Questions for Nolan/Dad/Grandpa
I have learned a LOT of fascinating stuff from Dad, mostly from listening to him talk about his experiences, ideas and memories. I've made a list of some of the questions that might get him started on the best stuff.
When you lived on the farm:
- how did you get to school?
- what did you do on weekends?
- what work/chores did you do?
- what do you remember most about your father/mother at that time?
- what do you remember about the Depression?
Did you get a job or go right to college after high school? Why? How did you (get the job/get into college)?
Tell me about when you enlisted in the army. How/why did you become a paratrooper? What do you remember about basic (or paratrooper) training? What was the hardest part?
How did you get to Europe? Where did you land? Where was your first battle? After training, where and when was your first real parachute jump? What was it like?
What happened when you got shot in Belgium? How did you get medical treatment? Was it like M.A.S.H.? How long did it take until you were discharged? Where were you during that time? While you were recovering, how much could you get out of the hospital and what could you do?
How did you decide what to study in college? What was hardest (or easiest) for you? What did you do in college besides study?
How did you meet Florence? What was your first impression of her? What was it about her that caught your attention? How did you get her interested in you? What made you decide to marry her? Did you propose?
What got you interested in teaching?
What do you remember most from your first year of teaching? Was it what you had expected? How was it different?
Tell me about having the house in Ontario built:
- When did you start the process?
- What made you decide to have a house built?
- Why didn't you buy an existing house?
- How did you decide where to build it and who to hire?
- How did you decide what to build?
- How much of it could you do yourself?
- What was the lot like when you bought it? What did it take to turn it into a lawn and garden?
- What was the hardest (most interesting) part?
It usually doesn't take much questioning to get a lot of information from Nolan.
Some things I have experienced myself may make it easier and more interesting for me to connect with some of Nolan's stories:
- cruising around the Rose Valley and Glenmark area with Dad, hearing about events from his childhood in the places where they happened;
- exploring old cemetaries around Wayne County (and beyond) with Dad, finding family headstones from past generations, hearing related stories, and memorizing lineage: Lovilla begat Lovina, etc;
- going to college in Albany, and being familiar with the places where Dad (and Mom) lived and studied (I've even hung out in Draper, Pierce and Sayles Halls);
- traveling around France and Belgium with Dad, seeing where events in his memories happened;*
- reading books about the Great Depression and relevant parts of World War II has provided context for his stories;
- watching "The Band of Brothers" videos, and reading about the Battle of the Bulge before going to Belgium, gave me a better understanding of what it was like;
* - As we were walking on an overgrown lane through a forest in Belgium, Nolan pointed to a place in a shallow ditch along the path. One night, about fifty years earlier, his outfit had been walking in a double line along both sides of that lane, when he saw Lt. Allingham (who was walking in front of him) killed by an incendiary shell at that spot. He spoke of crawling past the lieutentant's burning body in the darkness several times under enemy fire while he and his squad tried to get through. It sounded like Nolan had liked and respected Allingham; describing him as an older guy (probably 25 years old) who was really good to the young guys. Somehow, hearing the story as we stood where it happened made it very real and personal.