On Thursday, June 12th, 2015 Abby and I interviewed Walter and Charlotte Slagle as well as Rene Coxon. The five of us, as well as their two children (7 in total) all sat in a room in a nursing home as Abby covered most of the questions and I tired my best to capture all the sound that was bouncing around the room.
My personal favorite stories that they told were of the reactions to winning the war. Rene recalled that she had graduated high school only a few days before the war was over. She said that during her senior year, everyone had to write an essay about when they thought the war was going to end. If I were in her shoes, I'd probably be shocked to hear that it ended only a few days after I graduated.
One of the funnier stories that resulted was when her brother celebrated by firing a shotgun into the air and hitting a transformer. It made for one hell of a flashy celebration, that's for sure. They said that lots of people celebrated with guns; it reminded me of when the Capels said that people celebrated with fireworks. It must have been a loud celebration.
One thing that I didn't really account for when I listened to the interview is how 7 people in a room will result in some interruptions as well as people talking over each other. I wouldn't be surprised if I mislabeled who said what, because it wasn't always easy to recall what people sounded like after only speaking with them for about an hour. Hopefully my transcription won't have too many mistakes.
--Elijah
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