Grandpa and I first talked about this project as Aimee and I were preparing to go to Brazil at the end of 2001. It was not until after I graduated from Brigham Young University in 2003 that we really began working together. Although I completed the majority of this project between May and August 2003, it has taken more years than I would like to admit to deliver a finished product. I did not anticipate the time constraints of fatherhood and graduate school. I apologize for the wait.
I have taken all six tapes of Grandpa’s memories and have transcribed them. It has been a painstaking process but the effort has been well worth it. In this book I have attempted to preserve and maintain Grandpa’s speech. Much of the charm of these stories is delivered through the way in which they are told. Sometimes that means that the grammar is not perfect and that sentences are not complete. This is one of the realities of transcribing oral history. In some cases, however, it has been necessary to add or change a word or phrase in order to clarify the meaning. Hopefully this small detail does not detract too much from the original.
The original plan was to publish Grandpa’s book with accompanying compact discs of the original tapes. With the accessibility and ubiquitous nature of the Internet, my dad (Tom) and I recently decided that a blog may be the best way to get this information out to the family. Over the next few weeks we will be posting blog entries that come from these tape transcriptions. Along with each written entry will be the corresponding audio recording.
At some point, we will also include several dozen photographs that Tom Krause has scanned over the years. There are still hundreds of pictures and documents of Grandpa’s that we hope to eventually scan. If you have pictures out there you would like to include, just contact us. Better yet, if somebody would like to volunteer to be the official photography archivist and set up a flickr account, then let us know.
It has been a great privilege to work with Grandpa on this project. I have developed a deeper love and have gained a greater appreciation for this man. Grandpa is not perfect but many of the things that he has accomplished have had an enormous impact on his posterity. Grandpa set a precedent by being the first person in his family to attend college. He brought his family out of poverty when many people suffered during the Great Depression. Grandpa, like every human being, experienced love, joy, heartache, loss, sadness, frustration, anger, pain and happiness. In several parts Grandpa expresses his true feelings, which we know is not very easy for him to do.
It is my hope that this “book” will provide an opportunity for each of us to reflect upon the life of Paul Arthur Krause. Enjoy.
2 comments:
I am so glad you have done this! It seems like life has got to get less busy but it never does, it just speeds up! If you need help with any thing let me know...we're not too far from each other, just a state. As far as pics, maybe Mike? He is great with Family History and getting it put together...he's still in Logan, Utah. I wonder if he'd be willing to help with pics Grandpa still has. Mike? (If ya read this)...
Hey this is really cool! I'd be happy to help in any way I can. I have a scanner that I could use to scan portraits, slides and other documents. Just let me know.
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