Meet Leo.

I was immediately excited to have been partnered with Leo and after his first words with me on the record I knew this would be a good interview:

There's this cold going around. My ears are sore. So.

Am I talking loud enough?

Yeah, you are, but I can hear him, him, him...

(Leo points at two gentlemen right next to us and one fifteen feet away).

So, you have supersonic hearing?

Yeah. But It's on muffle.

There you have it. Supersonic hearing on muffle. Irony of the century. 

A Visit to the Nursing Home

I interviewed Jean, who was born in 1946 and lived in the UK when she was young. She lived mostly in Chicago throughout her life.


Well they cook for you but you have to do your own uh laundry… stuff like that. But uh, it’s almost the same as this. But here, you take your laundry downstairs to be done. But I like doing my own stuff. I miss doing that. Yeah, do your own stuff, having your own time. Yeah, being my own boss.

Interview Images

Hey all, here's a pool of photographs that Christa and Xavier took during our interview visit (move your cursor over the bottom of the slideshow for more images, including some from great ones from Etta and Irene). A lot of the "avant garde" compositional choices were for the privacy of the residents we talked with. There are more photos on our Memory Museum photoset. These are the start of our collective research archive, and can be used as the basis for zine illustrations or comics, repurposed into a slideshow, video, or collage.

Advice From Eddie

Put your mind to a goal. Achieve it, keep on goin'- don't stop. Don't turn, don't turn back. Alright? Don't turn back. Uh huh. You shouldn't, or you're not, you're not gonna get anywhere, know what I mean? Nope, you're not gonna get anywhere. That's true.

Experiences from the nursing home

I interviewed an elderly man named Robert last week at the Alden Nursing home. He was born in Chicago in 1951 and talked mainly about his time drifting as a hitchhiker with his band during the 60’s. He was very open with me about his personal life, and all of his experiences during his youth.

The things that struck me seem somewhat shallow to myself, but they were the things that I overlooked so easily, such as the fact that there was marijuana in the 60’s and that hippies did in fact smoke it, and that it did not just somehow sprout up in the last decade. It made me put that into perspective and realize which age group was a part of which social movement and I found that interesting. I’m hoping to interview him again next week to find out more about his life.

Alden Nursing Home - Part 1

My experience at the retirement home was very good. I was paired with a man named Milton Doogal. As you all saw, he picked me out of the line-up -- I didn't have to do much work at all. The common question he kept asking me was, "So what else do you want to know?" Immediately followed by him starting into another story without me asking anything. The information that he was spilling ranged back and forth between very personal accounts of life events, and an insider view of living at the home.

When I got it completely typed out, the interview came out to be 10 pages! I'm looking forward to sharing some of Milton's wonderful insight (such as how he made it to 81 and how to keep a successful marriage going) with you guys next week.

Interview REversal

S: Do you ever think you'll be put in that situation, What do you think your family would do?

P: I'll probably be put in a retirement home.

S: You think you'll be put in a retirement home?

P: All the people in my family have been put into retirement, why wouldn't I?