Preserving memories of a ‘long and happy life’

Students, storyteller record and share living histories

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Chris Rossi⁄The Gazette Storyteller Candace Wolf of Takoma Park works with students Thursday at Rock Creek Forest Elementary for a living history project in which fifth-graders interview area senior citizens and reinterpret their stories in pictures and prose.

As she sat in her wheelchair, three fifth-grade Rock Creek Forest Elementary School students stood before her Thursday in the school’s cafeteria, recalling events that occurred in and during Kuhns’ life.

Yusuf Madyun, 11, of Chevy Chase; Maddie Osborne, 10; and Courtney Wheeler, 10, both of Silver Spring recounted Kuhns’ memories of the influenza epidemic of 1919, the Depression and her teaching career at Oakland Terrace Elementary School.

‘‘I am most proud of the fact that I was married for 63 years and lived a long and happy life,” they concluded in unison.

The fifth-grade students learned about Kuhns and other local seniors with Takoma Park oral historian and storyteller Candace Wolf, 57, who did a month-long artist-in-residency program at the school.

Three classes participated in the program, learning about lives of seniors from Pilgrim Baptist Church and Springhouse. They talked to the elders about their lives, reinterpreted their stories in pictures and in writing, then performed the stories to an audience that included their elders at the conclusion of the residency.

‘‘There’s something very magical about having your personal life story and personal memories brought to life,” Wolf said.

‘‘I loved it,” Kuhns said, adding she used to be a teacher and enjoyed being around children again.

The children asked her good questions about her personal history, as well as some of America’s history, Kuhns said. She said she thought that made them feel like they belonged.

‘‘I didn’t know one person’s life story could be so important in history,” Wheeler said.

‘‘She gave her life story and we can pass it on,” Osborne said.

To Learn more To have your students learn the stories of elders in their communities, call Candace Wolf at 301-270-5909 or e-mail teller1949@aol.com.

Alexia Thorpe, 10; Cecilia Gomez, 11, and Christopher Persaud, 10, all of Silver Spring, learned about the life of Silver Spring resident Jenny Nash, who was born in Mississippi.

They learned how Nash, now 84, dealt with segregation, and how she couldn’t ride the bus like white children could, Persaud said, adding things have changed over the years. ‘‘I think that it’s better now because we can be together, black and white people.”

Together, the group learned Nash’s life story from as far back as she could remember, Thorpe said, and put it into their own words. It was a little hard, she said, ‘‘because she has all the details. We weren’t there when it happened.”

Learning someone else’s history and sharing it is a powerful experience, Wolf said. Bringing seniors to the school was a new and valuable experience for both them and the students. ‘‘The purpose is to really bring these people out of the shadows and into the community. One of the central goals is to strengthen the role of elders in our communities.”

Seniors said they enjoyed the program as much as the children did. Dorothy Harrison of Silver Spring, who was born in Barbados and lived in China during the Great Revolution, said talking with the children brought back memories she hadn’t thought of in a long time.

‘‘Children need to be aware of what went on in the past,” she said. ‘‘The past will help them achieve great things in their lives.”