My Oral History Project : My Mother Essay

I had the pleasure of interviewing my grandfather, Leo Thomas, who was born in Sommers, Wisconsin in 1931. He married his childhood sweetheart, Judy, and they have been married for 62 years. Leo is currently 85 years old, living in Union Grove, WI and spends his days being sassy to Judy while he relaxes in his recliner because of his lack of mobility. My grandpa participated in the Korean war, first in the navy then transferring to the marines as a corpsman. To this day, sharing the stories from the war is not an easy task. My grandfather can talk about his 50 years working as a barber for hours, but bringing up the war is not something mentioned in his house. My grandma even made it clear when I started the interview that this is not a topic

My sixty-year old grandmother, Helaine Bondar, conveniently lives in Baltimore, MD. This made the interview quite convenient, and we were able to sit down face-to-face on her dining room table chairs with a plate of cookies for the interview. "Bubby" as I call her, was born in New York City and lived there her entire youth. She only had one sister, Suzette, who still lives in New York City (my grandmother recalls at this time that my great-grandmother was very fond of French names.) When asked about her grandparents she reminisced on her days with "nanny" and "poppy," her maternal grandparents who practically raised her. She spoke about their personalities. Nanny was the bulldozer go-getter of the family, my grandmother said her favorite phrase was "my way or the highway." Poppy was more calm, and they balanced each other out perfectly. Bubby 's paternal grandparents were Anna and Sol Gross, and despite their close proximity-- they also lived in the Bronx -- Bubby just wasn’t as close with them.

To begin my interview, I started with kinship. I believe it was necessary to start with this so I could grasp an understanding of her family. Mrs. Dager has a very large family, but her immediate family consists of four grandparents, two parents, four siblings, a husband, and four kids. All her family originates from Venezuela, but she is the first generation to leave the country and move to the United States. When I asked about her grandparents, she seemed a little shy because they all

The individual I interviewed was my coworker Andrena’s adopted daughter Ann. Ann came to live with Andrena when she was 8 years old. The reason Anna came to live with Andrena was due to experiencing multiple natural disasters while living in Haiti which caused her to have an unstable living environment. The last event that Ann experienced prior to moving to the US was a flood in Haiti in 2008. Ann stated she was just six years old when the flood happened. The flood was caused after several days of torrential rain. It is reported that the rain left up to hundreds people dead. At the time of this disaster Ann was living with her biological parents and two aunts. Ann refers to her biological parents as her Grandparents since Andrena and her husband adopted her. Andrena’s husband is actually Ann’s biological brother, but she now refers to him as her father and Andrena as her mother.

The person I interviewed was my mother, Holly Parker, her job currently is working at a pizza shop known as Little Caesar's, Holly was born in 1976 on January 27th. Holly’s parent's names are George and Carol McGee, and one of her siblings is named Nathan. Holly has lived in Ohio but is mostly in Bowling Green, she has moved to Sandusky once then moved back to Bowling Green. A school Holly attended was Crim Elementary School. Holly is 5 feet tall (Yes, literally), has brown hair, hazel eyes, and usually wears a yellow or pink hoodie (unless it’s in the summertime, then she will wear a T-Shirt.).

My interviewee's name is Paula Anderson-Worts. She was born in Jamaica back in the 1960’s. However, Paula along with her parents relocated to Florida when she was two years old for an improved life, and in search of the American dream. When Paula started school, she was inspired to become a teacher, doctor, and a fashion designer. Although, all throughout her life people told her she can’t become all those things, she has to select one. Even though this may be true, she still insisted on her dreams. In addition, “she thought it would be unique to follow in her mother’s footsteps”.

Looking back to the past, before I was born, I never really knew where my ancestors came from or why they even came here in the first place. It was never made a big deal in my family to talk about our history and the reasons why they came to American. So, I decided to do a little research and find out a little bit about myself, my culture, and my communication styles. I asked for a little bit of help from my grandmothers from each side of my family. I got an abundance of information that opened my eyes to a new past that I didn’t even know about.

The person I interviewed for this project was a female named Barb who is 65 years old. This woman is about 6’0 in height and has a slender body type. Also, she has thick curly brown hair and wears glasses. Barb comes from a fully German background because both of her parents originally immigrated to the United States from Germany. Barb has 4 children which consist of two sons and two daughters. Also, Barb has 15 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. Barb is currently married and she has been married to her husband for 49 years. Furthermore, Barb currently resides at her home in Minnesota with her husband.

Everyone has a different background to their early lives. We all have went through events that other people have never even thought about going through whether it being a positive or negative circumstance. However, we all have went through the same historical timeline. By this I mean that people living through the same decades have went through the same historical events such as with wars, precedencies, and all the signings between countries throughout the world. As I thought about who I wanted to interview for my history report, I concluded that I wanted to learn more about my mom when she was the same age as me. My interviewee that I chose was my mom, Lora Phelps, as she lived through the late 1980’s between the ages of 18-20. I wanted

I interviewed my Mom about her journey to California and why she got there. She impacted me because she told me that she went to the U.S. for several reasons. The food in Vietnam has dust in it, Vietnam is a communist country, most water sources in Vietnam are dirty, and so my two little sisters and I can have free education. That motivated me to be grateful that my Mom brought me here to California.

My digital story is going to be focused on my mother, the story I’m choosing to focus on for this project is the journey my mother took from Ethiopia to the United States, and the struggles that came with that journey. My mother moved from Ethiopia to the United States, specifically Maryland, when she was twenty-one to continue her education to become a nurse, and at the time there were no family members living in the U.S. so she was by herself for a while. She lived in an apartment for about three years, then moved to Boston, Massachusetts to live with her brother, who had just recently moved from Ethiopia as well, she lived with him for about two years. During that time, she married my father, and moved back to Maryland

Most people take pride in being able to explain where their families originally immigrated from, and the location in which they first settled here. I’ve enjoyed hearing many stories from my friends, in addition to reading about the people in our textbook (Healey & O'Brien, 2015). I believe that family history and tradition help shape who you are as a person. I wish that I was able to have a connection of any kind to my past generations. The term that best describes my upbringing is “latchkey kid”, although my parent wasn’t at work, he was always out drinking. I never had the opportunity to hear about our family history; I don’t even

What can one say about their mother? One may talk about her positive and negative

“Come here, let me hold you my little love” Bubbe always told me, and every time I’d tuck my chin to my chest and reply “Yes Bubbe” while walking towards her ginormous sofa under an equally huge painting of a white horse. Bubbe in Yiddish means grandmother something I grew up knowing. Some of my best and earliest memories are going over to her house and playing with little toys, mostly from happy meals or the dollar store. She kept them in the bottom drawer in the kitchen, so that I had easy access. We had so many different games, every time we played it was like we traveled into a different world. A wonderful place full of excitement that allowed me, at age six, to be a cashier, a restaurant owner, or even a teacher. Even though I have two other sisters who also see Bubbe I’ve always felt that we have a special bond. She’s a person that I can tell anything to. Stories about school, bad days, fights with friends. She’s always there and ready to not only listen but give advice. She has influenced me in so many ways. Bubbe taught me table manners, where all the forks go, what to eat what with, and when. She also taught me to not be afraid of trying new things, always willing to go and see new places. She gave me the opportunity to do all different activities from taking me to dance to horseback riding. It was actually Bubbe that took me to my very first dance class. We have so many memories, but there is one that stands out vividly in my mind. My grandfather, Big Daddy as

I was in my step mothers car going to an unknown place with my surroundings getting less and less familiar. My mother with a smug face said "everything is okay, we will be there soon " as if she knew what I was thinking. As our car came to a stop, we arrived at our destination. We stopped at a tall dark building the look like it could touch the heavens.we entered the lobby a chandelier hung from the roof with glass so sharp it cuts your eyes just looking at it. A lady sitting at her desk told us to take the elevator to the third floor, then told me to take a right,left,forward,left so many instructions I could not keep up with what she was saying. we went to the third floor and my step mother without hesitation look a right as if she could remember what the lady told her. After what felt like miles of walking we stopped at a door that was painted to look like it was meant for a child to walk though and have a great time I could not hold my excitement. The place I dreaded I now wanted in so bad. As the door open there was a person sitting in a red burgundy chair saying "hello James remember me ". I had since she was my real mother the person I had not seen in years.