"There Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me"

I keep having this urge to do a massive research project while I'm still here in Oklahoma. I came up with the idea about four or five years ago, 'round about the time my great-grandfather died. See, I always knew both of my grandfathers were storytellers. They'll sit and tell stories from their childhood for hours on end. And it's fascinating, both as a descendent from these people and as a historian, to hear these stories, to see where my family came from and what made it what it is today. To see them rising above the adversity of things like the Great Depression and the Second World War and become something significant and grand. And it hit me--I should gather these stories. I should write this stuff down. It's important not only as a personal artifact, but as a historical one. Other people could benefit from hearing the lives my grandparents led.

So I decided--I need to sit down with each of my grandparents, one at a time, set up a tape recorder, and get them to tell me their life stories. I want to know everything they can possibly tell me--friends, family, childhood memories, hopes and dreams and obstacles and hurdles. I want to know what makes the members of my family tick. I want them recorded in posterity, their lives etched into the pages of a book for all the world to know and enjoy and learn from. I think their lives have that kind of power, really.

So here's my plan--first, find a tape recorder. I think we've got one at home, so that should be pretty easy. Second, set aside a weekend or two to sit down with each grandparent and interview them. It'll take quite awhile, especially with my grandfathers, because they tend to ramble. I'll have to keep them focused. After I have all this data, I have to sit down and comb through it, create a coherent narrative, and write it.

I wish I'd thought to do this--or had been of an age where I was capable of it--when all of my great-grandparents were still alive. Ah, the stories they could have told. They were alive from the turn of the 20th century, some even earlier, and it would have been wonderful to hear their stories. Unfortunately, the only great-grandparent even still alive at a time when I could have even possibly started this project was my great-grandfather Theral, aka Ol' Pa, who died when I was like a junior in college.

But I want to do this. I want to do this research this semester. I want to hear their stories, record them, and preserve them. I mean, my kids and grandkids, if no one else, would be able to appreciate where and who we came from. It's important.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Clearlake, "Something to Look Forward To"