This is the third post in the LegacySpoken founder series. A story I half-know — and wish I knew completely.
My grandparents owned a small grocery store and a movie theater in Kansas City during the Depression. They had an ice cream counter. My dad Albert and his brother Rollie and his sister Doris all worked the counter as kids. People came through town with nothing — looking for food, for work, for somewhere to sleep — and my grandparents fed them. I do not know how many. I do not know the names. I do not know what they served.
I know the kindness was a fact. I know it shaped my father's whole life. I know I wish I had recorded the way he talked about it.
If your grandfather lived through the Depression, that is one of the most important questions you can ever ask him. Make sure his answer is recorded in his actual voice — not paraphrased, not summarized, the real thing.