An Insatiable Love of Story

I’m a naturally curious person for some reason. I’ve always had an interest in examining old pictures of people I’ve never met and listening to the memories of those who knew them. One benefit of being curious and interested in the lives of others (some might call me a busybody…) is the opportunity to see life through the lens of the person telling the story. As I listen I try to feel what they felt, see what they saw, and understand the experience from their unique vantage point, often so different from my own. There is an intimacy to lived experience that is difficult to share, but I crave opportunities to try.

As years go by, artifacts that would help put the jigsaw pieces back together start to disappear, or are hidden in a box in someone’s basement (but whose?). The internet can be helpful, but searching for the kind of textured, meaningful information that would bring even one person’s personality and vibrancy to life can be difficult and extremely time consuming, whether you are looking online or in a cache of boxes in someone’s basement or garage. Birth, marriage, death and census records, for example, while critically important pieces of the puzzle, just aren’t enough by themselves. The total picture remains fuzzy and incomplete.

Old family stories long hidden from view (or deliberately buried…) are the ones I find myself most fascinated by. When I see an old photograph from the 19th or 20th century, I immediately start wondering what was going on behind the scenes for the people or scenes depicted. What was the overall context? What else was happening in their lives that day? Who are they and why are they together? What were their relationships like? Were they happy? Why or why not? What were they thinking as the photo was being snapped? It’s frustrating to look at old family photos and only know who some of the people are, or maybe none. Are these people going to stay lost forever?

Birth of The 1938 Project

My taking on this project and launching this blog as a way to feed my curiosity about my own family is not happening at random. Two converging forces form the underlying motivation for what I’m calling The 1938 Project. This blog (and possibly other media) will explore aspects of both as the project unfolds. The first is my purchase of a campervan in 2022. The second is the discovery of a scrapbook.

Brief History of The Camper

Of course, once I had the van I needed places to take it. My camper buddy Kim (also featured in the Drifter Van video) and I took our campers out to some state parks and a couple of music festivals and discovered to our mutual delight that we are very compatible camping companions. (As an aside, I can highly recommend The Nelsonville Music Festival as well as the Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival if you are looking for musical fun this summer.) I’m happy to report that we remained undeterred even on the rainy, muddy weekend of the 2022 Nelsonville fest, during which my brand new van had to be towed not once, but twice, when I got stuck in the mud trying to scale a slight incline in my heavy rig. As a newbie van camper, I had (and still have) so much to learn!

Although I was having a great time doing a week or weekend here or there, I knew that I wanted to take a big trip but had no clue where I wanted to go, when I wanted to go, or how long I wanted to be gone. There was too much else going on for me to give it much thought at first.

Discovery of the Scrapbook

Also happening in 2022 was a more serious series of events, which led directly to the second underlying motivation for The 1938 Project. By 2022 both of my parents were gone, yet my siblings and I had not completed the final wrap-up and distribution of property, nor had we interred their ashes as they had requested. My father died in 2015, but my mother died during the pandemic when it was virtually impossible to take a thoughtful approach to any task, much less dealing with grief, emptying an apartment, and honoring their lives and memories. During that stressful time it was difficult to think about the best way to bring some sort of closure to the whole process of adjusting to the loss of their physical presence while also preserving their lives, love and memories in our hearts.

Over the course of many months between May 2020 and July 2022 my siblings and I boxed up and inventoried family treasures, opened boxes that had not seen the light of day in many years, and threw out everything of no value, sentimental or otherwise. What wasn’t tossed was inventoried and stored for distribution at the big family gathering we were planning (an unbelievably complex process all by itself). While arduous and unduly stressful at times, there were also many precious moments during this period for my siblings and I to share memories, figure out a fair and open distribution system (there was LOTS of stuff…!), and just love each other and hang out.

At some point in all the sorting and opening and inventorying, we came across the scrapbook. It immediately grabbed my attention.

Finding and Savoring the Breadcrumbs

I have many thoughts about how I want to document my trip. This blog is one way, which will give me an outlet to work through all the different moving parts of a trip like this. For example, part of the fun for me will be researching and trying to imagine the historical, cultural, economic context of 1938. What was going on in the United States at that time as they travelled through the Deep South and into the Southwest and California? Who were the travelers (there were 5) and why did they decide to take this trip? Who did they visit and why did they choose the route they did? What else was going on in the world at that time? I want to get into their heads and experience the trip as they did! How will their experience compare to my own context as I travel those same roads in today’s world? In a word, what are the stories waiting to be told?

My hope is that I will be able to answer at least some of the many questions I have about the trip, and in the process learn more about my mother’s family. I will share what I learn here, and who knows, maybe some distant relatives who have their own stories to tell about the same events will come forward to share what they know. That would be truly awesome!!!

One of my brothers is helping with the genealogy research to verify various dates, events, relationships, etc. and without him there probably would be no 1938 Project. Other siblings and family members (those I know and those who are “out there” somewhere) will also be welcome to help with research to fill in gaps and add texture, depth and personality to the stories I hope to tell.