Fellow NPR junkies will totally know how cool this is, but for those who don't have their local NPR station as the 1st pre-set in all their radios, here's some background info. StoryCorps is a national oral history project with a simple mission: "to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening." Basically they have a mobile recording booth that travels around the country and people can make appointments to bring in a loved one and interview them for an hour. After the hour, they get a CD recording of the interview and the interview can be archived with StoryCorps and the Library of Congress.
Well StoryCorps has come to Winston-Salem and they started taking reservations for appointments a few weeks ago over the internet. Now, whenever there is a limited number of spots available online, I am always too slow - even when I log on right when the tickets go on sale - so I wasn't surprised when all the appointments were already full by the time I tried, but they had a waiting list in case of a cancellation, and I added my name to the waiting list, thinking it would be futile anyway.
So imagine my surprise when I got a phone call this afternoon informing me that there is an opening tomorrow afternoon. And it's not like tomorrow is busy enough since I am volunteering at a local ministry in the morning and going to the annual fundraiser for Women of Vision/World Vision in Charlotte in the evening. Sure, let's throw in another thing to do! Since having kids, I realize I don't like last minute changes in plans because the childcare arrangements can get so problematic. But thankfully my kind-hearted, loving, generous husband doesn't have to work and doesn't have any meetings tomorrow (a rarity on days that I actually want to do something...) So now I have to prepare for my hour of history.
The biggest decision is who to interview. I know my dad would be great - He loves to tell stories from his childhood. But I really want to interview my mom and talk with her about life from a women's perspective. I guess I want to explore how being a woman has shaped her life and how that in turn has shaped my life and the decisions I make as a woman, a wife, a mother. Of course, I'm not sure what direction the interview will actually go in, it's really more of a conversation than an interview, so I don't have concrete expectations of what information I plan to extract from my mom. I just hope that we have fun doing this together and that I get a chance to know my mom a little bit better.
StoryCorps offeres suggestions of questions to ask, so I'll probably check out some of those. (Also a great resource if you think this sounds like a great project and just want to grab a recording device and a friend) I also asked my oldest brother, a professional historian, for some guidance too. Now I have to go and pick some really good questions to get our conversation started.
