Memory Fox is a great way to collect stories - super easy and user friendly, and created by a Veteran. It may be worth checking into a potential partnership?
I and my brother and sisters did something similar after my mom died. At the wake at our house my dad put out a bunch of B&W photos on a table and there was my mom in a flight jacket standing next to a plane! She apparently wanted to be an engineer before women were allowed in WWII so she signed up to ferry bombers from ME to OH, take the train back and do it again. My dad was nonchalant about the whole thing but none of kids ever heard mom talk about it, not once. So, we sat down with my dad over the course of a year and extracted his life story and my sister edited (she worked for Morris books at the time) it, formatted it, we selected some pertinent photos and bound it in a book. I also took all his letters he wrote home from the Pacific in WWII and donated them and some other info to the WWII museum at Florida State University that atom Brokaw seeded the money and research for. It is a museum of diaries, letters, and documents about how the soldiers and folks at home felt during the war. Your post really brought all that home because that generation had a lot to teach is and much has been lost by not sitting down with them to extract that oral history. Thanks!
Regarding VA employees improperly accessing candidate medical records, there is an element of irony for me and other veterans who deal with the VA. We cannot get a VA employee to disclose to us anything in our C-files — we have to submit a FOIA-type request and wait months. What’s more, the VA prohibits disclosure by accredited veteran service organizations (VFW for example) to whom we give power of attorney to represent us to the VA. VSOs can access our records in the VA’s online portal, but cannot share any of the files with us. But, VA staff will improperly surf through veterans’ records for gossip or to leak info. The VA has a noble mission and does a lot of good, but is badly in need of reform. Many have tried and failed.
...and they are stories we absolutely LOVE to tell! I do try not to overdo the story thing, though, because I fear my "audience of the moment" will get -- what? Bored? Weary of listening to me talk on, seemingly forever, about myself, about yesterday and all it's happenings? Will they grow weary of seeking the "true point" of the story? Whatever.
I do remember listening to stories told by the 2 generations who came before me, parents and grandparents -- I wish now that I had recorded them more clearly in my memory bank. Maybe when I retire I can write or record or somehow figure a way leave that "legacy of stories"-- mine and my ancestors'-- for those who are coming along after me! <3
Sometimes I wonder if the next gen(s) would even care....
I think that’s why I haven't written anything. Will anyone care? But reading all this is making me wonder if that matters. Maybe it needs to be about what we need to say before we can no longer remember what we have to say? Maybe they will care if we say it? Maybe they will care later? Or, maybe it doesn't matter? Maybe we just need to say it for us?
first memories bit I told about how I recorded stories of Hospice care patients - wonderful!!
Toys 'R Us --- made me think of Field of Dreams/Build it & they will come... I had my 3 boys '80, '82 & '85 so we LOVED Toys 'R Us!!! haha - Lazarus rose from the dead comment!!
uh, Hezbollah are not militants - they're TERROISTS!!!
thumbs up to CA banning legacy preferences at universities!!
Those VA employees obviously should be fired PLUS heavily fined & have black marks on their records for the rest of their lives.
yeah for UK now using nuclear power among other sources!
I managed to get my father in law to tell me about his life while I recorded it. It was fascinating, and very valuable because it revealed things he'd never told anyone.
Years ago in a borough I taught in there was a Living History project going on in which youngsters interviewed and recorded elderly local residents talking about their lives and the area. The kids found it fascinating.
a bit different, but very interesting... if you visit the Alamo, in San Antonio - read the letters written (it's a shame some kids these days don't learn how to write/read cursive), you read a lot of history plus personal stories...
Memory Fox is a great way to collect stories - super easy and user friendly, and created by a Veteran. It may be worth checking into a potential partnership?
I and my brother and sisters did something similar after my mom died. At the wake at our house my dad put out a bunch of B&W photos on a table and there was my mom in a flight jacket standing next to a plane! She apparently wanted to be an engineer before women were allowed in WWII so she signed up to ferry bombers from ME to OH, take the train back and do it again. My dad was nonchalant about the whole thing but none of kids ever heard mom talk about it, not once. So, we sat down with my dad over the course of a year and extracted his life story and my sister edited (she worked for Morris books at the time) it, formatted it, we selected some pertinent photos and bound it in a book. I also took all his letters he wrote home from the Pacific in WWII and donated them and some other info to the WWII museum at Florida State University that atom Brokaw seeded the money and research for. It is a museum of diaries, letters, and documents about how the soldiers and folks at home felt during the war. Your post really brought all that home because that generation had a lot to teach is and much has been lost by not sitting down with them to extract that oral history. Thanks!
A good reminder to so before we don't have the opportunity.
Regarding VA employees improperly accessing candidate medical records, there is an element of irony for me and other veterans who deal with the VA. We cannot get a VA employee to disclose to us anything in our C-files — we have to submit a FOIA-type request and wait months. What’s more, the VA prohibits disclosure by accredited veteran service organizations (VFW for example) to whom we give power of attorney to represent us to the VA. VSOs can access our records in the VA’s online portal, but cannot share any of the files with us. But, VA staff will improperly surf through veterans’ records for gossip or to leak info. The VA has a noble mission and does a lot of good, but is badly in need of reform. Many have tried and failed.
...and they are stories we absolutely LOVE to tell! I do try not to overdo the story thing, though, because I fear my "audience of the moment" will get -- what? Bored? Weary of listening to me talk on, seemingly forever, about myself, about yesterday and all it's happenings? Will they grow weary of seeking the "true point" of the story? Whatever.
I do remember listening to stories told by the 2 generations who came before me, parents and grandparents -- I wish now that I had recorded them more clearly in my memory bank. Maybe when I retire I can write or record or somehow figure a way leave that "legacy of stories"-- mine and my ancestors'-- for those who are coming along after me! <3
Sometimes I wonder if the next gen(s) would even care....
I think that’s why I haven't written anything. Will anyone care? But reading all this is making me wonder if that matters. Maybe it needs to be about what we need to say before we can no longer remember what we have to say? Maybe they will care if we say it? Maybe they will care later? Or, maybe it doesn't matter? Maybe we just need to say it for us?
first memories bit I told about how I recorded stories of Hospice care patients - wonderful!!
Toys 'R Us --- made me think of Field of Dreams/Build it & they will come... I had my 3 boys '80, '82 & '85 so we LOVED Toys 'R Us!!! haha - Lazarus rose from the dead comment!!
uh, Hezbollah are not militants - they're TERROISTS!!!
thumbs up to CA banning legacy preferences at universities!!
Those VA employees obviously should be fired PLUS heavily fined & have black marks on their records for the rest of their lives.
yeah for UK now using nuclear power among other sources!
I managed to get my father in law to tell me about his life while I recorded it. It was fascinating, and very valuable because it revealed things he'd never told anyone.
Years ago in a borough I taught in there was a Living History project going on in which youngsters interviewed and recorded elderly local residents talking about their lives and the area. The kids found it fascinating.
at the school my kids attended they all participated in something like this, interviewed someone who lived thru an historical event
It's a great thing for kids, because they all seem to labour under the misapprehension that nothing much existed before they did 😂
a bit different, but very interesting... if you visit the Alamo, in San Antonio - read the letters written (it's a shame some kids these days don't learn how to write/read cursive), you read a lot of history plus personal stories...
I agree. How will they read and learn from others? And cursive is easier on the hand (and eye).