I was privileged enough to be able to sit in and listen to the first interview between Evleen and her storyteller Bevan. This interview took place between Recess and Lunch in the Retreat House conference room at St Johns’ Grammar School. As well as Bevan, Ev and myself, Jodie, a staff member at the Community Centre and also one of the coordinators of the Telling Our Stories project, was also present. Everyone present introduced themselves and then took a seat; Ev, Bevan and I at one end of the table, and Jodie at the other.

The interview between Ev and Bevan began, and Bevan began to talk about his chosen subject, his childhood in Claire, which he dubbed as “the good old days”. As Bevan talked, Ev listened intently and took notes on a laptop, which surprised Bevan, as he was expecting notes to be taken with a pen and paper. During the interview, Bevan did most of the talking, with Ev only interrupting to ask for clarification or more detail on a particular subject.

Bevan talked about many things during the interview, including his childhood in Claire, and how it contrasted to the childhood of today’s generation. He also talked about what it was like growing up in a country town specifically, remarking on how there was no graffiti or violence, and that everyone left their doors unlocked, as they didn’t fear being robbed. Children were also allowed to go out by themselves, as it was considered safe to do so, as everybody knew everyone else in the town. He spent a lot of his free time outdoors and played a lot of sport.

Bevan was also kind enough to leave some old school magazines with Ev to help her with her assignment. After the interview had finished, Jodie talked to Ev about the interview, and whether or not she wanted to organise a time for the next interview. She also asked Ev if there was any more specific information she required at the next interview. She also asks Ev if she has decided what application she will choose for her project, but she hadn’t decided which one to do yet.

The staff at the Community Centre had replied to Mr Scobie’s email, confirming some of the interview times that were previously decided upon by the students. However, some of the times provided by the students weren’t suitable for the storytellers, and the affected students were consulting with Mr Scobie about arranging new interview times. The students whose times had been confirmed were trying to organise transport with each other and also with Mr Scobie now that they knew when and where their interview would be taking place.

This is an photo of Jos Spurr and Dorothy Pargeter, former principal of St John's Grammar, at the Coromandel Community Centre.

This lesson was, like the last one, spent trying to organize interview times between the storytellers and the students. This proved a little difficult, as it became apparent that getting transport to the Community Centre for these interviews would be a problem for quite a few of the students. However, many interview times were decided upon, and it was a productive lesson. These interview times were emailed by Mr Scobie to the Community Centre.

Mr Scobie had asked the class to write down a few preferences on who each person would like as their storyteller for homework the night before, but only a few people had written anything. This was discussed in class, and it became clear that most people weren’t sure who they wanted to interview, and some didn’t seem to care. Mr Scobie let people make their decisions in class, and although most people were able to pick a storyteller, some people had to be assigned one, or needed help in choosing one. There was also a couple of arguments between students over who would get to interview the more popular storytellers, and Mr Scobie solved these arguments by simply flipping a coin.

After everyone had been assigned a storyteller, Mr Scobie began to organise some of the initial interview times. Not many people were able to confirm an interview time with Mr Scobie, and this resulted in him complaining to the class about their lack of organization and their apparent laziness.