True stories of everyday people

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Martha Annexton Karatz

After graduating from Northwestern with a teaching degree and working in England for a while Martha Karatz moved to Paris. There she landed a luxurious job as a private teacher for a wealthy family in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. But how long could this last…?

Vop Osil

Vop Osilli’s earliest memories are from Nigeria at the beginning of civil war when his mother, an American, decided it was time to leave.

Karl Lee Manders

In an excerpt of his oral history Dr. Karl Manders describes his early work in Indianapolis finding non-surgical treatments for patients with chronic pain.

Frances Whitener

After a childhood in Martinsville, North Carolina, reading plays and dreaming of being a teacher of drama, Frances faced the frightening real life drama of serious heath issues. When Frances and her husband Rick came to Indianapolis they found job opportunities,...

Lou Ann Homan

All that her three little boys wished for Christmas was a pony. But in order to raise the $75 dollars to pay for it their homesteading mother would have to bake THIRTY PUMPKIN PIES for Thanksgiving … with no electricity, no running water and a wood burning stove! This...

Shari Lyn Finnell

How did growing up in Gary, Indiana help Shari Finnell, a journalist with a degree from Northwestern University, to see the world as a place where anything was possible? Shari explains.

Sherril Lyn Adkins

In the Summer of 1966 Sherril Adkins got a job as a waitress at Catfish King in Birmingham, Alabama. Having grown up on integrated military bases she had not yet experienced the racism of ordinary white folks of the South. When the restaurant would not serve an...