I just had a totally amazing experience. I am taking a Life-Span Development Psychology class right now and our BIG assignment is that we have to interview a family member for about an hour and then write a paper about the interview and apply it to what we have learned in the class. I was stressing quite a bit about it because I have struggled in the class trying to retain a lot of the material and also finding useful ways to apply it. There are a lot of reason for why I am struggling (my grades are actually excellent in the class, I think it is more of a perception thing) but a lot of it has to do with the compact nature of the Spring Semester. There is a lot of information in a short period of time, and sometimes I have to let it absorb for a bit.
But continuing…
I decided to interview my Grandmother who is 83 years old. I ran the idea past the professor and he seemed to be excited about it because I was the only one in the class who chose to do a Senior Citizen.
So I just finished the interview, and I have to say that I am left with insights into my Grandmother’s life that I had never considered before. She really is/was a remarkable woman and in ways that I never would have imagined. So now I have to sit back and really reflect on the last 80 minutes that I spent asking her questions about her perception of her personality, the type of student she was, what she feels her legacy is and so on and let it sink in.
Sometimes I think that everybody has a story worth telling if youu can just get it out of them.
I had often wished that some of my great uncles/aunts and grandparents would have written their “Memoirs”. I had a grandfather who was a cop in Chicago during prohibition era, gangsters etc. Always had a cool stories and a different perspective. Another “great” uncle was a decorated soldier in WWI and met people like Charles Lindberg before his solo flight. He had an amazing memory and kept some journals. On a couple of occasions his journals were used to correct some “Historical” errors about a few WWI battles if my memory serves.
I’ve always had a great deal of respect for “elderly” individuals, particularly those that are “wise”.
My grandfather (her husband) was pretty incredible. He was a WWII vet who enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. He was a Staff Sergeant of intelligence under Patton. He also was a Golden Gloves boxer (The Elgin Giant) and then also did Sports reporting for a newspaper where he met my Grandmother.
Both of my grandparents were history buffs. In fact, my Grandmother has a Masters in History from St. Louis University. He always wanted to write a novel that was based on the concept that the South won the Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression as I suppose it would have been called!) I wish I would have taken the opportunity to chat with him like that.
I interviewed my paternal grandmother and grandfather for about two hours using high quality audio equipment (I was a radio journalist at the time); they were in their late 80’s at the time and lived into their early 90’s. They were both immigrants to the US back in the 1920’s; sent away by their parents to escape the Russian Revolution.
My grandfather used to ride river barges in the Russian winters and lit fires in the woods to keep the wolves away from the landings.
I gave a copy of the recording to my dad on his 70th birthday (two years ago last summer) and the whole family listened together; not a dry eye in the room.
My son had a similar assignment one time. He decided to interview my dad about his WWII experiences.
It was the first and last time I actually heard my father talk about his missions over Japan. If you ever saw Memphis Belle, the movie about the first plane to actually survive long enough to meet quota over Europe, you know what I am talking about. My father experienced everything shown in that movie. They don’t call it the Greatest Generation for no reason.
My father is gone now, but that interview is a treasured family memory.
It is a wonderful experience. My son had the opportunity to interview his great-grandmother when she was in her early 90’s. She was the oldest of a family of six children in Sweden at the turn of the century. Her mother died when she was 14 and the youngest child was 2. Anna emigrated to America on a steamship ALONE at the age of 15 to work as a servant for a family in America. She sent all her money home and the whole family eventually moved to Worcester where she raised the children and her Dad worked as a blacksmith in the iron foundries. They all actually came through Ellis Island. For Nana’s 90th birthday we had her families names put on the wall there.
This is my husbands family and they continue to this day to be the salt of the earth. I am glad my son got have that experience as it has truly given him a stronger understanding of his roots.