Last week was my second ever in Kentucky, and what better way to usher it in than a morning spent traversing meandering mountain roads for a day of recording at the Hindman Settlement School.

Upon arrival in Hindman, we were greeted with an infectious smile by Randy Wilson, Director of the Settlement’s Folk Arts Education Program and one member of a long-serving staff that works tirelessly to serve the changing needs of the Appalachian community. Randy was accompanied by his 90 year old mother, Shirley, with whom he recorded our second interview of the day.

Established in 1902 by a pair of determined young female visionaries, the Hindman Settlement School was the first of its kind in the country: a boarding school for mountain students whose rural lifestyles didn’t include easy access to education, healthcare, and social services. The Settlement quickly became a model institution, an all-purpose bastion of regional culture dedicated in equal parts to preservation and innovation.
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During our Mobile Stop in Wilmington, North Carolina husband and wife JoAnn and Irving Fogler came and reminisced about their little bookstore, The Bookery.

JoAnn told what she calls “The Bible with the Wide Margins” story:  A customer came to return a Bible for not having wide enough margins. JoAnn told him “I can see the margins are a little too small, you give me this back and I’ll send for it personally.” When he came back a week or two later JoAnn presented the Bible to him by opening the book slowly, letting the pages fan out in a grand way. She said, “See, these margins are wide, they are so wide the company said it is going to go into the Guinness Book of Records!” The customer was very pleased and every time he came by the bookstore he would remark, “This is a bookstore that really follows through.” JoAnn explains, sometimes it is not what you say but how you say it.  He never realized that JoAnn had presented him with the same bible he had returned!
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Nancy and Joe Stoner in Wilmington, North Carolina

Nancy and Joe Stoner came into the Mobile East Booth in Wilmington, NC to talk about their work with Carolina Canines, an organization that trains dogs and their owners to volunteer in the community. Nancy and Joe have trained four therapy dogs in the last ten years. Throughout their conversation, Nancy and Joe’s love for their dogs and passion for their work filled the Booth.

In addition to taking their dogs into hospitals and hospice centers, Nancy and Joe have been active in the Paws for Reading program. The second graders that Nancy and Joe work with are called out of regular classes to spend special time in the school library, where they read out loud-not to a teacher or school librarian, but to a dog! Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings from Macon, GA!  Our first week here we had the opportunity to not only listen to stories in the Booth but share some of our favorite StoryCorps broadcasts with the community.  The night before our opening day, our public radio partner, Georgia Public Broadcasting, (GPB) hosted a reception and listening event. GPB’s President Teya Ryan and Vice President of Radio Jon Hoban were there to welcome us to town along with the Macon Arts Alliance, our host for the evening and neighbor to the Booth! About 80 people joined us for the event and were eager to hear more about StoryCorps, about what exactly happens during an interview, and what it’s like to be on the road with our Airstream. It was a great chance to meet community members before we even started recording!

On opening day Alan Walden came for an interview with his daughter Jessica. Phil, Alan’s brother, was Otis Redding’s friend and former manager. Alan later became Otis’s manager when Phil unexpectedly had to ship out for the army for two years. When Phil came back he, Alan, and Otis founded Redwal Records together. Even though Alan stopped managing for Otis, the two remained close. When Otis moved to Round Oak, Georgia, Alan moved in right next door: “He taught me to write songs, and I taught him how to fish and how to hunt and how to ride horses in particular. We had a ball in our years.” Read the rest of this entry »

Being parked outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) gives Mobile East a great view of two landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement: Kelly Ingram Park across the street and the 16th Street Baptist Church down the block. In the midst of all this history, we also have the pleasure of partnering with BCRI to invite members of Birmingham’s African-American community to record their stories.

Jomo and Asha Xulu were our first participants from BCRI. Asha jumped right in given the chance to ask her husband about anything in his life. She was most curious about his childhood growing up in South Africa: “You never talk about it!” Read the rest of this entry »

For the last four weeks, StoryCorps’ East MobileBooth was in Bellefonte, a charming Victorian town of 7,000 in Central Pennsylvania. We had local historians, music instructors, local farmers, and even members of Bellefonte’s Borough Council come and share their stories. In fact, thanks to the wide geographic reach of our local radio partner, WPSU, we enjoyed having participants from all parts of the region.

Two of these participants are sisters Jessica Welch and Jennifer Theiss. Last week, they came into our booth to honor the life of their father, former State College Mayor William Welch, who passed away on September 4th, 2009. Mr. Welch was Mayor from 1994 until his death, winning his last re-election in 2007.  Before being Mayor, he served four years as a State College councilman. He was a graduate of Penn State University and lived most of his life in the area.

Jessica Welch and Jennifer Theiss, holding their father's self-portrait

Ms. Welch and Mrs. Theiss did not come to honor their father’s career in public service. They came to remember him as a family man with baby blue eyes, suspenders, and a Panama hat. Mr. Welch was an avid reader who took great pride in being perceived as intelligent. He was a friendly neighbor to Mrs. Theiss’s family. He was a devoted football fan (some of Ms. Welch’s most cherished memories are of watching football on her dad’s couch). And he was a very, very devoted – and well-dressed – stamp collector. When Mrs. Theiss was fourteen years old, he took her to a philately convention in Reno. Just a few years ago, accompanied by Ms. Welch, he attended an international convention in Colombia, where his collection received an award that Mr. Welch displayed proudly in his home.

Perhaps the thing Mr. Welch’s daughters remember him most for is his positivity. Mr. Welch’s kidneys failed sixteen years ago, and Ms. Welch donated one of her kidneys to save his life. His health continued to deteriorate over time, but, according to his daughters, he maintained an unwavering optimism. “I never heard him complain once,” said Mrs. Theiss.

In honor their father, the sisters planned to stay home and watch Penn State’s college football season opener, just like their father would have done.

After our last stop in Chicago, StoryCorps’ East MobileBooth arrived in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We set up shop right next to the Allen County Public Library in downtown Fort Wayne, where we will record nearly one hundred stories. We have been fortunate to work with our host Northeast Indiana Public Radio and with over ten local organizations to bring in participants from all over Northeast Indiana. As always, the stories recorded have been incredibly diverse, from giving birth to twins in a field to finding love at an old age, and to leaving and returning to the Midwest.

Fort Wayne residents visit the MobileBooth on Opening Day

One of the stories that I have personally had the pleasure of facilitating is that of Don Derrow, who came in with his son Stuart to share his experience in the military. Mr. Derrow served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1951 to 1954. Unlike many of his peers, Mr. Derrow was not deployed to Korea. Instead, Mr. Derrow was sent to Europe, and after a three-month stay there, he was given a far more unique assignment: he was among the Marines who participated in Operation Tumbler-Snapper, an atomic bomb test that took place in the Nevada Proving Grounds in the Spring of 1952.

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Sometimes a curious passerby will come to the MobileBooth and ask, “Are you having storytime for kids?”  To clarify, the Facilitator will explain StoryCorps’ mission.

Occasionally though, a parent comes in to record a conversation with a child and it does seem like Mobile Booth East is hosting “story time” for a young audience. In Chicago, Cesareo Moreno, chief curator at the National Museum of Mexican Art, came to the booth with his son, Cesareo Diego Moreno, to share a family story about the man they are both named after.

Cesareo Diego Moreno & his father Cesareo Moreno

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As part of our Historias initiative, StoryCorps’ MobileBooth East is currently recording the stories of Latinos and Latinas in the city of Chicago. As usual, we’ve been treated to a wide range of great narratives, from immigration stories to tales of romance. However, one story has been truly one of its kind. As a participant in both our Historias and September 11^th Initiatives, Michael Doyle, a blogger and mass transportation advocate, came to share his 9/11 experience, an experience that eventually brought him to Chicago.

Michael Doyle shared his 9/11 story at our MobileBooth in Chicago.

Born and raised in Queens, Michael never envisioned living anywhere but New York. He grew up loving the bustle and can-do attitude of his hometown, never cared to learn to drive, and as an adult felt he could never feel at home elsewhere. The traumatic events of September 11, 2001 changed that.

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Erica Fowler, right, and her sister Melissa

Erica set the scene in the present tense: “You can smell the popcorn and hear the people yelling” she told Melissa, and they laughed. “Soccer moms have nothing on soapbox parents,” they explained to me.

Erica remembers feeling nervous, even though she had won the previous race. If she lost this one, she could still beat her opponent by the time. The winner was to be decided by the differential. She zoomed down her lane. In the blink of an eye, it was all over. No one yelled or cheered.

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