Being Friends with StoryCorps

If I checked my blog email account more often, I could have given you a heads up about the StoryCorps National Day of Listening, which was in November. You should still check out the website, though, because they've put together some good information about interviewing and recording your friends and family.

One year my sister and brother-in-law transferred some taped family recordings to CD, and it was one of the best Christmas presents ever given in our family. The CD includes my brother singing the Star Wars theme (over and over and over) when he was about 4-years-old and my grandfather's Christmas message to my grandmother one year when they were apart and my mom singing some of the traditional putting-little-children-to-sleep songs for my brother's twins. It also includes one of my favorite recorded moments in family history. My sister (age 12) is trying to make me (age 2) say something stupid, and I refuse, so she finally tells me that I can say whatever I want. And what do I want to say? "Leave me alone" (pronounced ee me yown). I say it and then I sing it, just to make myself extra clear.

There's another recording somewhere that I don't think has been transferred to CD. My mom is interviewing my grandfather about his early life. My 4-year-old self is in the background caterwauling, and when my mom asks me to quiet up, I respond, "You're the one who's making me cry!" I was a real treat. I'm glad that precious moment's being preserved for posterity.