the Untold Stories Podcast

Was a cobbler and survived Agent Orange while serving overseas.  Gus passed away in August 2021.

Playtime was over when the streetlights turned on.

Flew airplanes using paper maps.

b. 1945 Ardmore, OK Mershon Niesner has stayed connected with the “Stories of” project over the years.  In this first interview, she describes the changes she’s seen in the world due to the paradigm shift brought by high-tech.  Five years later, she reconnected with me to interview for my new project, “Stories of COVID”, to describe the paradigm shift she’s witnessing in a pandemic.  Listen to that interview here:  https://anchor.fm/stories-of-covid/episodes/12–Mershon-Niesner–Stages-of-Grief-ed87bj

Look for the small moments.

b. 1945 New Orleans, LA Dagmar Booth was an early adopter of technology, and has the interesting perspective of its advancement across the birth of her three daughters.  At first, the work to keep the clothes, bottles, and diapers clean was enormous.  But as microwaves, dishwashers, and disposable diapers came between each of her daughters, the work lightened.  Dagmar also was an early adopter of Atari, and she and her husband, John, stayed up late playing the video games. Listen to John Booth’s interview here: https://storiesofelders.com/podcast/episode-4-john-wilkes-booth/

Stayed up all night playing Atari.

Grew up on a farm during the Great Depression.

b. 1915 at home LaGrange, ID Virginia Sears is the sister of Virgil Westdale, who was featured in Episode One.  In this episode, Virginia tells us what it was like to live through the Great Depression, and afterward, about the discrimination she faced during World War II as a Japanese American. To learn more about Stories of COVID, click here.

b. 1927 St. Clair, MI Chris Smith is the third generation owner of Chris-Craft, one of the oldest boat manufacturers in Michigan.  His family built several award winning racing boats for the Detroit Cup, the landing boats used in Normandy during World War II, and adapted the first outboard motors.

Built boats.

b. 1931 Selma, NC Betty Josephine Segal was a pleasure to chat with.  In fact, we continued our conversation over dinner after the interviews, and again over tea when I hosted a book signing at the local library where she lives in Rantoul, IL.  Her manner of conversation and explanation is something to be admired, and her time at the CDC as things changed provides insight into how workplaces were altered by tech.

"When I discovered the internet... I thought I'd died and gone to heaven."

b. 1933 Alliquippa, PA Tito Francona is well known as a Major League Baseball player.  He played alongside Hank Aaron, Yogi Berra, and many other greats.  To me, he was a family friend whom I would see at functions and events.  He was always kind, smiling, and curious.  His was one of my first interviews, before I knew this book was about tech, so while I didn’t gather anything relevant to the final topic of the book, I did get to hear some great stories about playing ball in the middle of the century.

"[Hank Aaron] spent time with me, explaining the dos and don'ts. His team didn't like that very much."

b. 1932 Grand Rapids, MI Carol is my friend’s grandmother, and I was fortunate enough to meet her just before the publishing of the Stories of Elders book.  She comments on some things that, today, we may not notice; like the reduced friendliness of police, or poverty.  In this episode, Steve and I discuss what poverty means, what neighborliness means, and some recent laws that changed law enforcement in Carol’s lifetime. The q&a article on police laws can be found here.  

"We were poor, but we didn't know it."

b. 1947 Pass Cristian, MS I met Charles “Bones” Rhodes, his daughter Honey, her husband Roddy, and their son Mark, through a mutual friend.  We had all gotten to know each other soon after Hurricane Katrina, for which I was a relief worker.  I didn’t expect to interview multiple generations at once, but it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. In this episode, my dear friend Steve joins me to provide an outside perspective on these intimate stories.

"I don't even think I own house keys."

"She hadn't realized the new [technology] could get the job done."