About Food Shopping
A Story About Food Shopping

A Story About Food Shopping

By Every Family's Got One Founder -- Barbara Herel We called it Food Shopping. Not “shopping for groceries” or “going to the grocery store.” It was Food Shopping. And it wasn’t for the faint of heart. My dad, my two brothers and I went Food Shopping every two weeks. My mom worked evenings at EAB (European American Bank, now Citibank) and was lucky enough to miss out on the happening. She and Dad passed the parenting baton precisely at 4:30 PM – when he walked through the door after work and she walked out. [Once when Dad was late, Mom [...]

Every Family's Got One2019-11-18T12:25:10-05:00June 20, 2018|3 Comments

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