“I take each day as it comes—and I’m grateful for each one,” said the senior citizen on the CD. Students at Amundsen High School, 5110 N. Damen Ave., recently finished “History in the Making,” an oral history project which records the memories of middle-aged and senior citizens, some of whom graduated from Amundsen themselves. Besides capturing valuable insights about life in years gone by, the project connected youth with older generations. Recorded in CD format, the result contains young voices full of curiosity and surprise, old voices with earnest stories and wise adages, bits of lilting song and brief interludes of Spanish.
Eric Markowitz, a teacher at Amundsen who led the project, intends to continue the oral history effort, focusing even more on Amundsen alumni from now on.
“Mother used to say, ‘Watch for the lamplighter,’” one woman recalled, “and I’d watch out the window. He’d come each evening to light the gas street lamps and each morning to put them out.” She recalled the gas jets which illuminated her home and the construction of the local electric plant.
One World War II veteran spoke forcefully of the experience of being a prisoner of war for three years in Japan, with frequent unprovoked beatings and only soup with bugs in it to eat. Another nursing home resident recalled peaceful years of marriage and cooking casseroles, and regretted not practicing piano more.
Orchestra music and the days of Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge are remembered by many people, but one man spoke of his horse and wagon milk run through the scattered homes of Budlong Woods. Another spoke of a significant event in her life: asking her dying mother for forgiveness for being sassy and receiving her mother’s assurance that she’d always been a joy.
“The world was slower then,” mused one man. “Were you around for the Model T Ford?” inquired the student. “Of course! There were three pedals on the floor: reverse, forward, and brake. If the brakes didn’t work, you hit the reverse!”
Remembering her favorite folk songs and hiking club, one woman advised, “Laughter is the best medicine.” “There are no two people alike, and that’s a good thing,” another observed.
Recollections by the Amundsen alumnae, who graduated in 1964 and 1965, differed from those of the seniors. Interviewed as a group, these seven women recalled gangs meeting near Riverview to fight with brass knuckles, and one boy who died from a gang initiation. To the surprise of the current Amundsen students, they described strict mores: a boy and girl who were caught kissing behind the school parking lot were suspended, and any girl who became pregnant was expelled. The alumnae vividly remember hearing that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated and that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot. They spoke of the unrest in the United States as the Vietnam War was beginning.
Markowitz is executive director of the Milkwood Foundation, whose goal is to empower people, especially underserved populations, through sound art. Sometimes kids tell their own stories, hospice patients make a recording for their families, or students create music to record. To learn more about the foundation or the oral history project, visit www.milkwood.org, or call Markowitz at (773) 782-8263.
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