Carol Miller and Marge Klindera
Marge Klindera spent decades teaching home economics to Illinois middle and high school students. As she was transitioning into retirement, she began looking for other ways to share her years of knowledge and experience. In 1983, she began working at a seasonal call center—answering questions from those needing last-minute information on cooking a turkey.
Each Thanksgiving, for more than 30 years, Butterball has run their Turkey Talk-Line. Operating from October to December, trained professionals like Marge answer thousands of turkey-related questions from home cooks across the United States and Canada.
At StoryCorps, Marge (pictured above right), 79, sat down with her longtime coworker, Carol Miller (pictured above left), 68, to remember some of the best callers they have had, as well as some of the best advice they have dished out.
Originally aired November 27, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
StoryCorps 448: Something To Be Thankful For
In this podcast, we hear about three Thanksgiving traditions: feeding strangers, feeding neighbors, and listening to the ones you love.
The first story is from Scott Macaulay, who every Thanksgiving cooks dinner for strangers in his hometown of Melrose, Massachusetts. At StoryCorps, Scott (seen at left), explains how he invites people to his holiday dinner and how a tradition that began with him feeding a dozen people back in 1985 became a meal for close to a hundred diners.
Next, we hear from Herman Travis, another man going above and beyond to make sure people in his community have food. Herman, 55, lives in Holly Courts, a low-income housing complex in San Francisco. Every Tuesday he fills a shopping cart with groceries from a local food bank and makes home deliveries to his elderly and disabled neighbors.
Herman is especially busy around the holidays, sometimes making three or four trips in a single day. He came to StoryCorps with his neighbor, Robert Cochran (seen above right with Herman), who happens to be one of the recipients of Herman’s deliveries.
If you listen to our podcast regularly, you’ve heard us talk about the Great Thanksgiving Listen. This holiday season we are asking history and social studies teachers across the country to have their students use the StoryCorps app to record a conversation with a grandparent or another elder over the coming holiday weekend. Our dream is to have an entire generation of Americans honored in this way by having their stories and voices preserved at the Library of Congress.
Already many thousands of interviews have been recorded, and our final story proves that a great app interview can be conducted almost anywhere. Kara Masteller, 21, interviewed her grandfather, James Kennicott, 86, while sitting in the front seat of her 1994 Buick while parked outside a mall in Waterloo, Iowa (they took the selfie at left after their recording ended).
Their 16-minute long interview begins simply with Kara saying to her grandfather; “Tell me about yourself, where did you grow up?” and then they proceed to discuss his upbringing, work, Alzheimer’s disease, and their family.
It was precious time together that, according to Kara, led to more discussions between them about family and life after the recording stopped. Exactly what Thanksgiving should be about.
Click here for more information about the Great Thanksgiving Listen.
Click here to download the app.
Like the music in this episode? Support the artists:
“Sonstiges” by Podington Bear from the album Backbeat
“Send Off” by Explosions in the Sky & David Wingo from the album Prince Avalanche: An Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Andy Downs and Angelia Sheer
On Oct 4, 1971, George Giffe, a 35-year-old Tennessee man suffering from mental illness, hijacked a charter plane at gunpoint from the Nashville airport. He also claimed to be in possession of a bomb.
Running low on fuel, the plane’s pilot landed in Jacksonville, FL, where the FBI was waiting. After a brief standoff, Giffe killed the two hostages who remained onboard before turning the gun on himself.
One of the two was Brent Downs—the pilot of the plane.
At StoryCorps, Brent’s son Andy (pictured above with his mother Janie and his father) spoke with Angelia Sheer, the daughter of the man who killed his father.
This tragedy helped shape the way in which law enforcement subsequently handled hijackings after a federal appeals court ruled in 1975 that the FBI acted negligently when agents ignored the safety of the people onboard (the plane is pictured above sitting on the tarmac in Jacksonville, FL).
Originally aired October 2, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Photos courtesy of Andy Downs.
Tom Howard and Bill O’Hara
For 167 years at the Chicago Board of Trade Building, you could find traders in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Futures Pits jockeying for position and shouting orders for wheat, cattle, and corn.
But on July 6, 2015, that way of doing business came to an end when the Futures Pits closed for good.
Many young men from nearby working-class neighborhoods found their way into the financial industry at the Board of Trade.
Tom Howard (left) and Bill O’Hara (right) both worked as traders there, and recently came to StoryCorps to remember how they got started.
Originally aired July 6, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Jeff Wilson and Tammie Baird
When Jeff Wilson heard this StoryCorps conversation about a car accident, it brought back bad memories.
In 1984, Jeff was driving to high school when the sun got in his eyes and he struck another student as she was crossing the street.
Jeff told that story in an online comment, and we suggested that he sit down with Tammie Baird, the person he hit 30 years ago.
So they came to a StoryCorps booth and sat face-to-face for the first time since high school.
Originally aired March 27, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Daniel Wheeler and Erik Galvan
Lance Corporal Erik Galvan (right) was 19 when he deployed to Afghanistan in 2011.
Three months into his deployment, he was walking ahead of his squad looking for improvised explosive devices when they approached an ominous wooded area.
His squad leader, Sgt. Daniel Wheeler (left), was several feet behind him when he ordered Galvan to proceed.
They sat down for a StoryCorps conversation about the day that war tore their friendship apart.
Originally aired March 7, 2015, on NPR’s Weekend Edition.
Kevin Briggs and Kevin Berthia
In March of 2005, Kevin Berthia (pictured above right) was going through a tough time.
His daughter was born premature the year before and medical costs for her care climbed to nearly $250,000.
He couldn’t see a way out of debt, so he fell into a deep depression and decided to end his life at the Golden Gate Bridge.
That’s where he met retired California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Briggs, who intervened and talked him down.
They spoke about that day at StoryCorps in San Francisco.
Originally aired March 6, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Photo courtesy of Jon Storey, San Francisco Chronicle.
Noah McQueen and Barack Obama
Just a few years ago, 18-year-old Noah McQueen was struggling in school, had been arrested multiple times, and spent time in juvenile detention. But today he is a mentee at the White House and part of My Brother’s Keeper, a White House initiative for young men of color.
Noah recently had the chance to record a StoryCorps interview with President Barack Obama, who wanted to know more about Noah’s life.
Originally aired February 25, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Mussarut Jabeen and Yusor Abu-Salha
In May 2014, Yusor Abu-Salha (right)–one of the victims of the February 10, 2015 shooting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina–recorded a StoryCorps interview with Mussarut Jabeen (left), who was her third-grade teacher.
In fact, all three of the victims–Yusor, her husband, Deah Barakat, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha–attended Jabeen’s school.
Mussarut Jabeen returned recently to talk about Yusor’s death.
Originally aired February 13, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Shane Fairchild and Sayer Johnson
Shane Fairchild (above left), a transgender man, lived with his wife, Blue Bauer, a transgender woman (pictured at left), for almost six years.
Blue transitioned when she was 54 years old. She and Shane met at a bar and were inseparable. But then Blue got lung cancer. She died on April 12, 2013.
Shane sat down with their friend, Sayer Johnson (top right), to remember Blue.
Originally aired January 25, 2015, on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday.