Pull out your family groups sheets you did last week. Now take those sheets and go talk to each of your parents separately. In person works best. Doing these interviews one on one is important. Answers are more candid when not being overheard or interrupted. If someone is telling an old story in front of someone who has heard it a hundred times before, the story gets shortened and the speaker less enthusiastic. Sit down over a cup of coffee and get the stories behind the dates. How did you meet Mom? Did her parents approve of the marriage? What were some of the places you lived before? Was anybody in the family in the military? Where they stationed abroad? What did grandpa do for a living. You probably heard all these things when you were a child. Asking them now, with an adult’s point of view will be different. Less sugar coated. Don’t go in with a tape recorder! Nothing kills spontaneity faster. LISTEN. Ask very few questions that can be answered with YES or NO. Ask open ended questions that need explanations. The best technique is shut up and LISTEN. You can’t learn while talking. Let the speaker meander all they want. You can ask for clarifications later. ENJOY THE MOMENT. For some of you, this may be the first time in your life that you are talking as adult equals. At the end of the stories, ask for a few places and dates on your grandparents. That what you came for, right? If you do it right, you will walk away with soooo much more.
Now go home and rewrite your family group sheets for First and Second generation. Do it while it is fresh in your mind and use the back page to write funny stories about them. Why the stories? You will never know if your children will ever hear the stories if you don’t write them down now.
If your parents are not able to be interviewed, don’t despair. There is always a maiden great-aunt somewhere in your family to ask. In the next issue we will discuss THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS.
Ed Peck can be reached thru this newspaper and also the White River Museum on Park Ave. He available for guidance at no cost. Contributions to the museum are encouraged.
By ED PECK – Special to the Herald Times
