Learning Process: Interview with the Gills.

On 6-11-15, Abby and I interviewed Charles Gill and his wife, Frances Long Gill.  Charles is in his 90s and is a WWII vet.  Frances is also in her 90s and was a Washington College student during the war.

Unlike the other interviews I did this week, Abby was the one who held the microphone and I was the one who asked the questions. I'll admit, I'm better at holding the mic and Abby does a better job at probing with questions.  It was a bit of an awkward interview in my opinion as we had two different people with two different stories both being interviewed at once.  There was a lot of moving around in terms of getting both stories in.  Sometimes they'd say things that linked, other times they'd say things that didn't, one time we were each talking to a different person, making the scenario just a bit awkward.

I learned that I'm not the best at probing questions.  I had a tendency to stutter a lot and lose track of which question I was on as well as which one I was going to do next.  Similarly, Abby had her own issues with the recording, dropping the device at one point.

This post is focused more on the general reversal of roles in the interview rather than what I learned in the interview because, to be honest, a lot of what I learned came from no longer being the person who handles technical things.  I learned that it's more difficult than it looks to probe people for questions and that it's not easy being in the spotlight.  Granted I already had an idea of a lot of that but I never really experienced it until now.

--Elijah