Connie's Corner

A new gig...

I have volunteered for something else, something very interesting. It is called the Sam Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida. Currently, they are interviewing World War II veterans and their wives. I have volunteered for the transcription part. You may ask since it is an oral history, why is transcribing necessary? Well, the transcriptions are sent to the U F Smathers Library and the Library of Congress to be accessed by you and me and anyone else who might be interested or doing research about World War II.

On the site, http://www.history.ufl.edu/oral/index.html you can actually listen to some oral histories, and you will see what I mean by interesting. This is not some old dull history class with dates and facts and figures. This is a real, live person telling what physically and mentally happened to him (or her).

I am well into my first transcription and already thinking about my next one. They run about thirty minutes to an hour and take quite a bit of time to transcribe. There is an actual style guide for transcribing oral histories so that all are done uniformly. The one I am working on is being told by a Scottish war bride, and I feel like I am right there with her, listening. The lady who signed me up did the actual interview. And, of course, one thing leads to another, I come up with all kinds of questions and must pause to research things I do not understand or places I am unfamiliar with. What a learning experience! Who knew history could be so interesting?

This Sunday, Mommy's Day (Happy Mommy's Day everyone), I have a WAG (Writers' Alliance of Gainesville) meeting that is sort of special. Winning stories and poems submitted to their literary magazine, Bacopa, will be read, the magazine will be available for members to pick up, and they are serving refreshments. Woohoo! So my weekend is all planned out, and I am happily looking forward to it.

until next time....c