About Us > StoryLine in the News

There's fat to chew at the dinner table this Christmas that has nothing to do with ham, stuffing or bread pudding.

While the food settles, ask a great-aunt or grandfather about their first memories or their favorite relatives.

Family stories, particularly those from older family members, can yield a bounty of benefits, experts say. They serve as threads that tie together generations while making the storyteller feel important and appreciated.

Reminiscing is good for people of all ages, said Jeff Williamson, a professor of geriatrics and gerontology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

"It has health benefits in a lot of ways in terms of improving mood and helping build intergenerational bonds and can really make family occasions, like we're all about to experience, so much happier," Williamson said.

Based on anecdotal observations, he said, older family members can feel less isolated when they open up about the past.

"They may not be on Facebook or in the computer age, but it's a good way for us to go back and enjoy the age in which they lived," Williamson said.

Storytelling, one of the most ancient of traditions, is enjoying a bit of a revival, thanks in part to StoryCorps, a nonprofit organization that invites people to share their stories. Since 2003, more than 60,000 people have participated nationwide.

Some of the stories collected through StoryCorps are broadcast weekly on National Public Radio, while others have been collected in two best-selling books. In addition, StoryCorps launched a National Day of Listening in 2008 to inspire people to talk with family members. Former President George W. Bush, his sister, Dorothy, and Yoko Ono and her son, Sean, are among those who have shared stories for the project.

Locally, the ECHO Network, a nonprofit organization, started StoryLine, which asks people to share their stories in an old bookmobile that has been converted into a listening booth. The Hospice and Palliative Care Center in Winston-Salem will soon launch a project to collect their patients' stories and put them on video if families are interested.

Sam Gladding, a professor of counseling at Wake Forest University, said more families are recognizing the power of stories.

"I think it's because stories reveal meaning in people's lives. They are actually great ways of teaching younger children and adults about what the world is like and how to live in it," Gladding said.

Chenita Johnson has been collecting her family's stories in notebooks since the 1970s. By mining the memories of her grandmother and older cousins, she stumbled upon a trove of fascinating stories.

Her great-great-grandfather, she learned, was a free black man who used to climb into trees with a shotgun to avoid being caught by slave traders who would raid the homes of black families at night, looking for men. To stay awake, he put cayenne pepper in his eyes.

Such stories give her a fuller picture of her family and add depth to her own life, Johnson said.

"To know that you just didn't happen, but that there were people who came before you. … They just weren't names," she said.

Lorenzo Meachum, a Greensboro-based storyteller who has taught at Winston-Salem State University, often uses family stories for material. His older relatives weren't rich or well-known. They ironed clothes and worked in factories, but their stories, he said, have always intrigued him.

Stories of such ordinary people give a better insight into the American experience than, say, the stories of the Rockefellers or the Kennedys, Meachum said.

"America was built on a very basic level by plumbers, doctors, truck drivers, the ladies who worked in dress factories," he said. "People have convinced themselves that they're nothing, but when the family comes to you and says, 'Turn off the TV. We don't want to hear Oprah. Grandma, tell us your story,' it's fascinating."

By LISA O'DONNELL AND MICHELLE JOHNSON | Winston-Salem Journal