Sending Storytelling Treasures to the Future

While I don’t advocate intentionally “losing” storytelling media, there is a certain pleasure when something wonderful is rediscovered.

For veteran CBC journalist Rick Howe, this is exactly what has happened. During a recent moving of his home and contents, he stumbled upon a cassette tape recording of a live radio phone-in show from 1978. Amazingly, the show featured the unscripted recollections of survivors of the Halifax explosion of December 6, 1917. The tape contains the contextual recollections of average Nova Scotians who were going about their daily lives when the historic event transpired.

The discovery of these recordings brings new interest to the Halifax Explosion as seen through the eyes of regular citizens. The full accounting of the tape’s discovery is enjoyed on the CBC’s site.

The CBC story gave me pause to appreciate the more meaningful parts of my own storytelling work. Whether it’s for our local business community or for families who are preserving their own narratives, the mission of sending storytelling treasures to the future is an exciting one. Knowing that someday someone will reopen a window to our current lives through a Life Story film adds meaning to the work I do in this field.

Here’s a sample of one of my 2023 Life Story projects that intentionally captures the stories of a local family: