StoryCorps records America

By Todd Moning
FMCA.com editor

Motorhomers' mobile lifestyle and unique experiences make them ideal participants for StoryCorps (pronounced "story core"), an oral history project traveling the country.

StoryCorps gives family and friends a chance to ask one another about their lives. In small, soundproof booths that record broadcast quality sound, people can interview anyone whose story they want to hear and preserve.

The interviews are archived, with participants’ permission, at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

The first StoryBooths opened in New York City's Grand Central Terminal on Oct. 23, 2003. Two traveling MobileBooths started cross-country journeys on May 19, 2005, and continue in 2006.

Listen in …
Since 2003, thousands have taken part in StoryCorps, opening a window into their lives. Listen to a sampling of interviews at the StoryCorps Web site, http://storycorps.net. The interviews are also broadcast weekly, each Friday, on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

The nature of the samples run the gamut from sad and heartbreaking to funny, insightful and inspiring. The sound bytes run only a minute or two yet can have a profound effect.

Even when the memory being described happened 50 years ago, the tone of the voices and astuteness to detail imbues the conversations with a poignancy that evokes smiles, even tears, in not only the listener but the interview participants.

This is your life
If you think you have nothing to say or your stories aren't worth hearing, think again. The stories of ordinary Americans can be extraordinary.

Examples of StoryCorps conversations:

• A 12-year-old boy asks his grandfather, “What was the saddest moment of your life?”
• A World War II veteran tells his son-in-law about a young German soldier he killed in combat, a soldier that still haunts his dreams.
• An adopted son, age 28, interviews his mother who gave him up for adoption.
• A 96-year-old man tells his granddaughter how he met his wife.
• Parents remember their son who was killed in the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001.
• A father describes to his daughter what it was like being a chaplain at war in Vietnam.
• A woman tells her friend about her father, an Auschwitz survivor.
• A father tells his two daughters about the day he obtained the autographs of the 1943 World Champion New York Yankees.
• A mother tells her daughter about the best gift she ever received — an ice-skating outfit for Barbie, made by her mother.
• An aunt asks her 11-year-old nephew, “What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?”
• Two men who spent their childhood together in a psychiatric hospital reunite after 40 years.
• A sister asks her younger sister, "What is your memory of the most afraid you've ever been?"

Easy process
StoryCorps interviews are designed to be natural conversations, so the recording should be unscripted. It’s a chance to ask the questions that never get asked because the occasion never arises.

Trained facilitators handle all technical aspects and help with questions to ask. Questions that have produced good stories include:

• What have you learned in life?
• What are you most proud of?
• Do you have any regrets?
• What was the happiest moment of your life?
• How would you like to be remembered?

At the end of the hour-long session, participants receive a copy of the interview. Suggested donation: $10. Excerpts, with consent of the participants, are broadcast on the StoryBooths’ partner public radio stations.

StoryCorps is planned to be a multi-year project intended to reach as many towns as possible. MobileBooth East and MobileBooth West are traveling the eastern and western United States, respectively.

To learn more about finding a StoryCorps location and how to participate, send an e-mail to feedback@storycorps.net or call (800) 850-4406.

StoryCorps
http://storycorps.net