Mum, do you ever have to record really boring stories?
Alice Mayers
Helping elders to recall, capture and preserve their stories and memories. Practitioner, trainer and workshop leader.
My daughter asked me this the other day, and this was a very easy question to answer. No, I said, never.
And this is not because I only record people who have lived big and colourful lives or those who remember significant historic events or come from other countries. I do record many such people and that is a privilege but it is not only these stories that are fascinating and need to be captured and preserved.
I have just chuckled to myself, listening back to a little story I recently recorded for a Life Story Book. My storyteller recalled how, as a very young man, he had been hired to perform a magic show for 200 people at a street party celebrating the Queens Silver Jubilee. He told me how he felt as he worked hard to put on a good show for the local community.
Was it the most exciting story I have ever heard? No, maybe it wasn’t, nor was it the most significant moment in my storyteller’s life, but it tells us about our storyteller and the world he lived in. It illustrates his enthusiasm for life, his values, his energy, his love for being bold and giving back, it is a little story that tells us who he is, and I know that his family and friends will recognise him in this stories and the memories he shares. Hearing and preserving these stories is anything but boring, they are personal.
Head of HR Projects
4 年Love this Alice. Can imagine your daughter asking this question! But I agree. Sometimes, it’s in the ‘small’ stories tha you find the best nuggets of insight. Josie Long’s Short Cuts is a wonderful listen for short but interesting recollections from a range of people and none of them famous.
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4 年To the eyes (and ears of the families) it is the emotions and connections - what the stories meant to them as our parents / grandparents also meant to us. I never get bored of hearing my father's stories of what he has gone through or achieved.