More than half a million Americans have recorded StoryCorps interviews across the country. Often, participants use the opportunity to pass vital wisdom and stories from one generation to the next. That was the case in this StoryCorps recording from Norfolk, Virginia.

Charisse Spencer came to StoryCorps with her teenage son Myles to tell him what it was like growing up in the 1960s in Cavalier Manor, Virginia — at the time, one of the largest black suburbs in the country.

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Bottom Photo: Charisse Spencer (right) with her sister Carol in 1967. Courtesy of Charisse Spencer.

Originally aired April 27, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.