« Oatmeal Morning | Main | Practical Sunday »
August 26, 2005
Questions You've Never Thought to Ask
This afternoon, Dave and I drove downtown and climbed into a small, soundproofed booth in a silver trailer where I interviewed him for 40 minutes (he asked me some questions too). We did this as a part of StoryCorps, an oral, living history project sponsored by CPB, NPR and Saturn.
Americans from all over are getting the chance to tell their stories, to interview each other and create a lasting archive of audio history. And what makes this so wonderful, aside from the cd of your interview that you get to take home when you're done, is the fact that it's personal. In the end, the archive will be this wonderful patchwork that gives some idea of what it means to be an American in this place and time, a broad swath of color created by thousands of personal histories.
I really wanted to participate, so I booked the interview and then talked Dave into doing it. And I'm so glad I did. Not only did I learn that his family survived the Depression by making table tennis paddles (apparently the best available at the time), but through the course of the interview, we remembered Dave's involvement with the Puget Sound newspaper and the infamous condom issue. Which brought up the story of how Dave's invitation to the then president of the university to attend a talk by a person with AIDS (in 1987) led the president to re-think his beliefs about AIDS and to get involved in AIDS-related causes to the extent that he was given some kind of recognition/award for his work. And how he thanked David for the wake-up call that started it.
I am so proud of my husband. And he thought he didn't have any stories to tell.
Anyway, everybody has to sign waivers both to allow their recordings into the Library of Congress (where the collection will be housed) and to allow clips to possibly be aired on NPR's Morning Edition. So be listening for us.
Posted by sally at August 26, 2005 04:54 PM
©2006 - All content copyright Sally Eames-Harlan unless otherwise noted