I listened to the re-recording of this story and don't even remember the original recording - I think probably I skipped it due to the sound quality.
What a loss!
This story was great. I listen to my podcasts while I'm doing work around the house or driving, and sometimes follow with half an ear for a little while. This story made me laugh with its digressions into other stories as I was following along and then suddenly would be thinking, "Wait, how did we get here?" It really reminds me of a man named Willem Lange, who is a commentator on Vermont Public Radio and also a writer. I saw him live at First Night in Burlington and he told the story of breaking his leg (and missing the previous year's First Night) for about 45 minutes - a story that started, he said, back when he was a young man, working at one of the last residential logging camps in New Hampshire...
I love this kind of purposeful rambling along. It's very irritating if you're talking to someone and having a conversation where it happens, but it can be very fun if you're willing to just trust the speaker - the storyteller, as someone earlier in this thread put it - and enjoy the ride.
I approve of this story. I don't necessarily like Uncle Dab's stories within the story and their unapologetic depictions of "the queer" and the ghost of the girl, but I really liked the moral of the tale - that everything has to have a story. That's how we connect, it's the way we share information with one another. It's important to be able to tell stories, rather than just reciting facts, or saying "one thing led to another."