Posted by Sasha on August 29, 2008, from Grand Junction, Colorado
Community Partners: Mesa Land Trust
Paula Anderson and Doris Butler have been friends now for over thirty years - both heavily involved in saving family farms and orchards in and around Grand Junction, Colorado.
Traveling through the neighboring towns of Grand Junction, you will notice several small orchards full of peaches and cherries. You might spot neat rows of vineyard in people’s backyards and at the very foot of the Grand Mesa.
A Sneak Peek at StoryCorps Alaska
Posted by Sara on August 28, 2008, from Gustavus, Alaska
Community Partners: Gustavus Public Library
As a preface to the official kick-off date of StoryCorps Alaska, our team in New York set out to get the ball rolling a little early. Elise Pepple, the Coordinator of Outreach and Public Programs at the Public Library in Gustavus, Alaska, signed on-board to help us gather some initial interviews. Using StoryCorps recording equipment, designed for interviews much like those that take place in our booths, Elise created her very own StoryCorps “booth” to record the stories of Gustavus residents.
Gustavus is a city of 429 people set on the shore of Icy Strait, 36 air miles from Juneau, Alaska’s capital city. Gustavus is a unique community of individuals with a wide array of lifestyle choices and accommodations, from one room cabins with no plumbing to five star homes. With geologic and geographic changes to Gustavus over the years have also come social and demographic changes. The gateway community to Glacier Bay National Park, Gustavus is unique in its landscape and in its people.
In the planning stages of Elise’s endeavor, she showed a picture of the StoryCorps MobileBooth to a friend who commented that the Gustavus Public Library didn’t feel quite as “hip,” so they set out to find and make their own Gustavus StoryCorps booth. “If Gustavus is rich in something, it seems we are rich in ex-lodge buses,” Pepple remarks. She quickly came across a 21-year-old resident named Elm, who had recently bought a bus to live in. Pepple explains, “He said we could borrow the bus if we could move out the 20,000 pounds of scrap metal that were living inside and get it started. A couple of hours later, the bus was sitting in front of the library.”
Bye Bye Buffalo from Whitney, Jeremy & Chaela
Posted by Chaela on August 25, 2008, from Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York has many names. In the 1840s Buffalo was dubbed “The Queen City” because it’s the second largest city in New York State, behind New York City. “The Nickel City” is another moniker and is derived from the appearance of a bison on the back of the Indian Head nickel. Contrary to popular belief, however, there are no buffalo in Buffalo. The name “Buffalo” may be derived from the French phrase beau fleuve (”beautiful river”), a description of Buffalo Creek and the Niagara River. The matter is uncertain, but it is clear that there were no buffalo in the area. One name which will always describe Buffalo is “The City of Good Neighbors!” In reflecting on MobileEast’s six-week stay in Buffalo it is easy to see how the city has earned the name.
Buffalonians welcomed the MobileEast team to their city with open arms. WBFO 88.7 and the Buffalo Public Library could not have been more gracious hosts, and the MobileEast team attended many concerts, plays, outdoor barbecues, dinners, parties and tours! Every day and in every way, Buffalo embraced StoryCorps and we will miss our new friends in “The City of Good Neighbors” more than they know.
Bye Bye, Buffalo!
Posted by Jeremy on August 25, 2008, from Buffalo, New York
That old black magic has me in its spell, that old black magic that you weave so well.
Johnny Mercer
Buffalo and all of Western New York is a region that is rich in it’s musical heritage and appreciation. One prominent member of the Buffalo music scene and community at large is Jimmy Lyons. An early stage performer and promoter from the mid 1950s through the late 1960s, Jimmy Lyons became Buffalo’s very first African-American disc jockey. Lyons conducted his own rhythm and blues show, “The Lyons Den,” on WXRA, later WINE. JoAnne Lyons-Wooten, James Lyons Jr, and Gail Lyons-Hawkins came to the StoryCorps booth to pay tribute their father and share their recollections of his many contributions to Buffalo.
Recording artists like Sammy Davis Jr., The Marvelettes, Grover Washington, and Little Stevie Wonder sought out Jimmy Lyons whenever they made their way to The Nickel City. “For me, going to the radio station was heaven,” says James. “The biggest thrill was he’d let me sit next to him when he was on the air doing his [show] Lyons Den. He would let me push the button for the commercials. He’d say, ‘OK champ, standby. OK, now.’” According to Gail there were plenty of perks to being the children of a DJ. “[He had] all the latest music and we didn’t have to buy any because he had the demos! It was years before we had to go to a record store!”
Posted by Jalylah on August 25, 2008, from New York, New York
When octogenarian Ruth Preminger entered the Lower Manhattan StoryBooth four Sundays ago, across her heart lay a broach containing a photograph of herself and her Hungarian-born mother, Rose Tucker. When Ruth exited the booth with her interview partner, daughter-in-law Beth Preminger, the pair in the small timeworn photograph, their challenges, their resilience, their accomplishment and their taut connection to each other were made vivid.
Posted by Alex on August 25, 2008, from Grand Junction, Colorado
Misty Matern and her 15 year-old son Comfrey Biafra Jacobs sit casually across from each other at the MobileBooth table. Before the conversation starts, Comfrey entertains both Misty and I with some beat boxing. When I press record, Comfrey is ready to listen to a story he knows very well: Buster the School Bus. Misty birthed Comfrey in this bus all by herself at 1:50 am on March 21, 1993. It still sits – charming, rusty, and visible from the highway - in their front yard in Palisade.
When Misty found out she was pregnant, she bought the 1953 converted Chevy Short school bus for $500 and left Denver for the countryside. The bus had orange shag carpeting and lots of olive green. “It was ugly, but I saw potential,” Misty says with a nostalgic smirk.
She parked Buster on Gold Hill Road and turned the bus into a home. “There used to be a bed that took up half of it, two closets in the back, a desk, a small stove and a small sink area which had pipes that ran into a five gallon bucket to catch waste water. There was also an outhouse.”
Posted by Chaela on August 24, 2008, from Buffalo, New York
Community Partners: Old First Ward Community Center
Some days in downtown Buffalo, the smell of Cheerios fills the air. On a hungry afternoon I followed the smell to General Mills, one of the few remaining factories in production along Buffalo’s waterfront. Other giant industrial monuments stand as a testament to a part of Buffalo that is no longer. At one point, these monolithic structures made Buffalo the largest exporter of grain in the world, and by way of the Erie Canal, made New York City the major port of the United States.
“I was the first deaf student to graduate with honors.”
Posted by Kate on August 22, 2008, from Brooklyn, New York
Community Partners: Menorah Home and Hospital
On August 5, Anna Walters and I traveled to Menorah Home and Hospital in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. I met Ralph Wolfe, a resident who came to talk with his good friend Jane Rosenthal, the Executive Vice President of the Menorah facility. Ralph’s story shed light on what it was like to grow up deaf in the 30s, and how much has changed since then.
At age seven, Ralph lost his hearing to scarlet fever, the same disease that left Helen Keller and Thomas Edison deaf in childhood. Still, Ralph was determined to stay in public school. He taught himself to read lips and was the first hearing-impaired student to graduate with honors from his grade school in Brooklyn. Although Ralph had learned to speak and succeed on his own in school, his deafness was deemed “disruptive” in high school. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Chaela on August 22, 2008, from Buffalo, New York
After Steve and his grandmother Evelyn came to record a conversation at the booth in Buffalo, we started talking pie. Evelyn become known for her pie when her grandson Steve, a writer for the Buffalo News, published a special on her delicious desserts. After the interview, we started talking about our favorite kinds of pie and Evelyn invited us over to try her recipe.
Posted by Jeremy on August 22, 2008, from Buffalo, New York
Don’t waste, buy defense stamps in haste and, “Keep ‘Em Flying”
A.T. Hapke, Advertising Manager, Bell Aircraft Corporation
For years the engines of industry in Buffalo were known by names like Bethlehem Steel, Trico and Bell Aircraft. The third and last name in this trio of giants, the Bell Aircraft Corporation, employed thousands of Buffalonians throughout the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. The company was founded by Lawrence Bell, who was a general manager of the Glenn L. Martin Company, then a manager of the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. When Consolidated moved to San Diego in 1935, Bell stayed in Buffalo to start his own company.
Virginia Stephan and her daughter Katie Mattison
StoryCorps participant, Virginia Stephan was 18-years-old when she started working at Bell Aircraft. Having started business school in 1936, Virginia quickly realized that she wanted a different path. “I didn’t like shorthand, so I didn’t want to be a secretary,” says Virginia. “So I went to Bell Aircraft and got a job making 65 cents an hour.” A real life Rosie the Riveter, Virginia helped build Bell Aircraft’s single engine P-39 Airacobra fighter. Called a “Cannon on Wings,” the P-39 placed the engine in the center of the aircraft, with the propeller driven by a long shaft through which a 37 mm, anti-tank cannon was mounted. The Airacobra fired armor piercing and explosive shells directly out of the propeller’s spinner. Virginia worked at Bell Aircraft’s Main Street location helping to build these so-called sky tanks before enlisting in the Navy and joining the WAVES during World War II.
