Movig Forward

My plans for moving forward with family history center around everything that I have done this semester so far. It has all been about stories. Stories that are passed from generation to generation and that mean so much for my family. Thus I want to record these stories and write them. First thing I will accomplish is the interview that I want to have of my grandfather and great grandmother. With my new discovery of the audio recorder and audacity, I know how to weave together people's interviews. I want to do this so much because after the student designed project I realize that someones spoken story sometimes is so much better than there written story and that makes me want to record these things, especially my grandparents, before its too late. I feel a sense of urgency because I know what it is like to not have access to someone who is great at story telling. After I record things on my recorder i would like to use my mother to piece together the book that my father began to write. He outlined the chapters of a twenty chapter diabetic book based on events in his life. Thus he knew what he wanted to write but only finished a few chapters. I want to use the people who might have know what the stories are based on the title and try to make his book. It will probably never quite live up to what he was going to write but at least it will be something. Well that's the start... I look forward to writing outside a lab report.

Proposal

Okay so I am going to do two blog posts and I hope that it turns out okay. The first is the information and thought process for my proposal project that I have thus far. What I mean is I am have done some serious brainstorming and that is what my first blog is going to talk about. The second post on this assignment will come on Saturday after I have a chance to discuss my thoughts of my project with my Professor. I think, as usual, that I will be able to work through my thoughts and find focus as I discuss these things. At any rate, my idea for the proposal revolves around the Uinta Mountain range in Utah. The reason that I want this to be my proposal idea is because it is something that I know little about that was a huge part of my fathers life. He used the mountain ranges and the lakes near to feed his love for fishing and camping. His trips lasted at least the weekends but were occasionally longer. He would take his canoe and fish for trout and then cook what he caught. I went once with him, though I was very young, and I remember him telling of the many times he went and the changes that had occurred at those "pure" lakes. Okay yeah I know, my idea needs to be more focused. But what I am pondering right now is about a proposal that allows me to not only have the finances to travel and ask my grandfather, uncle about the experiences at the Uintas but be able to visit the lakes directly. I am still working through the details of the proposal but that is the idea so far.

Student Designed project

The topic I have selected is Beatlemania. I have selected this topic for several reasons. My reasons may sound repetitive since I talk about it a lot but my father was a huge Beatles fan. Growing up I had access to every song, I was taught to play the songs on the piano and then the guitar. I was quizzed on trivia. I was even exposed to many of the books that described the Beatle’s history. I love them now and I can attribute it to everything in my life that referred to the Beatles. Now I thought it would be a good project because I can come at it from a different perspective, focusing on my father and the things he did because he lived during Beatlemania.

I already know quite a bit about the subject. I know about the stories behind the songs and when the songs were released. I know much about the four Beatles themselves. I wanted to learn more about their early history. That is, when they first came to the US and their climb to such heights. I know that one of their first performances that aided their fame was the performance on the Ed Sullivan show, but I do not know any details about that.

My intended audience is quite broad. Obviously there are a lot of people that love the Beatles and so it makes it quite a broad spectrum. I would say my primary audience is the younger Beatles fans. And my secondary audience is the older Beatles fans who actually lived through it.

My purpose is to explore the early career of the Beatles and the impact on the society as well as their live performances such as Ed Sullivan show and the concert on the apple corp. building. I think possible genres are a documentary or a story that included true accounts. This particular subject good be any media. Because it is so versatile it would be an appropriate article for a magazine, a broadcast on the radio, including certain songs, or even a television show.

My progress is slowly ongoing. As I do more research I am able to organize my thoughts a little better. I like doing research for this project so it has been very fun.

Three Questions

What surprised me?
I was surprised most with the building the artifact meetings were held. When I was young and heard these stories I always expected it to be in a fancier place, or at least not in an veterans of foreign wars building. That surprised me. I think part of why it surprised me is because I already had this picture in my mind of the stories of these artifact meetings, but my picture in my mind was not accurate.

What intrigued me?
The thing that intrigued me the most is the effort involved in making a meeting successful. The people that I interview described the meetings as being very formal, and the guest speakers planned very effectively. I figured that the meetings were a place to gather together and discuss the things they found. I did not think that they needed someone to come and lecture to the class. More specifically, I did not think a archeologist professor would called upon to lecture, so this intrigued me.

What disturbed me?
It is hard to pinpoint something in metal detecting that disturbed while researching. To be completely honest though, I found that metal detecting or coin collecting was just a smaller portion of "artifact collecting" and that slightly disturbed me. Not that it is disturbing in and of itself, but I grew up thinking that the bulk of metal detecting and these clubs was the coin collecting aspect and apparently I was wrong.

My Research

So far the most useful research that I have obtained came from interviewing my Grandfather. I did not just interview him once. It seems that as I would work with the things he had told me I would have more questions and so interviewing him was very helpful. Another aspect that it was helpful because it gave me a reference point. I would have had no idea the name of the metal detecting club unless I interviewed him. From that point, I was able to research the location and the club parameters. In fact, I did not even no where it was at. Mostly, I was trying to take the information that I recieved and find a way to visualize the place

I think the biggest problem I have is my place is not home to anything major so it has been difficult finding books, internet sites on the information I need. I have been able to view maps, population size, and historic photos but it has taken several hours of searching. Also, other than viewing the maps myself I have not found anything that I found to be useful to put into my article. I have not found quotes or anything to that nature so that is the other difficult part.

I think the biggest help I could have would be tips on how to keep this a historical context on a place. I more than often want to write about the event, and as I avoid it and as I receive feedback on how to avoid it it would help.

Place In Time

After some brainstorming I have decided on a few topics that would be interesting to write about. My first idea is when my mother and father met and got married. I know this may sound cliche but I really have no idea about the subject. The only thing that I know is that it was in Clearfield, Utah. Obviously since they are my parents and them meeting is important to my being here I want to learn more about it. I also care to learn more about it because I feel that it is pretty sad that I can not say much else about it. I think from what i can remember that there story is pretty interesting. I know that they grew up 3 blocks apart and never knew one another. You would think that the story would be they were high school sweethearts but it's not and that would be interesting to learn more about. I think someone would want to know the atmosphere and development of their meeting, and what they were thinking.

My other possible topic is a culture that my father always spoke about that I want to learn more about. He was an avid metal detecter. (Yes, it is a popular hobby.) He took me out metal detecting with him on several occasions so I began to care about the hobby. (Of course, I used to think I was only used to dig up the coins while he would locat. That soon changed.) Now the event that would occur prior to my birth is the club meetings that he would attend. He told me about a particular place in Utah (I will have to look up the location), that would host a coin collecting club. After seeing all the coins that he got at that club and metal detecting it became something I wanted to learn about and discover more. He told me about his yearly membership and how he would go to these meetings where there presentations, raffles and games. I think he won a Standing Liberty Silver Dollar there before. His favorite part was the giant yard they had in the back. I think he said that once a month they would hide coins(pennies, dimes, and quarters mostly) in the back. They would let everyone in attendence go search for them. They did put about 3-5 rare coins to the lucky finders. I think someone would want to learn about this subject because it is a neat and growing hobbie, that pays... literally (although the last time I went it was only 5 pennies). I think they would need to know what entailed in the group meetings and the atmosphere involved.

My next idea was to write about my fathers college graduation. I think this would be interesting to write about because there could be so many ways that I could relate to (hoping i graduate in may!). I want to be able to understand the impact of his family at the time. I know he was married and I know that they had one or possibly 2 children when he graduated. I think that people would want to learn about this story because it is very applicable to anyones situation that is currently in school. It would be interesting to see someone elses perspective on that evening. I think that someone would need to the class size, the major, and the impact that it had on his family.

My final possible topic I had while brainstorming was writing about a particular timeframe when my mom was painting in school. She had about six months when she was producing several paintings. They were very quality paintings and she had real talent. I am mad that she used the excuse of having a family to stop religously painting. As a side note I have made her a bargain/bet and she must begin painting again give me one as a Christmas present. I think that her story would be a great way to write about painting and art culture. I have always had a fascination for it and if I had even a sliver of her talent I might have pursed that. I think that anyone that has that same love for art would also want to learn about an aspiring artist. I think that someone would need to know about the work entailed, the competition, the hours put into her art, and possibly the financing. I might possibly show some paintings on here if I can dig up some old photos.

My other ideas

Okay, so as promised here are the other two ideas I have about the student design project that is cultural. The first came because of the stories that I have always heard of my great grandfather Cot (he was called Cot because of his cotton white hair). He lived and raised his family in Heber City, Utah. At the time things were tough and he brought in a lot of food from hunting and fishing. But the part that is the most fascinating to me of what I have been told is how else he brought in money. Apparently he made is own fish fly to go and catch fish. He became so skilled that he was able to make many and sell them to people. I find his whole lifestyle of providing for family fascinating and I think it depicts culture. There must have been many like him doing the same type of thing, hunting, fishing, etc. I espicially want to discover what it was like living during that time period and I think that right now I have one of the greatest resources available, my great grandmother is still alive and it would be great to get her perspective on life at the time and how he used fly fishing and tying flys to provide.

My other idea resolves around diabetes. My father had diabetes almost all of his life and i can remember the difference it made in our life and impact. I believe it has a lot of culture and it is clearly seen in the book that he started writing about living with diabetes. My first thoughts are of course initially how this impacted me. I only had sugar free koolaide growing up along with sugar free jello. What I want to write about is how this affected a young child life. He was only eight I believe and I would like to know what that must have been like for him, my grandfather and grandmother, and aunts and uncles. I am sure there are others that are in his situation and writing something about this might be able to apply to quite a few different individuals. Okay, well there will be more on this later if I choose it, but this is what I am currently thinking.

My Idea of Student Designed Project: Beatlemania

I must say that this is difficult to pick just one thing... I guess that is why I am brainstorming and why I am writing this blog entry. There will probably be 2 or 3 entries with other possibilities. While trying to brainstorm ideas for a project of family that includes culture I immediately, as with my other posts, thought of the Beatles. My father, an avid Beatles fan, passed some of that culture on to me. I would like to research more into that time period. What it must have been like to be in the middle of Beatlemania. I especially want to find out what it was like for my father. Now of course I cannot ask him directly, but I will be able to find out the things that went on through grandparents, my mother, aunts and uncles. I think it is quite fascinating because we have always had memorabilia, songs playing, Beatles trivia in our home. (I also did one of my high school research papers on the Paul death hoax). I think the best audience for this is someone that has felt the impact of Beatlemania. This can be either someone that lived through it directly or someone like me. I would like to explore the concerts that they performed, such as when they were on the Ed Sullivan show. Or there is the concert on the roof at the apple corp. studio in London. There is so much culture here that I would like to learn and write about.

Putting my pen to paper.

My writing process consists of gathering information and then finding a way to make myself put thoghts down on paper. Once I have my fingers rolling I will just keep typing. Often this means that I will not use half of what I write, but at least i can use the other half. I will then read over my first draft to see the key ideas that need further explanation and the ideas that make the paper strong. Once I have determined what to keep and what to toss, I make more drafts. This chisel at my rough ideas to make it into a more suitable paper.

My weakness as a writer is wordiness. I have written papers where I have thrown out almost two pages of writing because it wordy information that was not needed. This is one of the areas I need improvement on, which will drastically strengthen my writing. I also have room for improvement with my grammar. I occasionally make these mistakes and I am upset every time that I do.

It is difficult to determine my exact strength with writing. I am a science major so I have never boasted of my writing. However, I feel that because I have never been the greatest at writing I have developed a strong habit of revising my drafts. The best paper I have ever written must have had more than ten drafts. The reason I call this a strength is because it requires diligence to revise a paper that many times. It is a strength to avoid the high school routine of writing the paper the night before it is due.

From the reading I learned how important it is to just start writing. It is natural to find things to do that are not writing, but if I want to make any progress I need to focus on starting. From reading the insite material I realized how important it is to understand the genre. This will shape the convention of my writing to tailor it to the readers.

Open Mic Night At Coffee Cabana: My Subculture

For young musicians and myself, there is nothing greater than experiencing open mic night. Coffee cabana hosts open mic nights where musicians can come and perform their music. Coffee cabana is a typical coffee shop with tables, chairs, and sofas. On Thursday nights, coffee cabana has it all: the people, the food and drinks, and most importantly--the music. Singers and musicians come to relax and let the good times roll as we get to perform three songs.

It is mutual among all of us performers at open mic that we must show enthusiasm, and respect for the current performer. Often time this can include tapping our feet, singing along (if we know the lyrics), and certainly clapping real loud at the end of a performance. It is a proper trait to at least act as if we are enjoying the music. Each performer gets three songs, but these songs must be limited to fifteen minutes. It is understood that we should pick our songs so we can get through them quickly so every one can have a turn at open mic.

Musicians at open mic share the same language as well. Often you will hear some guitarist say, "nice lick", 0r , "I dig your solo man." Occasionally we will also discuss what key a song is in or what chords make up the song. We will also discuss our influences. We will sing our covers of songwriters such as The Beatles, Billy Joel, The Eagles.

Musicians from all over the valley travel to open mic night to gather together with fellow musicians and to feel the thrill of performing their own music. Behaviors, phrases, and rules are apart of the open mic life whether it is at Coffee Cabana or any other coffee place.

In My Life I've Loved Them All

As you may be aware, the title of this blog and the title of this post are both references to the Beatles. The photo at the top is a photo of my father who was a huge Beatles fan. Naturally, his love for their music trickled into my life. I can remember my father telling me about his favorite Beatles song In My Life. He would quote, "All these places have their moments with lovers and friends I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living, in my life I've loved them all... Though I know I'll never lose affection for people and things that went before; I know I'll often stop and think about them..." He was fascinated with family history, especially with learning people’s stories. We would go on road trips to where he grew up and he would tell us many of his childhood stories. I was the type to tune everyone out with some headphones and a cd player, but I always took them off when he was telling me these stories. He would go on and on about my great grandfather, my grandfather, and his own childhood. I do not think that I fully appreciated the stories he told. My father died a few years ago and I stumbled across some documents of stories he was writing. I am slightly disappointed that I cannot get him to tell the stories in person but I know there are other ways of learning the histories of my ancestors. Immediately when I came across this course I wanted to sign up so I can discover these people. I hope to delve into the stories that bind my family and I together and by doing it, develop a love for these people. I expect to discover the seeds of my family’s history and say as my father, “Some are dead and some are living; In my Life I love them all.”