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Happy Holidays!

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on December 17, 2005, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

MobileBooth West facilitators were invited to the home of StoryCorps participants Lorelle Nelson and Lance Davis in Las Vegas for a holiday party. We sang carols around their beautiful Christmas tree.

Santa Claus tells his story to facilitator Sarah Kramer.

Posted by   December 17, 2005   No Comments

Old Nevada

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on December 10, 2005, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

On our way back from Red Rock Canyon, we stumbled upon a town that contrasted sharply with the bright new lights of Las Vegas. It was Bonnie Springs, named after the founder, Bonnie, a nonagenarian who welcomed us into her restaurant and saloon. Bonnie Springs is a town reminiscent of “Old Nevada,” and Ms. Bonnie hosts wild west parties, costumes included, at her lodge.

Posted by   December 10, 2005   No Comments

Red Rock Canyon

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on , from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Many out-door loving participants in Las Vegas told us to go see Red Rock Canyon. It was very beautiful, but facilitators have learned that the desert is not always hot.

Posted by   December 10, 2005   No Comments

Las Vegas youngsters know how to boogie

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on December 9, 2005, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

At The District, in Henderson, Nevada, where the StoryCorps mobilebooth is parked, facilitators were treated to a Holiday dance performance by junior dancers. This is the city of entertainment!

Posted by   December 9, 2005   No Comments

Houses, trailers, tents

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on , from Gulfport, Mississippi.

Even though so many of their neighborhoods look like this street in Biloxi, MS, most of the Mississipians we talk to are clear on one point: they will rebuild. But aside from waiting on endless lines to get the right paperwork and endless telephone calls to their insurance companies, one of the major challenges is figuring out where to live in the meantime.

While wandering around Biloxi, MS one day, we came upon a merry group of neighbors having a visit on the front porch of a tidy but gutted house. With help from volunteers, they were able to clear out the debris from their house, throwing nearly everything away save a bed frame and a dresser. They feel lucky that the structure remains intact. And though the porch remains suitible for afternoon chats, they are living in a FEMA trailer parked in their driveway.
Most people are living in FEMA trailers, small mobile homes from 13 feet long to 21 feet long (depending on the size of your family). Buddy, the affable security guard at the Prime Outlets mall where the booth is parked has been living with his roommate in an 18 foot trailer which, he says, "is getting smaller everyday." One woman we talked to was living in an 21 foot trailer with her husband and three teenage boys–all of whom are taller than she is.

We visited Tom and his sweet dog inside his FEMA trailer. Tom’s house was at the bottom of a dead end street. He rode the storm out in his house. When it was over, he found that nearly all of his neighbors possesions had wound up in his front yard. On the small table in his trailer are three or four handguns and twice that many watches along with other odds and ends he was able to salvage. He said that after the storm the end of his street was clogged with all sorts of debris, cars, boats–even some bodies.

Some people haven’t been able to get the FEMA trailers so they have resorted to living in tents. For most people, their property is all they have left–even if there is nothing on it. Many are still paying mortgages on houses that no longer exist.

Posted by   December 9, 2005   2 Comments

New York, New York

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on December 8, 2005, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

There’s a miniature Grand Central Terminal inside of the New York, New York casino on the Las Vegas Boulevard strip, but they forgot to include the StoryCorps booth! Pictured is MobileBooth West facilitator Sarah Kramer getting a little misty-eyed in front of the casino: after four months on the road, soon she will be parting with the mobile tour, returning to facilitate in NYC.

Posted by   December 8, 2005   No Comments

The Isle of Capri

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on December 5, 2005, from Gulfport, Mississippi.

We’re staying at the Isle of Capri Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, MS, one of the few hotels still standing along highway 90. It’s a odd privilege to be staying right in the middle of one of the hardest hit areas. Closed off to most of the public, we are required to go through a military checkpoint before driving up the empty highway to the Isle of Capri. On our left are battered hotels–the Beau Rivage, the Hard Rock Hotel, Casino Magic–on the right, where there used to be old ante-bellum houses and beachfront homes, are sets of stairs leading to piles of debris. It’s an eerie sight, the daily dose of which has become an important part of how we’re coming to understand this storm and it’s impact.

Above, is a view from Facilitator Nick Yulman’s hotel room. You can see across the highway what little is left of the neighborhood–a community of fisherman, mostly shrimpers, many Vietnamese–that once surrounded these hotels.

Because of off-shore gambling laws, the hotels built their casinos on large barges. The force of the hurricane took three of those barges (as big as hotels themselves) and carried them across the highway. The Isle of Capri’s casino disappeared without a trace. Above, you can see one of those barges being dismantled by wrecking crews.

The Isle of Capri, closed to the general public, is teeming with FEMA and EPA employees as well as builders, electricians, plumbers, and anyone else needed to renovate the damaged hotel in order to re-open later this month. One hotel employee, Rocco Asencio and his wife Terri came to the StoryBooth to talk about their hurricane experience.

Posted by   December 5, 2005   No Comments

A story in song

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on , from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mobilebooth facilitators were treated to a song by Lorraine Hunt and Dennis Bono, StoryCorps participants, at the Bootlegger Bistro in Las Vegas.

Posted by   December 5, 2005   No Comments

StoryCorps MobileBooth outside of Las Vegas

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on December 3, 2005, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The western MobileBooth is parked at The District in Henderson, Nevada. There’s more than gambling happening in Las Vegas!

Posted by   December 3, 2005   No Comments

Eliza kisses the western mobilebooth goodbye

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on December 2, 2005, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Eliza Bettinger, StoryCorps mobilebooth advance coordinator, hugs the west booth one last time, as she will work with the east booth in 2006.

Posted by   December 2, 2005   2 Comments

Gulfport, MS and Hurricane Katrina

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on December 1, 2005, from Gulfport, Mississippi.

We weren’t sure what to expect when we pulled into Gulfport, MS. Three months after Hurricane Katrina tore through the Mississippi Gulf Coast, destroying 90 miles of coastline, it was hard to imagine what kind of stop this would be for StoryCorps. Would people be ready to talk about their experiences? And if they were, would they be willing to find the time in their already upside down lives to come share their stories? Fortunately, it seems like there is a real desire among these Mississipians to put on the record exactly what happened here and how it’s changed their lives.

Mississippi Public Broadcasting has made it possible for us to set up in the parking lot of the Prime Outlets mall at the intersection of two major roads. It’s important that we are located in a place that is easy for people to access. Many of the roads are still closed and those that are still open are often without street signs or clogged with traffic. Above, highway 90, the major coastal highway, is completely closed.

While so much has changed on the Gulf, the sunsets are still beautiful. But even bathed in pink light, the bulldozer on the beach and the scattered remnants of a pier are reminders of how much has changed here.

Posted by   December 1, 2005   No Comments

Mobilebooth searches for an oasis

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on , from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The western mobilebooth passed through the Mojave desert en route to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Posted by   December 1, 2005   No Comments

Golden Gate Bridge

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on November 26, 2005, from San Francisco, California.

StoryCorps facilitator Karen DiMattia walked off Thanksgiving dinner down by the Golden Gate Bridge.

Posted by   November 26, 2005   No Comments

Gordo, AL: masks, miscellanea & moveable type

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on November 16, 2005, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

This morning we visited StoryCorps participant Glenn House and his wife Kathleen at their gallery and studio in Gordo, Alabama. It was once a Napa Auto Parts shop and they’ve kept the old sign up, simply painting over everything but "A-R-T" in the word "Parts". Among many other things, Glenn makes clay masks which he claims are self portraits. Above, he demonstrates the likeness.

Glenn’s mother ran a curious establishment in Gordo called Ma ‘Cille’s Museum of Miscellanea. A compulsive collector, she exhibited a variety of unusual things including taxidermist road-kill, a whiskey still operated by Manequins and a jar containing her chewed gum collection. Ma ‘Cille has passed and the museum is no more but Glenn still has remnants of his mother’s collection lying around his studio including these doll parts which she used to dig up.

Across the street is a building that Glenn and Kathleen are currently setting up to be a type-shop, paper making facility and community book arts center. Above Facilitator Nick Yulman receives a lesson on operating one of their antique letter presses.

Posted by   November 16, 2005   4 Comments

San Francisco booth locale

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on November 13, 2005, from San Francisco, California.

The mobilebooth is situated outside of Zeum, a non-profit and community-based museum that is creative fun for all ages. We’re right around the corner from the Yerba Buena Gardens, and next to a carousel!

Posted by   November 13, 2005   2 Comments

The Big Game

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on November 12, 2005, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

It quickly became clear that a stay in Tuscaloosa, AL wouldn’t be complete without a University of Alabama football game. Thanks to the generosity of Linda and David Ford, facilitators Maisie Tivnan and Nick Yulman found themselves in the end zone at one of Alabama’s biggest games of the year: the stand off between the Crimson Tide and Louisiana State University. Four hours and four hot dogs later, Alabama lost the game in overtime and we straggled out of the stadium with 60,000 other fans, exhausted, hoarse from all the screaming and a little bit deaf.

The tailgating celebrations offered as much entertainment as the game itself. After capturing the sounds of Alabama’s "Million Dollar Band" practicing on the quad before the game, facilitator Nick Yulman found some LSU fans to provide us with a colorful sampling of pre-game trash-talking.

Posted by   November 12, 2005   No Comments

Veteran’s Day

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on , from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Today, veterans of multiple generations came to the booth to talk about their experiences serving.

Alabama Public Radio’s Kathy Henslee, who arranged today’s interviews, talks with WWII vet John Henderson. John told the story of having his plane shot down and spending time in a POW camp.

Iraq War veteran Margaret Christie came in with her brother Les Minges, seen here holding her daughter, who was just three months old when she was deployed. Les has just finished officer training and will be soon head to the Middle East to join his sister’s former unit. In the booth, she gave him some advice about serving in Iraq and they reminisced about growing up in Alabama and Sierra Leon.

Posted by   November 12, 2005   No Comments

Hello California!

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on November 9, 2005, from San Francisco, California.

This picture was taken while driving across the bay bridge as the western mobilebooth pulled into San Francisco.

Posted by   November 9, 2005   No Comments

California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on November 8, 2005, from San Francisco, California.

Between Oregon and California, the booth made its way through snow-capped mountains.

Posted by   November 8, 2005   No Comments

Goodbye Oregon, we will miss you

Posted by webmaster@storycorps.net on , from Medford, Oregon.

Posted by   November 8, 2005   No Comments

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