Story Corps in Real Life!

A little trip was just the thing our family needed this weekend. It was a little hectic getting ready to go, but once we were on the freeway, I felt so thankful we were all in the same place for a few hours, with just each other, and just a few distractions. When we arrived in St. George on Saturday afternoon our first stop was the splash park, and Justin and I gasped in delighted disbelief when we saw the Story Corps trailer in the parking lot.

I was just excited to see the trailer and the project in real life. I love everything about it and I wrote about Story Corps on Design Mom last year, but Justin had a story in mind, a great story about working in potato harvest as a teenager. Their schedule was full during our short weekend visit, but the producer took Justin’s phone number and said she’d call if they had a cancellation. I had a good feeling, and on Sunday morning they called. I knew they would!

We left our boys with Justin’s parents and hurried down to the trailer. Producer Leslee explained the process and I “interviewed” Justin as he told his story. It’s a great story about being a teenage boy away from home, about liking girls, and tv dinners, and long hours on a combine as it harvests potatoes from the field. Then…there’s drama, and fear, and humanity, all right there during potato harvest. I loved asking Justin a few questions about it, and I love that he recorded it. I love this project, that validates stories and oral history, and the simple act of recording it, without polish or perfection. This would have been a great weekend anyway–family fun and good weather and breakfast out on the patio and a really satisfying nap and nice conversations and fresh peas from the garden–but being inside the Story Corps trailer was icing on the cake.