Collecting an Oral History
Some of Cabot's history is in the council minutes. The rest of it is in people's heads — what
Main Street smelled like, who ran the store, where the road used to go, what the night of the
1976 tornado was actually like. When a person passes, their whole library goes with them.
An oral history is just a recorded conversation with someone who remembers. You don't need
special equipment or experience. You need a phone, a quiet room, and the willingness to ask
an older person in your life to tell you things before the stories are gone.
Who to interview
- - A grandparent, parent, aunt or uncle, or an older neighbor
- - A retired teacher, coach, pastor, shopkeeper, railroad hand, or city employee
- - Anyone who has lived in or around Cabot a long time — including you. Recording your own
memories counts, and nobody can tell your story but you
Before you record: permission
Ask first, and say plainly what this is for: the recording will go to **The Cabot Lore
Repository**, a public archive where anyone can listen to it and read the transcript. The
person you're interviewing can:
- - Decline any question, or stop the recording at any time
- - Say that a part of the conversation is not for the archive — note that on the
submission form and that part stays out
- - Be credited by name, or stay anonymous
If someone isn't comfortable being recorded for a public archive, that's the end of it —
no hard feelings. A lot of people, once they understand their memories will outlive them,
are glad to be asked.
What you need
- - A phone is enough. The voice recorder app that came with it does fine. A separate
recorder or a laptop works too
- - A quiet room. Turn off the TV and the air conditioner if you can, pick a room with
carpet or furniture, and sit close — three or four feet apart
- - A full battery, or plug in. And put the phone on airplane mode so a call doesn't
cut the recording off
- - Test it. Record ten seconds, play it back, make sure you can hear both voices clearly
How the conversation goes
- - Start at the beginning. Their full name, when and where they were born, and where
they grew up. It sounds basic; fifty years from now it's the most valuable part
- - Ask open questions, then listen. "What was Main Street like when you were a kid?"
beats "Was Main Street different?" every time
- - Let the silences work. When they pause, wait. People remember things in the pause
- - Don't correct the record mid-story. If a date sounds off, let it go — afterward you
can ask, "About what year would that have been?" Memory is the evidence here, wobbles
and all
- - Chase the details. "Tell me more about that." "Who else was there?" "What did it
look like?" "What happened next?"
- - Get the names right. Ask them to spell names of people, and to name streets, stores,
and buildings out loud. A spelled name and a named place are what make a recording
searchable later
- - Bring photographs if you have them. Laying old pictures on the table and asking
"who's this?" is the single best interview technique there is
Questions worth asking
Use the ones that fit. You won't need them all.
- - What is your earliest memory of Cabot?
- - What did your parents do, and what was an ordinary day like in your house?
- - What was school like — where was it, how did you get there, who taught you?
- - What was your first job, and what did it pay?
- - What did people do for fun? Where did everybody gather?
- - What do you remember about the railroad, and the depot?
- - What stores and businesses were on Main Street that aren't there anymore?
- - Do you remember March 29, 1976 — the tornado? Where were you?
- - What was the biggest change you ever saw in this town?
- - Who was a person everybody in Cabot knew?
- - Is there a place that's gone now that you can still see in your mind?
- - What do you want your grandchildren to know about the Cabot you grew up in?
How long
Thirty to sixty minutes is plenty. Two shorter sittings beat one long one, and "getting
tired" is always a good place to stop — you can come back. End by asking: "Is there
anything I should have asked you?" That question, more than any other, is where the good
stuff comes out.
After you record
While it's fresh, write down (on paper, in a notes app, anywhere):
- - The full name of the person interviewed, and yours
- - The date and place of the interview
- - The main topics you covered, and the names of people and places mentioned
That note is nearly as valuable as the recording itself. It's what lets us index the
interview — names, places, dates — so a researcher fifty years from now can find the
three minutes where your grandfather talks about the depot.
Send it in
Upload the recording through the contribution form — phone audio
(m4a, mp3) is fine, and video works too. Put your interview note in the form's
description, and tell us how to credit both of you.
Nothing is posted automatically. Every submission is reviewed first. Then the recording
is transcribed, the transcript is indexed so it's searchable alongside the council
records, and the interview is posted with the credit you specified.
The best day to do this interview was ten years ago. The second-best day is this week.