• You need to have written answers to questions, but try to also get at least some audio and some video.   Let your person know the questions in advance; this usually will result in better answers.   Also ask in advance for your person to have any old photos available so you can take snapshots.

     

    Questions for Interviewee – Big History Project

    1. Where were you born? When(if comfortable answering)?  Not need a full date, just year.
    2. What type of family did you have (well off, wealthy, didn’t know)?
    3. How many people were in your family? How did that affect you growing up?
    4. How did where you were born (city, suburb, rural, foreign) affect life at that time? How did it affect later life? (*if born in another country, what did you know about the U.S., what was your family’s perception of the U.S.; at what age did you come to the U.S.?)
    5. Do you remember any prices (bread, soda, movie, candy, gasoline, anything else) from when you were growing up?
    6. Did you serve in the military, enlisted or drafted? Would you serve again under the same circumstances?
    7. Were military personnel supported by the public?
    8. What movies that were big?
    9. What major events affected you or what events do you still remember?
    10. What jobs did you hold as a youth? What was your first job as young adult? How much were you paid?
    11. Did you get an allowance, how much?
    12. How would you describe the role and importance of family for a child/young person then?
    13. Were your parents strict? How did that affect how you raised your children?
    14. What music was most popular growing up?
    15.  
    16. Would you describe yourself as a person who conformed with society? Why or why not? What were the results?
    17. What was your first car? What did it cost?
    18. Name one or two things you feel was better about growing up in your time period as opposed to today and why.
    19. What was the big or new/newer technology of your time period?
    20. What is a technology of today you would have not expected to have seen?
    21. Did you always get along with your parents/guardians?
    22. What was the best advice you received from a parent/adult during your youth?
    23. What is the best memory of your youth?
    24. What is best advice you could give me?