“I’ve got those blue ridge mountain blues/and I’ll stand right here to say/my grip is packed to travel and I’m scratching gravel/for the blue ridge far away.”
-Earl Scruggs, “Blue Ridge Mountain Blues”
Posts from the East MobileBooth while in Roanoke, Virginia
Posted by Nina on October 24, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Two Clowns Walk Into A Doctor’s Office….
Posted by Jeremy on October 24, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month was founded in October of 1985 with the mission of increasing awareness of breast cancer issues. Eighty five percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease so early detection is one of the most important contributors to survival until the cure is found. On October 3, 2008 I met two breast cancer survivors; Sharon Rapoport, who survived her own diagnosis, and her husband John Anderson who has seen four women in his life fight to survive the disease. Sharon, John’s younger sister Mary, Caryl, a close family friend, and John’s mother Ann were all diagnosed with breast cancer. Of these four, John’s mother was the only one to die from the disease, but she didn’t go with out a fight.
Posted by Nina on October 24, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Icons of the world: the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, the Sphynx, Machu Picchu, the good, old leaning Tower of Pisa, the H&C Coffee Cup…
Posted by Jeremy on October 22, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
I’ve never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.
- Virgil Thomson
While the music scene in Roanoke may not be as visible as the scenes in other southern cities, like Athens, GA or Austin, TX, it is, for the inquisitive music lover, a rewarding discovery. One day, after checking out a matinee at the Grandin Theatre just outside of downtown Roanoke I found my guide sitting next to the popcorn machine. Peter Evans works at the theatre but he is also part of the Magic Twig Community, a homegrown arts collective that includes bands and side projects like Boys Lie, The Missionaries, Rootstone Jug Band, The Sad Cobras and Turbo P, and visual artists, Kelly Queener and Indianface. With the indie trifecta of the Plan 9 Records store, the Mystic Fortress rehearsal studio and the Water Heater art and performance venue, the Magic Twig Community might just put the Star City on the map as the next new music mecca.
I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
Posted by Nina on October 21, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Community Partners: O. Winston Link Museum
“Not one in a million Americans ever again will ride a scheduled mainline passenger train behind a live and breathing steam locomotive. That time is gone. “
- liner notes from The Fading Giant
It’s impossible to ignore the train in Roanoke, the nightly screech of freight trains edging through town, the whistles that pierce the city’s hum throughout the day. Each morning, Whitney and I run across a bridge and peer down on the train tracks below, hundreds of boxcars full of coal form a line clear to the horizon. There hasn’t been a single morning when one of us hasn’t commented on the sight.
Bill Arnold was born 50 feet from the tracks.
From left to right: Kim Parker, Bill Arnold, Ellen Arnold
Posted by Jeremy on October 16, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Community Partners: Refugee and Immigration Services
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
- Lyndon B. Johnson
The people known as the Somali Bantu have endured centuries of discrimination and violence, and during the recent war in Somalia, the Bantu were again the victims of violence in that country. Of the roughly 20,000 Somali Bantu refugees in Africa and Yemen, some 5,000 found refuge in Tanzania. In 1999, the United States Government offered the remaining 12,000 Somali Bantu refugees in Kenya the protection they had been seeking for over 10 years. The refugees are being settled in over 50 cities in 38 states. Many of those refugees have made their way to Roanoke, Virginia. MobileEast had the pleasure of recording conversations between Rahmo Isse and her mother Rukia Hussein, who are both Somali Bantu, and Saadiya Guhad and her sister Faduma who are Somali.
Posted by Nina on October 16, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
One of my favorite parts of working as a facilitator is learning about what other people do for a living. Janitors and teachers, lawyers and railway workers, preachers, salesmen, farmers, I have listened to the tales of just about every profession it seems, but I have never encountered quite the enthusiasm and passion that Leah Gardner, Volunteer & Education Coordinator for the O.Winston Link Museum expressed for her job. Leah and her co-worker and friend, Allison Hasson dropped by the booth recently to talk about their work within the community.
Posted by Jeremy on October 16, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Community Partners: Richfield Retirement Community
I believe the true function of age is memory. I’m recording as fast as I can.
- Rita Mae Brown
On October 8, MobileBooth East completed our first Door-to-Door recording in Salem, Virginia at the Richfield Retirement Community. We learned very quickly about the hard work the Door-to-Door team does on a regular basis and realized the challenges and rewards of taking the StoryCorps experience to people’s doorsteps. We met wonderful folks and recorded stories that were funny, poignant, and heartwarming. We heard the story of Eileen Dunnavent, who worked in a factory to support her two children. We listened to Erna Isler recall her days as an artist in Mexico, and we relived a moment with Dora Leigh and Dwaine Russell when they had their first conversation on a friend’s front porch. The European travels of Nancy Mutter, a.k.a. “The Countess of Sower, Virginia” made for quite a few amusing tales, and Elinor Bradford’s account of how Mole Hill got turned into a mountain had Nina howling with laughter!
We’d like to thank the staff of Richfield Retirement Community for making us feel so welcome and for caring enough to preserve the memories of their residents.
Posted by Nina on October 15, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is divided by the railroad. Tracks cut through the city separating the neighborhood of Gainsboro from the downtown area. During segregation, the railroad tracks served as more than just a means to transport goods but as an unofficial border between black and white citizens of Roanoke.
Gainsboro, the historically African American neighborhood lies just across the tracks from the Virginia Museum of Transportation where the MobileBooth is parked. The Henry Street Bridge, located one block away from the MobileBooth, used to be the only way for anyone to cross the tracks from Gainsboro into downtown Roanoke. “We had to be back over the bridge at about six o’clock in the evening,” said participant Dr. Perneller Chubb-Wilson.
Posted by Whitney on October 14, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
One of our many wise participants once told me, “Who you love is your family”.
It was an honor for me to facilitate an interview between two beautiful women who aren’t related to me by blood, but I certainly call family. Maggie Benedette-Smith and Jann Foley came in to celebrate National Midwife Week (October 7 - October 13). I learned that midwifery has always existed in the United States, but was legitimized in the 1920s by Mary Breckenridge, founder of the Frontier Nursing Service. Breckenridge and her staff traveled on horseback or foot to women’s homes over a 700 mile radius in rural Kentucky and dramatically lowered both infant and maternal mortality rates. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jeremy on October 14, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
All those beautiful powerful words, they were you!
- Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac
The Mill Mountain Players are a theatrical touring program launched in 1999 as a solution for educators in and around Roanoke, Virginia who wanted to expose their students to the theatre-going experience. In addition to serving area schools, the Players perform across the Commonwealth, enabling Mill Mountain Theatre to extend its reach and deepen its artistic and educational impact. Three of the Players - Justin Johnson, Allison Nock, and Michael Stablein - are currently performing their own special version of Cyrano de Bergerac, the classic play written by poet Edmond Rostand.
Posted by Jeremy on October 13, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
The truth is that it is natural, as well as necessary, for every man to be a vagabond occasionally.
- Samuel H. Hammond
Tramps, rogues, and hobos. These are just a few of the names given to people whose lives are characterized by almost continuous traveling. While the term “vagabond” originates as a legal reference to vagrancy, it began to take on different meaning in the 19th century when it became more closely associated with Bohemianism. The critic Arthur Compton-Rickett defined the type as men “with a vagrant strain in the blood, a natural inquisitiveness about the world beyond their doors.”
Posted by Jeremy on October 7, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Poor houses, or poor farms, were county or town-run residences where people without means were supported at public expense. They were common in the United States beginning in the middle of the 19th century, and were often home to the elderly, the orphaned, and disabled. People requested help from the community Overseer of the Poor, an elected town official. If the need was great or likely to be long-term, they were sent to the poor house.
Use of poor houses declined after the Social Security Act took effect in 1935, and most of these residences disappeared completely by the 1950s. Gene Meador came into the MobileEast Booth in Roanoke, Virginia to talk about his experiences at the poor house his family owned and managed when he was a child.
Posted by Whitney on October 6, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Community Partners: Roanoke Public Library
“I was my father’s partner from age 5.”
Earl Reynolds came to StoryCorps with his daughter, Ashley, to share memories of growing up as a bootblack in his father’s barber shop on Henry Street in Roanoke, Virginia.
Earl remembered shining the shoes of the Godfather of Soul, who advised Earl, “It’s an honorable profession. You just need to think about what else you want to do with your life.”
Posted by Nina on October 3, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
“You know, I love spirituals and rock, Sarah Vaughn, Johann Sebastian Bach, Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni, just to name a few! ”
— Teena Marie, “Square Biz“
Music has always been a vital part of Nikki Giovanni’s life. Nikki is a poet, mother, professor, activist, Grammy nominee, National Book Award finalist, and a muse/collaborator for many musicians, including Kanye West, Capathia Jenkins, Queen Latifah, and Blackalicious. Nikki stopped by the MobileBooth recently in Roanoke, Virginia (an hour from where she is a professor at Virginia Tech) and remembered a few musically inspired moments in her life.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines
Posted by Jeremy on September 29, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
Opening day in Roanoke, Virginia was a traveler’s dream! Of course, everybody loves StoryCorps’ Airstream but when you throw in our location at The Virginia Museum of Transportation, and the fact that we had Sharyn McCrumb, author of the New York Times bestseller, St. Dale (that’s Dale Earnhardt, to all the NASCAR uninitiated) and ARCA driver Adam Edwards as our first interview then there is no doubt that MobileEast was ready to roll!
Posted by Nina on September 28, 2008, from Roanoke, Virginia
After spending the summer working in StoryCorps’ Brooklyn office, I gave up my little apartment, sold all my belongings, and hit the road.
Before I left New York many people asked me, “How does the Airstream trailer get from one location to the next?” In the old days (like 3 years ago) the MobileBooth was towed by brave Facilitators and StoryCorps staff in a truck. Today, we hire drivers, who usually come with pets. Mike, our fearless driver and his beefy sidekick Brandy, a 120 pound rottweiler, picked up our roving recording booth Sunday morning from the Basketball Hall of Fame parking lot in Springfield, Massachusetts, and delivered her safely to our new spot in front of the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia on Monday afternoon.
