Class Project
10/11/14
Dear LFHS classmates,
I have been recuperating from knee replacement surgery since mid-September so I haven't done much with the oral history project yet, but I wanted to give you an update before much more time has passed. I have looked at the video of the interviews, and they yielded wonderful recollections and really gave a sense of what it was like to grow up and attend school in LF/LB. The challenge is going to be to edit them down to something manageable. I will probably try to do a few more interviews in the DC area, and, if I'm lucky, with some of the local folks in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff when I'm visiting out there in a few months (I'll contact everyone individually to find out your availability). But the next step is putting a story board and script together and sendng it on to Carroll Wetzel Wilkonson, who will edit, add, and find some historical video that we can use with the narrative.
I am beginning to see that this project will take longer to see to completion than I had originally thought. I can imagine this taking as long as a year to complete because I think it will take that much time to gather all the raw material, finish the interviews, and put together the final product. That doesn't bother me because I think it will be a lot of fun to work on, and it will continue to be a way for us classmates to keep in touch as it is put together. I am hoping to have a lot of participation in different ways. Here are ways you can help out, if you haven't already:
* Be available to be taped or help in some other way if called upon.
* Provide jpegs of photos and documents or raw material that I can scan to illustrate the history. I cannot download material you've sent to the website because the resolution wouldn't be very good, so I need to have either original documents/photos or a good scan of them. You can send them to my email at kkr1015@verizon.net. Please send these as soon as possible. If you want to send me original material, I will be sure to take good care of it and send it back to you as soon as I scan them into the computer. My address is 100 Springbrook Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20904. Historical photos either from grade school or high school, of town events, newspaper clippings, programs, etc.--all are fair game. I will probably have to use some photos from our yearbooks, but the quality of those will not be as good as original photos.
The reunion was such a grand occasion. My only regret is that I didn't have enough time to talk to as many people as I would have liked. I am so glad we are scheduling another reunion in five years and that so many of us have rekindled old friendships. I have enjoyed the photos of the post-reunions that some of you have sent and hope to see more, and perhaps contribute a few myself. I will continue to keep you posted on the progress of this project.
My best wishes to you all,
Kathy Karsten Rushing
Formerly Published
Oral History Project Update
Dear LFHS 1964 Classmates,
If you will be in Lake Forest for the reunion, please consider being part of our class's oral history project by meeting at the Senior Star at 2 pm on Saturday, August 11. From there, Kathy O'Hara, our contact at LFHS, will escort us to the Public Room (the former library) where you will have a chance to stroll down memory lane in front of a camera. You can be videotaped individually or with your friends, teammates, or any other group or individual you wish. We will tape until 4 pm, and each individual or group will have 5-10 minutes to speak. This will be a very relaxed, informal format, and should be a lot of fun for everyone. The raw material will be edited and used in a video that will include photos, film, script, and music that will be posted on YouTube and distributed to everyone who has signed up for our website as well as finding a home in the archives of the high school and the LF/LB Historical Society. The final draft of the video should be ready in early December.
Many of our classmates have already volunteered to be recorded or to help with the video in a variety of ways. This is truly a team effort. We are making LFHS history because we are the first class to undertake this kind of project.
In order to help you prepare for the recording, we are including some questions that we hope will help trigger some memories and help you decide what you want to say. These questions are meant to be suggestions on what you could talk about, but feel free to expound on any subject that is not covered by this list. If you are unable to make the videotaping, we encourage to put some memories down on paper and send them to Kathy Karsten (Rushing) at kkr1015@verizon.net by October 1. If you have old photos or memorabilia that could be used for the video, please send them along as well.
Here are the questions:
- What are your best memories about growing up in LF/LB and of high school?
- Was there a teacher or teachers who had a particularly strong influence on your life?
- Do you have any favorite stories from school?
- What lessons did you take away from your years at LFHS?
- What did you and your friends do for fun?
- Please share your memories of sock hops, proms, and other social events.
- What do you think about the rules at LFHS, such as dress codes? What did you think about them then?
- Do you think boys and girls were treated equally at LFHS (i.e. equally encouraged in academics, athletics and other nonacademic pursuits?)?
- Did you participate in sports when you were at LFHS? What was the team like? Was there a lot of camaraderie? What about the coaches? The teams’ record?
- If you are a woman, what opportunities were there to play competitive sports at LFHS? What did you think about it at the time? How have things changed?
- Did you participate in any extracurricular activities? If so, what were they? What did you enjoy the most?
- For future generations who might watch this video, is there anything you would like them to know about your experiences at LFHS and growing up in LF/LB in the post-war era?
- What historic events most affected you in high school? How? Did they change you?
- Where were you when you learned that President Kennedy had been assassinated?
- If you could hold on to one memory from your time at LFHS forever, what would it be?
- What was the most important lesson you learned at LFHS?
- If you could spend time with one of our classmates who is no longer with us, who would that be? What would you tell him/her? Why was she/he important to you?
- What surprised you most after you left high school? How was growing up in LF/LB different from the way things are where you have lived as an adult?
- How was life in the 1950s and 1960s different from the way it is now?
- What was life like for minorities in LF/LB and at LFHS in the 60s? If you were part of a minority group, what was it like for you?
- What LF/LB landmarks or places do you remember most? Are they still there? If not, what has replaced them?
- How has the area surrounding LF/LB changed during the past 50 years?
Formerly published . .
Class Project information
The Reunion Committee announces an exciting new addition to our 50th reunion, and we hope you will participate as much as you can. After consulting with local historical organizations and our representative at LFHS and making detailed plans, who are enthusiastic and supportive of this unique undertaking, the committee is serving as the umbrella group to organize, film, and produce an oral history of our class and the time and place in which we grew up. But this project cannot succeed with the help of lots of people. Below are some ways that you can help. Some ways only pertain to those attending the reunion, but others pertain to everyone.
1. Help with videography and photography at the oral history recording at LFHS from 2-4 pm Saturday. You don't need to be a professional--just comfortable taking videos and still photographs.
2. Agree to be interviewed during the time slot of 2-4 pm at LFHS. There may also be some opportunity at other times during the week to be interviewed, but this will be the main time. The interviews will take place in the old library, which is now the Public Room and has a fireplace. Kathy O'Hara, our contact at LFHS, has collected lots of memorabilia from our class from the LFHS archives and will put it out for everyone to look at while the interviews are going on. A list of possible topics to talk about will be posted on the website so you have lots of time to think about what you're going to say. You can be interviewed individually, in pairs, or in small groups.
3. Contribute historical photos, videos, documents, etc. Bring them to the reunion, email them to Kathy Rushing, or mail them to Kathy at 100 Springbrook Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20904 with a return address.
4. Let us know what you want to see in this video. Send us feed-back about the kind of topics you'd like to see covered.
5. If you can't be video-interviewed at the reunion, send in some written memories or your own home video to the addresses above.
6. If you are local, go through local archives to see if there is anything that would be appropriate for the video by October 1, 2014.
7. Send material that might be useful for the historical society's archives even if you think it isn't appropriate for a video. Any items or written material that are not included in the final video or any interviews that are edited or not included, will be put in the archives at LFHS or the LF/LB Historical Society for posterity.
8. If living in or near the DC area (where the video will be put into final form), agree to record voiceovers for the video and preview a draft.
All members of the class of 1964 will receive an electronic version of the final video and we will post it to YouTube (we will need to get releases from everyone who is interviewed, which we will do either electronically or at the reunion or both). Our hope is that the video will be ready by December 1, 2014.
If we can get those spoons and the elephant in a tree, we can do this!