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Friday, September 1, 2006
Grass-roots history
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She started with small talk - about breakfast, for example - but Stephanie Sample quickly got right to the point. "What was it like for you to think about becoming a father" she asked, mindful of the microphone in front of her. There was no hesitation from her father. "What I imagined was quite different from what happened," Tim Sample began. Sitting across from each other Thursday in the StoryCorps mobile recording booth in Congress Square, the Samples were the second pair to do an interview for the national oral history project. Between today and Sept. 24, organizers expect to collect around 160 interviews in Portland for the StoryCorps project. Sitting in a trailer converted to a recording booth, the well-known Maine humorist told his daughter of his struggle with the fear, apprehension and uncertainty of fatherhood. He couldn't help but also think about the at-times strained relationship he had with his own father and his stepfather. But Stephanie's mother was ready, and a funny thing happened as they started going to Lamaze classes, Tim Sample said. "When your mother was pregnant with you, I never saw her so happy," he said. When the delivery time came, on a "cold, worst-case-scenario Maine day," Sample said, "my perception of the world completely changed." As father and daughter talked, noontime traffic lined up along Congress Street, children chased pigeons around the square and some simply watched the silver Airstream trailer camped next to the Eastland Park Hotel. In coming to Portland, StoryCorps joined with WMPG (90.9 and 104.1 FM) and Blunt Youth Radio, which creates weekly programs produced by high school students. Blunt volunteers will edit some of the interviews, and a select few will be played on National Public Radio. Kerry Seed, assistant director of Blunt, said the city waived permit fees for using Congress Square and is providing free electricity to power the booth. Two StoryCorps Mobilebooths are touring the country, an offshoot of a project that began in 2003, said Zachary Barr, Mobilebooth advance coordinator for StoryCorps. The first StoryCorps booth opened in New York City's Grand Central Station and was followed by another booth in lower Manhattan in 2005. According to the StoryCorps Web site, more than 7,000 interviews have been recorded, all of which will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. There are no set criteria about what questions to ask or who can ask them. People who schedule interviews at the Mobilebooth are helped by workers who explain the process and do the recording. A $10 donation is requested. Barr described most of the sessions as "moving if only because everyone participates with someone close to them." As a member of Blunt, Johanna Greenberg, 17, is familiar with radio and jumped at the opportunity to interview her mother about life before she had a child. Gretchen Greenberg said she first found out about her daughter's interview plans when she read about them in the news. Having listened to other StoryCorps interviews on NPR, Greenberg agreed. The Greenbergs were the first interview Thursday. "We're eager to be a part of it," she said. Prior to their interview, Tim Sample joked with Stephanie and others about showing up late, as well as his long career. But inside the soundproof confines of the trailer, the man known for his Maine humor turned reflective. When his daughter asked him whether he has any hopes or dreams for her, Sample said the most important thing is feeling comfortable in one's own skin. "It's a wonderful thing to feel it's all right to be who I am," he said. Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380 or at
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