Great Sources

The editorial board for Ashfield History Project has turned in recent meetings to the best possible source of information about the past fifty years: those who have lived here during that period.

We already have a treasure trove at our disposal. The Ashfield Historical Society has been conducting an oral history project for the past several years. Volunteers have interviewed about thirty people who have been at the center of Town life in recent decades.

We even have one interview on video-tape. Hannah Robertson, a precocious young woman, has learned how to use her video equipment to film such conversations. John Krasnoselsky is the star of her first effort for this project; Barbara Donielo Maloney was the interviewer.

John is an avid fisherman and hunter, and a keen observer of the comings and goings of turkeys, trout, moose and whip-poor-wills. Among other things, the tape preserves an invaluable record of a century of changes in the natural environment of Ashfield.
We are eager to expand this interviewing project. We invite suggestions about whom to interview, and we especially ask for volunteers who are willing to do some interviewing. It is a lot of fun to do these interviews with neighbors, and it preserves a priceless human record.

Please contact Phyllis Kirkpatrick, Don Robinson or any member of the editorial board if you are able to help with this project.

by Don Robinson (for The Ashfield News)