The Great Thanksgiving Listen with StoryCorps
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that we have a day in our culture that is set aside purely to be thankful for everything the preceding year brought to us. No gifts, just thanks…and food. At my family’s Thanksgiving, we all gather for lunch at my maternal grandparents’ house, the coziest of little houses out in the country of central Florida. The rural countryside of central Florida is quickly shrinking, but they’ve managed to hold onto a little piece of it. We sit and eat on a big wrap-around screened porch that looks out into a cluster of woods and palmetto thickets. Food and conversation is plentiful and the pinnacle moment of glory for me is biting into my grandmother’s pumpkin cake (it’s better than pie, y’all). Then once evening comes, we head into town over to my Dad’s side of the family. Yes, folks, that’s right; the Garner girls have always gotten two Thanksgiving meals, one of the many, many things for which to be thankful! This year my long list of things to be thankful for will include a cherished family, dear friends, colleagues that love to work hard and play harder, this job at camp that challenges me and excites me, and the larger legacy of Merrie-Woode that inspires me to find my place within it.
One of my many hats that I wear here at camp is that of Merrie-Woode’s unofficial archivist. Several summers ago, after a morning spent with the JCs in the camp archives, a small group of them dubbed me the “Keeper of the History.” I kind of love that title. And it sounds way more fun than “Archivist.” For the past several years I have been combing through camp’s archive materials and working to catalogue and store them in a way that could be accessible to folks in the future. I have enjoyed interviewing alumnae of all camp generations as they recount their beloved memories of Merrie-Woode. I have so many favorite stories that I have heard over the years, from the struggles of camp in the Great Depression and World War II to the 1969 moon landing, experienced by campers listening to the news report live on the radio in Castle. Can you imagine sitting on Castle floor that night, listening to a crackly radio signal as Neil Armstrong spoke those remarkable words from the surface of the moon? Everyone who has ever spent a summer on the shores of Lake Fairfield has an amazing and unique story to tell. Collecting these stories is integral to preserving and recording our history, especially as we get closer and closer to our centennial celebration in a few years.
I am also a huge fan of StoryCorps, a massive oral history project that was started in 2003. I’ve been obsessed with listening to StoryCorps conversations on NPR and the StoryCorps podcast for several months. Over the past dozen years they have archived more than 60,000 interviews with normal, everyday people. StoryCorps’ mission is “to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share and preserve the stories of our lives.” There are some amazing stories out there. What I’ve learned from StoryCorps is that you don’t have to be the President to have a story worth sharing or a historical memory worth preserving. And you don’t have to be a world leader to change someone’s world. Watch this video and let the fine folks over at StoryCorps tell you more about it:
This Thanksgiving, StoryCorps is launching an awesome project: The Great Thanksgiving Listen. As Keeper of the History, this is right up my alley. The idea is this: to get people to interview a grandparent or elder over the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday weekend using a new StoryCorps mobile app. The app is free! And it walks you through how to set up interview questions and helpful hints about recording. After the interview, you snap a pic with your grandparent and save it with your interview. You then have the option to upload the interview to be archived at the Library of Congress. I think this is fantastic! I’m hoping to interview one of my grandparents myself.
“We are excited to use the new StoryCorps app to bring the country together in a project of listening, connection and generosity. Together we will collect the wisdom of a generation and archive it for the future, while at the same time reminding our grandparents how much their lives and stories matter.” —Dave Isay, StoryCorps Founder and President
How many of you have grandmothers or great aunts who came to Camp Merrie-Woode? How many of you will be spending time with them over the coming Thanksgiving holiday? Here is my challenge to you: participate in The Great Thanksgiving Listen this year. And when you put together your interview, throw in a question or two about camp. What was their proudest moment at camp? Can they remember a moment with their cabin mates? What do they remember about Dammie Day or Fritz Orr? Who was the most important counselor to them? Did camp influence the woman they became?
If you choose to upload the conversation to StoryCorps and you want to share, email me (lindsay@merriewoode.com) the link you end up with and we can add those camp stories to our own CMW archives. Or, if you choose not to upload, that’s ok too! But take the opportunity to sit down with a grandparent this Thanksgiving and ask them to talk about their life. It’s a wonderful way to express to them that their story matters to others, and specifically to you. I think of the grandfather that I lost almost two years ago now. How I wish I had sat down with him and recorded his wonderful stories in his own voice. What a gift that would have been to my sisters and cousins, and to their children who will never know him. What a wonderful opportunity we all have on this, my favorite holiday, to give thanks to a generation of grandparents who have loved us and nurtured us, challenged us and celebrated us, by preserving a piece of their story for generations to come.
Here are some links to help you get started!
StoryCorps
StoryCorps App
StoryCorps App FAQ
Best of luck,
Keeper of the History