Create Your COVID-19 Chronicles
Times are tough right now. The 1930’s were another time of many challenges both worldwide and in the United States. Known as The Great Depression, many people were out of work. In order to give people employment, the American government established a department called the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA created jobs for all kinds of different people. One program was called the Federal Writers Project (FWP). Under the FWP, unemployed writers were sent all over the country to record interviews with the folk, the ordinary citizens.
Now usually history is the top headlines, the big picture (and all of it filtered through someone’s agenda), but in interviewing every day people, the FWP was developing history of the people, for the people, by the people. The library of congress has thousands of interviews of people, their memories and their day to day lives….
You are a Part of History
These are also historic times. From now on, people are going to divide history into before the COVID-19 pandemic, during the time of the coronavirus pandemic, and after the pandemic. When YOUR grandchildren complain how hard life is, you’re going to tell them, “You think you have it hard? Why, in the time of the coronavirus…”.
That’s why the time is now to gather people’s stories.
Creating Your COVID Chronicle
Decide on the information you are going to gather (I would get people’s names/ages/and where they are at the very least).
Choose 2-3 key questions you are going to ask people (Something like What has been hardest about the pandemic so far? What have the silver linings been?)
Decide how you are going to record the information. You could have people fill out a google doc or Monkeysurvey. You could do zoom interviews and record them (with zoom you can choose audio+visual or just audio). You could take notes on phone interviews and write up your notes afterwards. You could even go old-fashioned and print out a paper questionnaire and hand it around your neighborhood with a self-addressed, stamped envelope for people to return it to you (if you have the money to pay for stamps and envelopes).
However you get your information, be sure to record the date (Historians love dates!).
Get permission from people to share their stories. This could be as simple as them signing a piece of paper saying “I grant (your name) permission to both record the interview information with me and to publish it in any format and on any platform available to him/her/them.” If people are unwilling to sign, you could have them sign something along the lines of “My interview with (your name) can only be used for data gathering purposes and cannot be republished in any format on any other platform.” (You can also email people and have them email you back with their permission.)
Get permission from your parents to reach out to people. They may only want you talking to your family members or family friends. Maybe they’ll let you post your request locally on a platform like nextdoor.com (They’d have to do that in their account, so they’d be able to decide whom to say yes to).
Present your chronicles. Talk to your parents and get their agreement. Maybe the chronicles will go into a COVID-19 Capsule. Maybe you will create a video and share the link just with friends, family members and all the people you interviewed. Maybe you will make the chronicles public on a platform like YouTube.
Congratulations on being an historian! If your parents allow it, I’d love to see what you come up with. You can email me at elisabeth@stitt.com