An Interview with my Grandmother- Childhood, Jobs and Remembering our Elders.

Madison Gamble via Storycorps

     A few days ago, I conducted an interview with my Great Grandmother, Betty, who is 87 years old. We did this interview in Oregon as well. I selected this interviewee because she is one of the oldest members of my family, so I thought that it would be quite interesting to see what she was like growing up. The interview lasted 10 minutes, and we talked about how school was like for her, what jobs she had, and about my great grandfather.

Reflection:

     My Grandmother was very happy that I decided to interview her, but I was also kind of confused on what it was all about. I tried to explain to her what this interview was for, and she understood, but still seemed a little bit confused! Though, I learned a lot from that interview. I learned that my grandmother had been very poor growing up and had ended up dropping out of school in 7th grade, which was surprising. I always thought she grew up with a decent amount of money like the rest of my family. She also said that growing up being poor was hard, but she didn’t know any different. I also learned more about my Great Grandfather and how she and him got together.

The interview went by pretty slow, as my grandmother didn’t seem to always want to talk about the questions I was asking her. Once we started getting the hang of the interview, though, it seemed to go by pretty fast. I think it was just the matter of asking different questions, and then it was a lot of fun! I think that interviewing family members is a really great way of remembering them, plus you have the recording forever.