Often, a StoryCorps interview is just a starting point for other conversations. Forty minutes in the MobileBooth has a tendency to get the conversational juices flowing. Luckily, on September 6th, our Opening Day in Tacoma, WA at the Museum of Glass with our local radio station partner Northwest Public Radio, there were waterside surroundings, hor d’oeuvres, and people on hand to swap tales–inside and outside of the MobileBooth.

Opening Day in Tacoma at the Museum of Glass

Inside the Booth, Jack Creighton shared stories with Jimmy Collins of his years as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army (CASA). He recalls meeting with one soldier at Walter Reed Hospital. The young man was slated to lose his right leg, but, he said to Jack, “My left leg is gonna be ok.” Jack reflects, “He said that with maturity that just overwhelmed me. It was not ‘woe is me’–it was a very positive response, and really emotionally triggered me.”
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On August 21^st, StoryCorps kicked-off it’s two-week Historias Mobile Tour stop in Pasco, WA.  Historias is an initiative to record, preserve, and share the stories of Latinos across the US and has become one of the largest collections of Latino voices in the country. This was our second tour stop in Tri-Cities, following three weeks of recordings with Northwest Public Radio. For our two week Historias set of interviews, we partnered with Radio La Campesina 96.3 FM (this is the first time we partner with a Spanish Language radio station during our MobileTour) and the Pasco Public Library continued to be our site host.

StoryCorps and Radio Campesina Community Celebration outside the Pasco Library

Felipe Tapia and his wife, Cody Mains-Tapia, came during Opening Week to share the story of how they met. Felipe was born in Mexico City, and though he had fond memories that brought a smile to his face, he talked about having a very difficult childhood, surrounded by violence, and learning to fight and defend himself at an early age.

Yearning for a change in his life, he looked towards a new horizon and came to the U.S to join his mother. During his interview, Felipe talked about how, soon after coming here, he discovered that it was not quite the ”paradise” his mother would speak of.  He had to work in the fields and that, along with the language barrier made for a challenging transition. He needed an escape  from his newfound struggles, and found it in dancing. As it happened,  it was during one of these outings that Felipe’s life took a turn, and her name was Cody.

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For three weeks this summer, since Opening Day on August 4 which marked our first day of interviews, StoryCorps’ West Mobile Booth has recorded stories in Tri-Cities, WA, in partnership with Northwest Public Radio. Our recording Booth was stationed in front of the Pasco branch of the Mid-Columbia Libraries and residents of the three neighboring cities, Pasco, Kennewick and Richland, as well as of nearby communities came to share their personal stories. Many people talked about growing up in the area and reflected on the growth and changes they’ve seen it undergo. Others have shared stories of how they found their way to the Columbia Basin and have since come to call this place home.

MobileBooth West in Pasco, WA

During Opening Week, Sheri Solomon  came to our Mobile Booth with her mother, Lola Yale. Lola has lived in 21 different places since first leaving her home near Walla Walla, WA, and finally settled in Kennewick. She told the story of going on a family trip with her seven children before they lived in the Tri-Cities and having to stop in Kennewick to get gas.
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This July, people from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and nearby communities came to StoryCorps’ MobileBooth to record their stories and conversations.

We’ve heard from children and elders, cowboys, cowgirls, and ranchers, firemen, teachers, and writers. We’ve heard stories about corralling wild horses and picking huckleberries, stories of journeys and of coming home, of struggles and reconciliation.

HERE ARE YOUR PHOTOS: Feel free to visit StoryCorps’ Flickr album to download and print your portrait, or email your link to anyone you’d like.

Some of these stories will be aired on KWSO, and all will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

From the StoryCorps team: THANK YOU!  It has been a pleasure and an honor to hear your stories.

A special thanks goes to our hosts, KWSO and the Warm Springs Fire and Safety Department, as well as our community partners, the Art Adventure Gallery, the Des Chutes County Historical Society, the Jefferson County Historical Society, the Jefferson County Library, Kah-Nee-Ta Resort and Casino, the Latino Community Association, Madras High School, Madras Senior Center, the Tribal Youth Program, the Warm Springs Community Action Team, and the Warm Springs Senior Center.

On July 8^th, StoryCorps began a new year of the Mobile Tour with its Opening Day in Warm Springs, OR–its first stop on a Native American reservation. The reservation, created in an 1855 treaty, is a confederation of the Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute tribes (the latter joined the confederation 1879). In Warm Springs, we partnered with KWSO 91.9 FM Warm Springs Radio, the tribal radio station, with the Warm Springs Fire and Safety Department as our site host. Between fighting range and structure fires, the cadets and firemen and women would often stop by to check out the MobileBooth.

On Opening Day, Sylvester “Sal” Sahme, Director of Business and Economic Development for the tribes, spoke to his friend Adam Haas. He described having two educations: a formal, “white man’s” education, and a cultural “Indian” education.

During his interview, Sal told Adam that he didn’t learn anything at all about his own history until he went to college at the University of Minnesota–his coursework and political activism there inspired him to research the past of his people, and to ask his elders about their history and their religion, the Washat. He said of his religion, and its parameters of behavior: “A lot of that is almost intrinsic. It’s a given that you’re going to grow up with it and be surrounded by it, but there’s no formal process of educating you in it because you’re immersed in the society and the culture…But it wasn’t until Minnesota that I got to really learn about some things that distinctly affect not only me personally, but our people.”
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Aloha! For the past five weeks, StoryCorps facilitators have been traveling from Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island to record the stories of Hawaiians! Sadly, we couldn’t bring our Airstream with us across the Pacific, but with the help of Hawaii Public Radio, we were able to record at partner sites on each of the islands: Mission Houses Museum in Honolulu, Maui Economic Opportunities in Wailuku, Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center in Lihue, and the County of Hawaii in Kailua Kona.

Hawaii was also a little bittersweet for those of us facilitating: It was my and my co-workers’ last stop on our Mobile Tour. We’ve all been on the road for a year going from state to state to record your stories. Traveling from island to island in Hawaii we heard uniquely Hawaiian stories from kupuna, taro farmers, ukulele musicians, surfers, cowboys, and coffee farmers. We also heard from grandparents, parents, teachers, and mentors – the kinds of stories we’ve heard from Fargo to Pennsylvania and Birmingham to Los Angeles.

So thank you to those of you we met in Hawaii and thank you to everyone we’ve met this year! You all make our job worth doing. Aloha a hui hou! Until we meet again!

Along with a great month of recording at the MobileBooth in Waco, TX, Team Mobile West also worked with local leaders to organize a field recording with McLennan Community College, a cornerstone of the local community that has been serving the Waco area for more than 40 years.

We were joined by Santos Martinez, Vice President of Student Services at the College. He interviewed Irma Lopez, a friend and student at McLennan. Read the rest of this entry »

Excited participants frequently ask us what kind of stories people tell in the StoryCorps MobileBooth. As Facilitators, it’s difficult to identify specific themes because we hear all kinds of stories on a wide variety of topics. In Waco, TX, however, I heard quite a few stories about love and first meetings.

Ruben and Rachel Salazar, Waco, TX

Ruben Paul Salazar, 39, met Rachel P. Salazar, 43, online, but in a very unusual way. On January 10, 2007, Ruben was at work checking his email.  He noticed a message from someone he did not recognize and realized that he had been included in a chain of emails that were meant for someone else. Looking closely, noticed that the intended recipient, Rachel P. Salazar in Thailand, had an email address that, except for two digits,  was almost identical to his.  He forwarded this email it to its appropriate recipient and added a cheerful message:

“Hi Rachel. Hola prima, hello cousin! It seems as if this message came to me instead of you. I’m in Waco, TX, USA. It’s good to hear biodiversity is such an important topic around the world. Have a great day! -Ruben P. Salazar, Chicano, cyclist commuter, community artist. P.S. How’s the weather in Bangkok.?”

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StoryCorps opened in Oklahoma City to a windy autumn morning in front of the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. Oklahomans welcomed us warmly even though the weather kept it a little chilly in the Booth.

Mary Sosa and her daughter Stephanie Armstrong came to the MobileBooth through our partnership with the Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma, an organization that helps develop active communities through leadership training and grant assistance. Stephanie was most interested to find out what her mom was like before she became the president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association: “Were you a troublemaker as a child?”

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We had a StoryCorps first during our MobileBooth stop in Fargo, North Dakota:  a MobileBooth made out of cheese!

The StoryCorps MobileBooth in cheese form.

Who knew such awesomeness was possible?!?!!

The “Cheese MobileBooth” was made by Prairie Public Radio’s Bill Thomas for our listening event and reception and added to the celebration of StoryCorps’ time in Fargo.  We almost didn’t want to eat the booth…but, of course, we did and it was delicious!

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