Larry Bensky
Larry is renown radio personality with Pacifica Radio of California. He was a young Yale graduate in the 1960's fighting for social justice at every angle and I interviewed him recently, specifically about his experiences living in one of the first major "hippy communes" in America. (As a follow-up, we have another conversation planned to talk about the famous summer of 1968!)
Janet Pollock
In my interview with Janet, we learn what it was like to be an orphan in the U.S. in the 1940's, before social systems were in place for tragic family situations like Janet's. Her mother died when she was 4 and her father died suddenly of a massive heart attack when she was 9, leaving her alone in San Diego, in the care of a woman who she now believes was a prostitute. At the age of 10, neglected in every way, Janet found a postcard in a drawer with the name and address of her aunt who lived across the United States in Washingon, D.C. The woman she was living with put her on a bus to cross the country alone. Of course, she lost her ticket and what little money she had by the time she reached Texas. But there is a happy ending and the story is amazing!
Carla Helfrich
Carla, now well into her 80's, was a child in Germany near the end of WWII and she tells us about the way ordinary people were forced to live during those final years of the war. She remembers being one of the children that would run alongside the American tanks as they rolled into her village, and the children begged for cigarettes and chewing gum.
Thomas V.
In my interview with Tom, we learn about another aspect of being a young man in the 1960's. (From my earlier interview with Bob Verderber, we learn about being a soldier who volunteered to fight in Vietnam but ended up getting assigned to the Pentagon for the duration.) Tom was a "conscientious objector", one of many who refused to participate in the draft as a matter of conscience. Those were turbulent times when it comes to the changing definition of "patriotic" and obeying "authority".
Ned Brannon
Ned is a classic Vermonter: dairy farmer all his life and through much of that, he was also a rural mail carrier. The stories abound! The extraordinary complexities of delivering the mail in Vermont winters, the neighbors, and friends who were true characters, the wonders of coming from generations of resilient people who made the best of all they had. What a great man!