National Day of Listening with my parents
StoryCorps. of NPR is encouraging Americans on the day after Thanksgiving to sit with a loved one and record a conversation. You can check it out at http://www.nationaldayoflistening.org/ if you are interested.
I interviewed my mother and father on Thanksgiving Day each for about 50 minutes. I asked the basic, "where did you come from and grow up" questions. Some of the answers I knew but most I did not. My parents and I do not talk all that much about their past and so it was interesting to hear all about what they had to say. We set up a video camera and filmed each session. It was great. I hope to catalogue these conversations each year and put them into a digital format in the years to come so that my children will have stories of grandparents straight from them.
I highly recommend anyone and everyone to take time this season and listen to their stories. But be careful, you may just realize as I did that no one is a self-made person and chance and luck effect life more than I know. For instance my son would not be alive without the good fortune of my fathers name being drawn out of a hat when he was 20 years old (that's a good story...)
I interviewed my mother and father on Thanksgiving Day each for about 50 minutes. I asked the basic, "where did you come from and grow up" questions. Some of the answers I knew but most I did not. My parents and I do not talk all that much about their past and so it was interesting to hear all about what they had to say. We set up a video camera and filmed each session. It was great. I hope to catalogue these conversations each year and put them into a digital format in the years to come so that my children will have stories of grandparents straight from them.
I highly recommend anyone and everyone to take time this season and listen to their stories. But be careful, you may just realize as I did that no one is a self-made person and chance and luck effect life more than I know. For instance my son would not be alive without the good fortune of my fathers name being drawn out of a hat when he was 20 years old (that's a good story...)
