Who would like to interview D.A.R employees at the museum?

[stem]

Janet Kroetch wrote me yesterday with an idea that is so down home it makes me want to pack up and move tomorrow. This could even be done on a regular basis and be a part of the charm of the museum. Won't someone please pick up the flag on this. I'm dying to do it myself but you see there's this little problem with distance.

Janet writes:

...I was at the station today. My son, Jacob (15) was there on "take your kid to work" day and since he loves trains and Dad works in Africa, this was perfect. Anyway, Fred Balcombe showed up. He is about 87 and was a long time employee of D.A.R. He still has a few old buddies that worked with him on the DAR. I suggested we get a group of them together and perhaps one of your interested railway enthusiasts would interview them for your site. They're getting on in years and will take all their knowledge to the grave if someone doesn't record this now. Just a thought as I know how interested you are in the history of the DAR. He remembers when the railway said they were changing things for the good of the public, etc. and how the mail slowly stopped arriving on the train. He was a clerk and handled a fair bit of day to day stuff here and in Kentville.

Let me know if you are interested and I'll try to arrange something. He knows the guys that are still around to tell their stories. He's been a great supporter of our museum and will help anyway he can.

Times a wastin' so let me know.

Janet

[downeastrailfan]

This is something I wanted to do when I was living in Wolfville, but didn't have connections Now, I'm in Dartmouth, and I have a connection.

I wanted to write a "Tales of the Rails" type book, in the style of that series about NF railroading. It's the one element missing in DAR writings. I would gladly welcome a co-author.

I don't have a camcorder, but someone should record these interviews, or perhaps I could borrow one. If no one else is interested, I'll bite. Steve, any idea as to how many willing former employees there are and their ages?

[DAR9058]

I used to do something similar when I worked for the cable company in the Valley. We used to record interviews with war veterans -Veterans' Affairs Canada and the local branches of the Royal Canadian Legion were also involved, and kept tape copies for their reference. Tapes were also duplicated and sold to the families for a small fee.. When I first arrived in Winnipeg I worked on a 24 part TV documentary series where we recorded the stories of Jewish Holocaust survivors and their families. I really enjoyed working on that sort of programming -it really doesn't take much to make it happen, actually.

If I could find a source for such funding I would take some time off work (or make this my full time job!), rent a couple cameras, buy a decent editing software package for my laptop, and head back home to do this... I wonder if Heritage Canada or the National Film Board would provide such funding... Who could we get as a corporate sponsor?.. The CPR?...

-Jeff Keddy

[Dan Conlin]

Good idea. I am a great believer in Oral History and have done quite a few interviews for work. Right now I have a backlog of interview transcripts that I'm working on or I would volunteer to help out - always feel a bit guilty that I didn't record Leon Barron's many stories.

If it is of any help, I wrote a short guide to oral history interviews for the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society with some basic tips (don't forget to do up a simple release form) and standard useful questions: http://nslps.com/r&p_oral_history.asp

Dan Conlin

[downeastrailfan]

Jeff,

Try contacting the NS Railway Heritage Society. They might know of, or have access to funding for such a project.

[hollyhanes]

Dan if you have that release form I would love a copy as well as the questions and suggestions my email is hanesh@live.com or my daughter's is holly_r_hanes@msn.com
Thanks
Holly& Heather