Article — Susan M. Cotton | Photography — Russell Walker
What is on your list of Nagging Unfinished Tasks (NUTs)? For years, one of my “NUTs” has been to record my parents’ and other family members’ stories and life history. Every time I listen to the “Story Corps” segment on NPR, I think to myself, “I really need to do that!” I even bought a tape recorder and lots of mini cassette tapes, but just never got around to actually sitting down and making the tape recordings.
While waiting at my son’s soccer practice one day last year, I casually asked one of the other mothers what she did for work (in addition to carting her sons back and forth to soccer), and she said she and a business partner owned Voices In Time, a service that records family members’ stories. I immediately wanted to know more and was so pleased that now I could perhaps accomplish one of my unfinished tasks. Courtney Holmes, the fellow soccer mom, and Lili Shank started collaborating about two years ago after they worked together for the same charitable group. Both women were looking for the next thing to do in their careers, and Lili came up with the idea of recording oral histories. Shank, as many people who are from the area know, was the anchor for KCTV 5 for 25 years. She always enjoyed the human interest stories the most, and despite her background in television, she realized that audio has some key advantages over video.
Both women believe in the power of the voice, with each having had inclinations in this regard at some point in their lives. Holmes, for instance, used to tape interviews of the children she babysat as a teenager. Shank made a project of interviewing all of the family members who had ever lived in her grandparents’ house when they were moving to capture all of the memories of the family home. For the person being interviewed, an audio recording makes them less nervous than being video-taped. After they start speaking, they tend to forget that they are even being recorded. For the listener, the imagination is engaged when listening to a loved one’s voice, with memories streaming back. The flexible format of a CD allows someone to listen to a recording while on the move, such as in the car or sitting in an airport.
The typical client of Voices in Time is a Baby Boomer who wants to capture his/her parents’ stories and history. These are the stories of what Tom Brokaw dubbed the “Greatest Generation,” individuals who were involved in or witnessed such seminal events as the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, etc. This generation endured many more hardships and a significantly different lifestyle than we do today, and unless these histories are recorded, they may be lost forever. The ladies find that the individuals they interview and record are energized by the process and feel validated that family members will know their stories.
With the demise of the handwritten letter and the prevalence of blogging rather than journaling, it is more imperative than ever to capture history before it is too late. I learned so many things that I had no inkling about when I listened to my mother’s recording done by Voices in Time. My husband was so happy to finally have the wonderful and funny stories he has heard his father tell over the years recorded and preserved for future generations. Once we started the process, the floodgates burst open. We heard even more stories spilling out and wished for more recordings.
When Voices in Time is engaged, Shank and Holmes essentially act as personal trainers, nudging people along to get the project accomplished. A typical package consists of three recording sessions, with preparation time beforehand. This includes the completion of a detailed biographical information sheet. Each session usually covers a certain stage in one’s life – childhood, their parents, young adulthood, marriage, raising a family, etc. By dividing it into life stages, it is not as overwhelming for the person being recorded. Unlike Story Corps, the Voices in Time facilitator handles all of the recordings, rather than a family member. This is because there tends to be a relationship barrier, whereby it can be difficult for a child to interview a parent, especially about potentially touchy subjects. With a neutral interviewer, the person has a new audience and tends to speak more openly about his/her life.
The interviews are usually done in person, but also can be performed over the phone using Skype, and everything is digitally recorded. The phone interviews really come in handy for relatives who live out of town. You can get the oral histories recorded without any travel. After the sessions are completed, Holmes and Shank edit all of the content, deleting the “ums” and “ahs” or pregnant pauses, moving content to put it in more chronological or meaningful order, or enhancing the sound and volume. The end result is a boxed CD set with a photo of the person interviewed on the cover. We gave the recordings we had done of my father-in-law as Christmas presents to all of the siblings. Additionally, we felt it was an invaluable gift to ourselves to have undertaken and completed this important project.
As both ladies often tell their potential clients, “Be a good ancestor,” by recording your family stories and history. If you don’t do it, who will?!
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