Quote:
Originally posted by jluetjen
svandamme;
When your relative starts telling their old stories, be sure to have some sort of tape recorder with you to record them. I wish I had done that with a number of my relatives, but hadn't. And now most of them have passed away, and they've taken the family stories with them. Especially those stories to a lot of the people and places that we still have pictures from.
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well, i currently have a book on backorder, about the reconstruction of Ypres... written by the ex-husband of my neece, who works as a researcher in the In Flanders Fields Museum
haven't read it yet, but i'm pretty sure he did go around the old folks in our familly to get these stories recorded...
i understand your tip for having a recorder with me, but i would rather take mental notes, and write it down, something about going there with a recorder that creeps me out... feels impersonal , just like i'm just going there for his data, not his company.. i'm weird that way...
note
just finished his other book
it's not what i call an exiting read in the sense of a good flowing story, but it's a very good historical work about Ypres, the War, and how the Menin Gate came about...and what the Menin Gate means...and what the Last Post really means...
for instance, Churchill himself, wanted Ypres to remain untouched, in ruins as a memorial, but the locals wouldn't let that happen..
Some Canadian General, was doing some ego tripping, running around without approval from his governement, in a way to try and get his memorial plans done..
Hitler came to visit the Gate twice...
the Pope came, the Queen of England, several times...Churchil, a long list of big names, they all came to my little hometown...it's only now that i left and moved to R'dam 5 years ago, that i realize it's significance... the sooner i move back, the better