True stories of everyday people
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Ruth Esther Shaw
What can happen when a community asks, “What can we do to change it?” Community activist Ruth Shaw tells about her efforts in making a Quality of Life Plan that lead to the Super Bowl!
Betty Jo-Ann Montgomery Perry
With tears in her eyes, young Betty Jo-Ann listened to her first youth orchestra in NYC and realized that playing music would be a way to escape a life limited by poverty.
Joseph McDonald
Joe McDonald talks about learning to ride a horse and eating most meals in the resort restaurant while living in Clifty Falls Park during his childhood in the 1940s.
Barbara Ann Steinmetz
Pets were an important part of Barbara Ann’s idealistic childhood in Brown County, Indiana. Little did she know that wild foxes would take someone dear from her and lead to a career in the medical field.
Michael O’Brien
Michael Obrien talks about training to go to India with the Peace Corps in 1973, how growing up in a large family on a Wisconsin dairy farm helped prepare him for that work and how stories and language affect our world view.
Tammy Ann Lieber
Years after leaving home Tammy Lieber visited the rural farm house of her childhood periodically to reflect and rebuild her life. In this excerpt of her life story she describes listening to the wonderful range of sounds of the country heard from the porch and her...
Tasha Boyd-Jones, William Boyd & James Reginald
Tasha Boyd Jones grew up with two fathers, her biological father William Boyd (in photo on the right) and her step-father Reginald Jones (in photo on the left) in her life. In an excerpt of their group interview, they talk about the communication and understanding...
JoEllen Florio-Rossebo
JoEllen reflects on the home of her early childhood where her Italian Grandparents created a beautiful, safe garden close to the heart of Chicago.
James Edward Lindgren
James Lindgren tells about how branches of the family in Sweden and the U.S.A. were separated by a falling out between a grandfather and his brother. Years later, after researching family history, the grandchildren reunited in peaceful correspondence and travel.