StorySitting
Childhood and home
12 questions
- What's the first house you remember? Walk me through the front door.
- What did your kitchen smell like on a Sunday?
- Who lived with you growing up, and what was each of them like?
- What chores did you have, and which one did you try hardest to get out of?
- What was the naughtiest thing you ever got away with?
- What did you do on summer evenings when you were ten?
- Was there a neighbor or relative everyone talked about?
- What was your town like then? What's gone now that you miss?
- What did your family do for holidays?
- What's a smell or sound that takes you straight back to being a kid?
- What games did you play outside, and who always won?
- What was the best present you ever got as a child?
Parents and grandparents
6 questions
- What do you know about where our family came from?
- What was your mother like when she laughed?
- What did your father do for work, and what did he say about it?
- What's something your parents always said that you still hear in your head?
- What did your grandparents teach you, on purpose or by accident?
- Is there a family story that's told differently depending on who tells it?
School and growing up
6 questions
- Which teacher do you still remember, and why?
- Who was your best friend, and what did you two get up to?
- What did you want to be when you grew up?
- What was your first job, and what did you do with the money?
- When did you first feel like an adult?
- What music did you love, and where did you hear it?
Love and marriage
6 questions
- How did you meet Grandma (or Grandpa)? What did you notice first?
- What was your first date? Who paid?
- How did the proposal happen? Did anything go wrong?
- What was your wedding day like, weather and all?
- What was hard about the first year together?
- What's the secret to staying together, honestly?
Work and service
7 questions
- What jobs have you had, from the first to the last?
- What was the hardest day at work you can remember?
- Who was the best boss you ever had? The worst?
- Did you serve in the military? Where did it take you, and who did you serve with?
- What are you proudest of having built, fixed or made?
- What did a day's pay buy back then?
- What's a skill you had to learn the hard way?
Raising a family
5 questions
- What do you remember about the day your first child was born?
- What was a normal weeknight like when the kids were small?
- What was the hardest part of being a parent? The best part?
- What's a family trip or disaster everyone still laughs about?
- What did you worry about that turned out fine?
Hard times and big moments
4 questions
- Where were you when big news broke, the kind everyone remembers?
- What was a hard year, and what got you through it?
- Is there a decision you'd make differently now?
- Who did you lose too soon, and what do you want us to know about them?
Looking back
6 questions
- What are you proudest of?
- What do you know now that you wish you'd known at twenty?
- What's changed most in the world since you were young? What's stayed the same?
- What do you hope we remember about you?
- What would you like your great-grandchildren to know?
- What makes a good life, in your experience?
