I've got mail! Received this
on Saturday, stories recorded last Thanksgiving by my cousin Cindi with her dad,
my 88-year-old uncle John. So good to hear his voice, and the stories are
priceless! He talks about growing up with my mom. Lots of war stories about Italy and France
I am going to transcribe the
voice recording into a typed document to get the stories down on paper and to
share with any family member who wants them. But the voice file is so much more
valuable than the written words!
Cindi did her homework
before she started, researching how to interview to get the best stories, what
questions to ask to prompt memories.
As an example, she asked, "Did
you ever go on vacation when you were growing up?"
"Occasionally we would go up to Gainesville ,
Georgia , that is where Daddy was from and where his Daddy lived, in the Blue Ridge mountains . We
just went all day, and you patched your tires going and patched the tires
coming back. When you went off in a car then, you tied two or three spares on
the back, some of them had places you could bolt spares on each front fender,
then you would tie a few on top, and you still had cold patches you would patch
them with, and you didn't get home until all your patches were gone, I mean it
was just that bad, tires were just nothing, and the roads were terrible."
And this one, which pretty much sums it
up (about my mom), Cindi asked, "Did you usually get along
with Alma
"Alma and I got along good, because I always did
what she wanted done, you know."
Lots more to come, 197 minutes of interview!
Collecting family stories - so easy to do, so interesting and important for future generations, the folks want to talk, they just need someone to listen - so Just Do It!
