Oral history (offshoot of the encyclopedia thread)

I'm curious how many of you baws took the time to pay attention and learn from your grandparents. Sharing my experiences..

Until my grandpa died and my grandma moved to a nursing home their custom built house still had a 50s/80s feel. They had the house constructed and only once (mid 80s) did they put in new flooring. I used to have to shower in a cement walled basement shower...one night I discovered a 1960s Playboy hidden up top. At that age my mind was blown. He was in the 101st that dropped into Bastogne and "robbed the cradle" (as my uncle puts it) as he was born in '17 and she was born in '25.

My generation was so lucky that the timing worked out the way it did. I didn't need an encyclopedia, they could tell me all about the depression, war, EVERYTHING about the Sunday afternoon movie being interrupted by the Pearl Harbor announcement, and they traveled a ton...Jerusalem, W&E Berlin, and all over Western Europe before settling down for yearly 2 week vacations to Palm Springs with their friends.

On the backend of life I paid it back a bit by introducing them to the internet in '96 (it blew their mind) and then 10 years later when I walked in with my laptop to show them pictures and video of their 1st great grandson. Little did they know I had started the webcam as they looked at the pictures and that recording is the last one we have of them together. (Also had several recordings with a camcorder that were taken covertly.)

I think the fact that Gen X was the last to have that 1st person telling of the 20th century is why we are the last of those not all about themselves. My great grandpa was born in 1900 and died the day I turned 14. In hindsight, you can see how the century formed him. When he died my older relatives spent days finding money around the house. 60 years later he still didn't trust the banks. At 14 I was too busy chasing tail and that oral history is gone. It wasn't until after reading a Studs Terkel book in high school that I saw just how important it was. I've been putting that oral history into videos for future generations. I feel like it's overlooked and unappreciated in the Digital Age. Something that will hopefully be valued again in future generations.

So what are your favorite things learned via family oral history?