This book was published in 1996. It’s a relic, both of the times recounted by the subjects, but also of the time the book was written. Most of the interviews took place between 1990-1994, which was almost 30 years ago at this point. It was such a different time. It was a time before the internet. It was a time where many people from the Greatest Generation are the age that Boomers are now. Most of the people in this book are gone, and we can only read about their stories, or listen to interviews, we can no longer talk to them directly.

I was just a kid in the early 90s. I grew up sitting under a desk in a senior center where my grandma volunteered. My grandpa owned a gold mine and could have easily been in this book if he’d still been alive in 1990. I was familiar with people like the ones interviewed in this book, but I was too young to really ask good questions.

So this book is awesome if you wish you’d had the chance to talk to more elderly people before they passed, or if you’re interested in the culture of the united states between about 1930 and 1990.

Each interview is about two or three pages and is accompanied by a photo. Most of them were aired on All Things Considered or Morning Edition in the early 90s. There’s a man who’d been in jail since before desegregation and only knew about the outside world based on things he’d seen on television. There are many stories from before the civil rights movement. There’s the guy who shook Robert Kennedy’s hand right before he was shot. There are religious zealots. There are unusual doctors. And of course, there are people who are trying very hard to share very specific interests with the world. Each story is very folksy and charming.