True stories of everyday people

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Paul Francis Smith

Paul Smith grew up in a Navy family. In the 1960’s when he was a teenager they moved from Athens, Georgia to Monterey, California. Paul talks about the challenge of fitting in and learning to be true to himself.

Georgeanna Marie Tryban

Georgeanna Tryban tells about being a young American exchange student in Osaka, Japan with Youth For Awareness in the 1960’s. A fearless, eager student, she attended traditional Japanese cultural training along with her Japanese host family sisters.

George Glenn Bartley

In his youth during the 1960’s George Bartley, a big fan of musicals, got to see Bette Midler in a broadway musical. Years later he got a chance to meet her and experience her good sense of humor.

Don Steffy

May 4, 1970, Kent State University in Ohio: Having passed up a chance to attend The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, Don Steffy switched to Bowling Green State University for a draft exempt status. In this excerpt of Don’s life story he tells about...

Michael Lee Hall

HIS STORY: One day Michael Hall walked to his local vintage store to buy a jean jacket and while there he found a woman who would say “I do!”. He explains. Heather Irene Hall tells her story about meeting Michael during her Life Stories Project interview.

Michele M Goodrich

The career test back in 1976 said she would either be a good priest or a YM/YWCA director. Which path did she take and what did Jane Pauley have to do with it? Michelle Goodrich tells the story.

Daisy Elizabeth Borel

In excerpts of her life story, Daisy Borel describes the sheltered self-sufficiency of the African American community along Capital Avenue in down town Indianapolis of the 1930’s and 1940’s. When she returned to Indy from Tennessee with a BS in Nursing and a family...

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.