The Great Thanksgiving Listen
I interviewed my grandma Verna (aka Moogie.) We recorded this interview on Thanksgiving 2017, and we recorded in Eugene Oregon. I chose this interviewee because I didn’t know a lot about her past, even though she is very dear to me. I ended up learning a bunch of new stuff I dint know about her. The interview ended up being about 15 minutes, and throughout all of it I saw my grandmother as a different person than I originally did.
We started off talking about her childhood. She grew up in California, and when she was a child before their house was built they had to live in large tents on the lot their house was being built on. She had one brother at the time as well as 2 sisters. Over time however she gained up to four sisters. Once their house was built Moogie lived in the same room as her sisters. She went to a standard school, and learned many things along the way, including that she wanted to be a nurse.
As she grew up she described her mother as “hardworking and caring” and her father as a “Abusive alchaholic.” When I asked her who was an important figure in her life she replied with something along these lines. When she was small her mothers friend would occasionally come over to visit them, and when she came she always brought a box of See’s chocolates with her. Her mothers friend was very caring, and loved the kids as much as a mother would. 
Once she got to highschool, there was much controversy going around because her highschool was integrated, which was rather new at the time. I asked her if any teachers had influenced her, or inspired her and she said “Not really.” Once she got to college she started training to become a nurse. Throughout this she met my Grandpa Poppy. They had two children, and eventually got a divorse. I asked her if she had any regrets from throughout her life, and if so what? She said “I kind of regret divorce, but other than that not really.” We then finished the interview.
Overall I learned a lot of new things about my Grandma. I learned that her highschool was integrated, I learned about her house as a kid, and even other things I didn’t mention such as how she still travels with her sisters to this day. And how she has been to every state with her sisters. This was a very fun assignment to complete, and I hope to do more like this in the future.
Exerpt: https://archive.storycorps.org/?post_type=interviews&p=378240
(I could not get the link to work, but it works if you copy and paste it)
I found the first 3 minutes of this interview very interesting because I hadn’t asked about her childhood before.