Not all of us can count on having a professional biography published about our lives, or those of our family and friends. And our memoir keeps getting put on hold so we can sample liquor, hair products and Spanx for Men to keep you entertained and informed on a daily basis. (In fact, we’re toasting our great hair day this very moment while looking painfully skinny from certain angles.)
But we recently received a product that made us want to go all Kitty Kelley on our families. Digging up the dirt, the triumphs and the wild, passionate Love of a Lifetime that brought us screaming into this wonderful world became our crusade.
Introducing the Our Story kits from 1stPersonHistory.com.
There are various sizes, but the “Complete” kit comes with guidebooks, timelines, a digital voice recorder, a messenger bag and two nice pens. The goal? To capture the stories of your parents, grandparents, siblings, husband, wife, concubine or that retired mailman that you’re starting to resemble more and more every day.
Simply interview each of them one at a time. Then try getting people together as a group to see what stories come to life. The guidebooks are indispensible for gathering intimate details that we know we’d never think to ask of, say, our mother. Like her earliest memory. Her biggest regret. Why she always had so many “uncles” coming over to play in her bedroom.
The books have several pages for writing in details, but we say use them simply as conversation starters and let the recorder collect every moment and archive them on the computer through the USB connection.
The end result may not be a book Oprah would’ve forced upon her disciples, but the process is a fantastic way to get to know a person better. Even ourselves. Like why do we have this constant urge to deliver letters throughout the neighborhood?
Kits range from $41.00 to $130.00
www.1stpersonhistory.com
