History an important part of life

One of the most important things I’ve ever received was a set of cassette tapes of my paternal grandmother talking about her family history. I sure wish I had my other three grandparents on tape as well.

My aunt sat her down at the kitchen table and recorded the sessions of her talking. You don’t hear questions or any of the conversation that went on in between takes, only a hint that there must have been a whole lot more to the session than was preserved on the final copy.

Hearing her laugh on the tape was special to me long before the long goodbye of Alzheimer’s took her from this Earth. I can close my eyes listening to that tape and still see her at a card table playing dominoes or at the dining table after a meal.

She was talking with her hands as the recording progressed. It wasn’t possible for her to talk, especially if she were telling a story, without those hands in motion. We always joked that the best way to keep her quiet would have been to tie her hands. As far as I know, no one ever tested that theory.

My generation and older, I believe, all got copies of those tapes. A few of those might not have known her too well and even fewer of the grandchildren had a real clear memory of our granddad. I hope some of the later generations have listened to the tapes but I’m not so sure they have.

She tells stories that got told over and over at gatherings and by individual families and she told stories that many of us had never heard.

We found out all the mistakes she says she made when granddad was courting her and she retold the story of the night they drove in from Arch to Portales to get married and after staying for a picture show after the ceremony got caught in a rainstorm that left them stranded in a flooded street on the edge of Portales on their wedding night.

She told us about getting in trouble for pulling up a peanut plant to demonstrate to a sibling that, indeed, peanuts did grow under the ground.

I’ve always intended to get busy myself interviewing family members in the same fashion using digital video. That hasn’t happened yet and now there very few left from my parents’ generation. A lot of stories and a lot of perspective have been lost already.

I know I’m not alone; most families out there have never taken the opportunity to preserve those stories in any way whatsoever. But that can change for those in the Portales area over the next month.

StoryCorps, a non-profit working with KENW-TV at Eastern New Mexico University, has set up shop near the Administration Building and is recording audio sessions of 40 minutes of conversations between two people on whatever subject they want.

When done you can get a copy of the session just for yourselves or, with your permission, StoryCorps can archive it in a special section of the Library of Congress for future generations.

What a special way to connect or reconnect with someone you care about. I’m personally hoping it will motivate me to do more toward preserving my family history.

To reserve a recording time, call 1-800-850-4406 or online at storycorps.org.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]