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Is your idea of fun sitting at a computer with the latest game or using your GameBoy to entertain yourself? Is television you choice of entertainment? What did kids do before TV before computer games? What a perfect opportunity to use oral history to answer this question.
Visit your grandparents or an elderly neighbor and conduct an oral history interview. Ask them..
- About how much time they spent in leisure activities.
- What those activities consisted of.
- If the games and activities were individual or group activities.
- If they still do any of these activities.
- About dating patterns when they were growing up.
Is there one holiday that your family most enjoys? Why? Is there some tradition that your family follows? Is there a recipe that has come down through the generations and that is always prepared? All of these, and many more, are perfect topics for oral history projects. It is vitally important for students to make connections with their family and their community and a wonderful way to do this is to use the interviewing processes used in oral history.
Patriotism can be defined as love for or devotion to your country. Does the person today show patriotism in the same way as the person ten, twenty or fifty years ago? What an exciting and challenging way to put oral history to work. Find people of a variety of ages and ask them about their beliefs about patriotism.
Ask them to
- Give you their definition of patriotism.
- Tell what they do that they consider patriotic.
- Tell what they think others might do to be patriotic.
Tell you if they think patriotism has changed over the years.
Washington, D.C. was a planned community. Streets were laid out in a grid system. These streets have blossomed into a great city with monuments and memorials, as well as office buildings museums, and much more. This city was made by people and has been affected by the times. Science, technology, and growth have all affected the way the city has developed.
The same influences have had an impact on your city or your community. Discover for yourself how your city has become the dynamic center of life for all of the people in your community.
First, do a little research about your community. Find out how and when it was founded. Find out who was responsible for the founding. Find out why the city was founded.
Now let oral history be your guide. Do interviews with community members and find out...
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Who the people are who formed the neighborhoods. Were there ethnic or racial groups who chose to live together?
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How your community has changed throughout the years.
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What the economic structure of your community is.
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If there are buildings or structures who have changed in purpose over the years.
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If there have been changes in the government
Medicine
What are leeches? Well they re creatures that attach to your body when walking through some swampy places. They suck your blood. Does that sound horrible? Well, at one time, leeches were a medical treatment. Doctors applied leeches to patients to remove the bad blood that was causing the disease.
What else was done in the early days of medicine? You can find out by interviewing both doctors who used many different practices before the modern techniques were invented and patients who had them used on them. You can also find out information about other pieces of equipment that were used in earlier times by interviewing and recording people who possess these tools of the trade of medical history.
In the past, we were required to make by hand many of the articles that we buy at the store today. Some of these tasks take know-how and often specific skills are required. Think about some of things we take for granted. For example, soap is now purchased by the bar in your grocery store. In the past, people mixed lye with other ingredients, cooked them in large pots, poured the mixture into shallow pans, and then cut them into bars. Yarn is also a commodity we currently pick up at the store. In the past, sheep were sheared, the wool spun into yarn and dyed to the color of choice. These were not easy tasks and the people who performed them were very proud of the product of their labor.
Use oral history to interview and record some of the people who are still performing these folk arts or that have performed them in the past. Some areas that you might consider are
- Quilting
- Needlework
- Farming activities (plowing, seeding, picking, etc.)
- Fashion
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