True stories of everyday people

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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...

Steve Teagarden

Steve Teagarden describes the origins of the “Nestle Inn” and observing the gentrification of Mass Avenue and the Chatham Arch neighborhood in downtown Indianapolis.

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...

Diane Lee Richards

Diane grew up admiring her Aunt Helen who, with her husband Don, ran a flight school. It took years to find out that Helen had flown bombers and pursuit planes back during WWII. Diane reflects on the life of her remarkable and yet modest Aunt.

Joe Mack Huston

During his childhood in the fifties when the topics of religion and sex were far more sensitive, Mack describes his experience with different churches.

Mary Lou Lofton

Mary Lou Lofton’s son Tim was full of energy and and joyful sound effects but he also feared two things that were designed to delight children. Both were to be found at the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis.

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.

Elizabeth Jeanne Brandt

In an excerpt of her oral history of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church’s Spiritual Life Center the director, Elizabeth Brandt, tells about her love of labyrinths. How did the center come to have three labyrinths for meditative walking? Elizabeth tells the story.