by Bob Stannard
A most wonderful event occurred Saturday, April 25. My eleven year old grandson had a school assignment. The task was to interview an adult in his life. As is the case with many kids today they have plenty of adults in their lives that would meet the criteria. In the case of my grandson, Zachariah, he told his mom that he wanted to interview me.
I was afforded the questions in advance and told to keep my answers short as Zach will have to transcribe the interview. Those who know me even a little bit know that “short answers” are not my long suit. After some serious rehearsing on Friday practicing brevity, I was ready!
The questions were mostly about what my life was like when I was his age. But before I get to that I’ll have to stop and reflect on the actual request. I had to stop and think about the times I’ve been interviewed. As a legislator I was interviewed on my thoughts on issues. I’ve been interviewed as a lobbyist on whatever issue was relevant at that moment. I was interviewed by the Bennington Banner when I announced my retirement from live performances (more on that later). I had been on the other side having done many interviews for Barrelhouse Blues E-zine and as host of GNAT-TV’s Q&A Live for 8 years. But being interviewed by my grandson about my life was a first.
As I thought about getting ready for the interview yesterday I could not help but pause to ponder how this might go. Would Zach be totally bored and yawn through what might be very boring answers to him? Would he read the questions as though they were just a script and not really engage in a conversation? His mom had decided that recording the interview would make it easier to transcribe, but would it also allow him to be somewhat detached; just go through the motions? I was actually getting a little nervous about this.
Here are the questions I had to answer:
1. What fun things did you do when you were my age in the afternoons, on weekends, and during vacations when you weren’t in school? What was the most fun?
2. How old were you when you could play independently without supervision in your
neighborhood (ex. walk/ride, take a bus to a friend’s house, go to the local store)? What did that feel like?
3. What is one time you were playing alone with friends or by yourself and something
went wrong? How did you (and your friends) respond? What did you learn and how did you grow from that experience?
4. What was it like when your family got their first computer? Do you remember the
sound a computer used to make when it connected to a modem/the internet? What did it sound like? Did having a computer in your home change the way you played or worked on school work?
5. What was one of your first experiences with social media (ex. MySpace, Facebook, etc.)? How is it different from your social media use today?
6. If you were a tech wizard, what might you change about technology or social media use today?
After reading the questions I panicked. If I answer these questions my grandson will think he’s talking to a dinosaur! There’s no way I can answer these questions without sounding like some ol’ geezer left over from the Civil War or something. The more I thought about the questions the more it became clear that I was born and raised into a very different world than that of my grandson.
He can never remember a time when there were no cell phones, screens, social media, televisions, electronic remote controlled race cars, car seats, seat belts, electronic scoreboards at the school’s athletic games or cable TV. He has no idea that there was a time when if you had a TV it was only black and white and that you had an outdoor aerial antenna that you had to rotate manually to get one of the three available TV channels; ABC, CBS and NBC. He has no clue what “snow” is on the TV!
No, I can’t possibly do this. How can I do this? No way. Sure I could do an interview on my role in passing the “Patient’s Choice” legislation or working to shut down an aged, leaking nuclear power plant, no problem. But communicating what my life back in the 1950’s was like to my eleven year old grandson? Nope, not going to happen. He’ll think I’m a mummy from the grave.
Well, like every other day over the past nearly 75 years, yesterday came and went. We did the interview. It was unnerving how cool and calm my grandson was. I refused to let him see that I was a nervous wreck inside. My rather large, white moustache helped conceal my terrified facial expression.
It turned out that the interview came off without a hitch. Zach was very professional in his delivery of the questions and once I got going I was able to blather on in short concise sentences.
When it was over I asked him why, of all the adults that he knows, did he choose me. He said, “Well, Bob-O (I despise the title of “grandpa”) you have the best stories.
Yesterday was a great day, indeed.
the author is a blues musician, former legislator and State House advocate from Manchester Center