Eighty, Meet 18: Seniors Talk, Youth Listen, and a Valuable Collection is Born
HCCDC is starting a new inter-generational oral history collection in Chevy Chase DC this fall involving residents of the community’s five retirement residences. Its intent is to capture the stories and memories of the eldest among us — whose lives are rich with experiences, reflections, and wisdom — by high school students, whose adult lives are still ahead of them.
“Eighty, Meet 18” will involve a maximum of 10 student interns who will conduct one oral history each. Transcripts of these oral histories will be archived in a special collection on this website, making them part of the public record to be referenced by historians of the future as well as family, neighbors, and other interested readers. They will be valuable first-person accounts of the era in which these narrators have lived. The experience of sharing a person’s life story is rewarding for the interviewees and enlightening for students, who will have the opportunity to look at life from a different generation’s perspective. Students also gain skills in interviewing, listening, and writing, and are introduced to the value of historical narratives.
A “call for applicants” is being announced through area high schools and community organizations starting Sept. 30. Interested candidates have until Oct. 14 to apply. The application process is simple — students are being asked to write a 250-word essay on why they want to be part of this project and what skills they bring to it. Essays should be emailed to program director Cate Atkinson at cate.atkinson@gmail.com.
Three student leaders — all high school seniors this year — joined the project early on, helping design its structure and goals and creating the future website. They are Charlie Martin of Walt Whitman High School, Maddy Fine of International School of Washington, and Phoebe Sood of St. John’s College High School. Two of these student leaders, Maddy and Phoebe, also participated in a HCCDC/UDC partnership that produced oral histories of eight descendants of the African American families who were evicted from Broad Branch Road a century ago so their land could be used by the new suburban community to build a white’s-only school.
Marc Minsker, a vice principal at Jackson-Reed High School, is a key partner in this new oral histories endeavor, as are the five Chevy Chase DC retirement communities that have partnered with HCCDC: Chevy Chase House at 5420 Connecticut Ave. NW; Sunrise Senior Living at 5111 Connecticut Ave. NW; Ingleside at Rock Creek at 3050 Military Ave. NW; Knollwood Life Plan Community at 6200 Oregon Ave. NW; and Regency House at 5201 Connecticut Ave. NW.