Tell Me a Story – National Day of Listening

Posted on November 25, 2008 by moonbridgebooks

NPR’s StoryCorps is sponsoring the first annual National Day of Listening on November 28. Thanksgiving is a time of gathering together, and while we are gathered, what better way to pass the time vegetating after good food than to tell our stories. Instead of cruising parking lots and fighting the Black Friday crowds, relax by a warm fireplace and spend some quality time with the people you love. While you’re at it, think about recording the conversation, either with a good digital voice recorder, like Olympus DS-30 or DS-40, using certain mp3 players or iPODS that can record, or, preferably, by videocamera. The more people involved in the gathering, the less the recorder or camera will be noticed. The StoryCorp website has a great list of questions you can ask, such as:

What is your earliest memory?
What was the happiest moment in your life?
What are you proudest of in your life?
Do you have any regrets?
What were your parents like?
Did your parents tell you any stories?
Did you ever get into trouble?

My favorite question is for our grandparents: What was my Mom/Dad like when he/she was growing up? Let’s get the real scoop about our parents! Load your audio/video file onto the computer and burn it to CDs to share with everyone – get the kids to do it if you don’t know how.

I plan to sit down with my mother’s 97-year-old African-American neighbor sometime during the holiday weekend. What history she must hold! StoryCorps asks us to honor those we care about by asking them about their lives and listening, really listening, to their stories. I hope you’re in the listening mood this weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
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Everyday Prisoners of War

Posted on November 24, 2008 by moonbridgebooks

They are hidden amongst us… a neighbor, a man you greet at church every Sunday, the older guys lunching at the table nearby. You can’t tell just by looking at them, but once they were prisoners of war. They are survivors, and they have some stories to tell. If you pry hard enough, if the timing is right, they might tell you how they were captured when their plane was shot down, how they were fed green soup or boiled rutabagas, how much weight they lost, how they were freed by the British, or how they escaped and wandered the enemy countryside. These guys are proud of their service, of their country, but mostly they remember how lucky they were, and how many of their friends were not, and quietly go about their everyday lives. Sometimes, that’s not so easy.

On the other hand, there is the elderly barber who was once assigned guard duty over some big name war prisoners: Rudolph Hess (Hitler’s deputy), Albert Speer (charged with gathering concentration camp victims to work in German war factories), Hermann Goerring (Commander of the German Air Force). The defendants seemed like ordinary people (except for oddball Rudy Hess) because of the small talk between them and their guards. Mr. Horn, the barber, didn’t see anything special about the job he didn’t want and the casual conversations with infamous war criminals on trial. He’s another quiet one. You gotta ask first.

POW Black Bread

50% bruised, rotted rye
20% sliced sugar beets
20% sawdust
10% minced leaves and straw

Sugar from beets feed the rotting grain which provide the gases allowing the bread to rise.

American Ex-Prisoners of War, with chapters across the country, is an organization whose mission is to support ex-prisoners, civilian internees, and their families through friendship and understanding based on common experience.

This post is based on “His Story is History,” Oct 27, and “Barber’s Brush With History,” Oct 24, 2008, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and “A Gathering of American Ex-POW’s,” Nov 7-13, 2008, Webster-Kirkwood Times

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
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World War I Vets Finally Pen Memoirs

Posted on November 22, 2008 by moonbridgebooks

Imagine being over 100 years old. You are an antique, and a huge history tome. Two men from the United Kingdom, Harry Patch, age 110, and Henry Allingham, age 112, have produced memoirs in their extreme golden years. Patch’s book, The Last Fighting Tommy, is the stuff of legend: life in Edwardian England and survival through two world wars, fighting in the first and working the home front in the second. Allingham’s book, Kitchener’s Last Volunteer, though perhaps less spectacular, witnesses horse-drawn carriages making way for autos and then airplanes. During WWI Allingham worked in airplane maintenance, and flew patrols – an act of bravery in those early days of brand new flight technology. Perhaps Allingham has the most interesting background to his memoir, though…

According to the UK Telegraph article, Allingham was “discovered,” by David Goodman who founded the WWI Veteran’s Association. Allingham was “waiting to die” until Goodman persuaded him that his stories were important. Now Allingham has a purpose to live, traveling about giving talks to school kids, giving interviews, and being active in veterans remembrance programs. Patch and Allingham were everyday people going about their everyday lives. Amazing what is behind “everyday.”

For another look at WWI stories, take a look at Veterans: The Last Survivors of the Great War, by Richard van Emden – priceless! Did you know that Veterans Day, Nov 11, marks the anniversary of the end of WWI? Originally, “Armistice Day” honored WWI vets; as of 1954 it now honors all vets.

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
Posted in honoring veterans, war stories | Comments Off on World War I Vets Finally Pen Memoirs