Post # 9 Our First Oral History Interview

 (Photo of a threshing crew @ work)

       Saturday August 25th we sat down with MH  and his wife to do our first oral history interview.    As I read History Of Jones County Iowa 1910 the best part of the book is the “stories” from people’s lives.  MH is a retired farmer, in his early 80’s, sharp as a tack,  he agreed to  sit down with us, let us bring our camcorder, a list of questions, and be our first “guinea pig”.  8:30 AM found us sitting in his living room doing our first interview.  Here are some of the stories he shared with us:

    The birth of the H  triplet’s (at home, before ultrasound) so everyone was expecting (1) baby/ not three…and what Grandma did with them as they were born.

     A house fire, home to widow and 5 children, making due in a railroad car until their new home was built.

     House concerts, barn dances, Lawrence  Welk and his band playing the local music circuit, and how the horse  would take you home (even if you fell asleep in the saddle) after a long night in town.

     What it was like during the depression when you were a little kid.

       Threshing crews, farming w/ horses, and attending Country School stories.

     What  I would like to do is include some of these accounts, and others (as we hopefully get to interview others) in my yet to be published book On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon .    The last time a local history book was updated (new material./ not just reprinted) was in 1910.  I’m thinking, it’s about time someone  captures these accounts in writing.   

    On a totally different note, I decided to submit this photo of an old stone house I took to a local photography contest. This is the first time I’ve submitted a  picture to photography contest.  Who knows, maybe I’ll win something! :-)

old-stone-house-south-of-worthington-001.gif     I titled the photo “Ravaged By The Tooth Of Time“   I wrote a piece on another blog about it here:

http://hearttoheart.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/tell-me-why-you-are-passionate-about-local-history-or-your-family-tree/

     I better wrap it up for now!   Sincerely, DM

Update as of 12/1/07

    Regarding the photo I submitted to Silos and Smokestacks…I won 3rd place in the Historical Category!  Look for it next year in some of their publications (maybe)

Published in: on August 26, 2007 at 2:11 pm

The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://onthetrailoflymandillon.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/post-9-our-first-oral-history-interview/trackback/

RSS feed for comments on this post.

One Comment Leave a comment.

  1. On August 27, 2007 at 10:52 pm fran snyder Said:

    I’d love to hear about the house concert mentioned in the MH interview. I run a website, concertsinyourhome.com, which is the most comprehensive source of house concert information on the net. It’s a vital trend that is keeping many talented artists alive.

    However, the history of house concerts is a bit sketchy. I’d love to hear what you learned from MH.

    Thanks!

    fran

Leave a Comment