write down my parents' stories

1. write up a list of questions.
2. acquire one of those little tape recorders.

I think that a face-to-face interview will be the best. Though I don’t know how easy it will be to get to dad. Maybe I will email dad the questions instead? Or maybe a combination of both. Perhaps I should email the questions a week or two in advance so they have time to think about them and pick out the best stories, instead of just being put on the spot. Yeah!

everyone go give my mum cheers and comments! tee hee hee. she’s my favourite. i love net-savvy parents.

Things like stories should always be written down so they can be told again. Just because the Aborigines have excellent memories and can hand down Dreamtime stories from generation to generation doesn’t mean that I can! How do they know that it’s not just like a generational version of chinese whispers, anyway? HUH??

So I want to get my mum and my dad (each at different times seeing as they’ve been divorced for ages and don’t really have anything to do with each other now at all) and interview them with a recorder handy, and then from those interviews I can write down all the stories I’ve gotten from them. My mum went to Germany for a year when she was 18! My dad worked with Aboriginal land rights and got to go out visit the tribes that live out in the sticks of Western Australia! I bet he did heaps more stuff when he was younger, I’ve just never heard his stories. Except for the ones where he got really drunk and ended up singing old Irish ditties. Oh, father.