As OHA gears up for our conference in Portland we are pleased to announce that the Annual Call for Awards is OPEN! This year we are accepting applications for the following categories: Book Award (Deadline April 1) Emerging Crises Oral History Research Fund (Deadline April 15) Indigenous Initiative Research Fund (Deadline June 1) Article Award […]
Pictured: Attendees and presenters of the IOHA 2025 Conference in Krakow, Poland
In September 370 oral historians from gathered from around the world for the biennial International Oral History Association (IOHA) conference, representing 55 countries, including more than 50 participants from the United States. I was one of the lucky Americans who attended. The conference took place in Krakow at the Jagiellonian University, founded in 1364! Sessions were in English and Spanish.
The 23rd IOHA conference started with a keynote address by Mary Marshall Clark from Columbia University, an OHA past president and active current member. She used her recent studies in Jungian psychology and psychoanalysis to suggest a more caring approach for the interviewer as receiver of a narrator’s story, stressed the importance of the interviewer-narrator relationship and above all the value of listening. Her emphasis on the human side of doing oral history was well received and set the stage for serious discussion throughout the week.
The presentations that followed consisted of lively and thought-provoking discussions on oral history in relation to community archives, family history, wartime, migration and refugees, ethics and new technologies. We all left feeling confident about the importance of our oral history work, no matter where in the world we are working. Recordings from all four plenary sessions together with a photo gallery will be available on the website of Polish Oral History Association: https://pthm.pl/home/ in November.
Among the U.S. speakers were: Doug Boyd, Adrienne Cain Darough, Natalie Fousekis, Michael Frisch, Fanny Garcia, Mary Gordon, Michelle Holland, Farina King, Leslie McCartney, Natalie Milbrodt, Sarah Milligan, Todd Moye, Kathy Nasstrom, Martha Norkunas, Troy Reeves, Stephen Sloan, Amy Starecheski and Angela Zusman;
IOHA participants didn’t spend all their time attending sessions. In fact, some of our richest moments came in the hallways, in cafes, the dance floor, or informal chats on the square, where we met up by chance or choice, connected over common interests, and always came away inspired by new friends and new ideas. I can say with some assurance that everyone who came to Krakow for the first time fell in love with the city. And, like me, we Americans went home with much to think about, having experienced a country that has suffered so very, very much and in a few generations has risen to a happy, healthy, well-run country.
The IOHA provides a forum for oral historians around the world. The next meeting is in Macau in 2028. Membership options are available for individual, student or professional rates. This is a great way to get involved in the international community, and exchange ideas with colleagues from around the world. Here is the link to join, https://ioha.org/join-ioha/.
The tradition of the party host giving the perfect New Year’s Eve toast has been one that has carried on for hundreds of years. You may be considering what to say this upcoming holiday to all of your friends and family that gather to ring in the new year. To help ignite inspiration we thought we would share with you some of history’s most memorable New Year’s Eve toasts.
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” — Benjamin Franklin
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” — T.S. Eliot
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” — Dr. Suess
“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; ring out the false, ring in the true.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson
“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“In victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” — Helen Keller
“There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of Champagne.” — Bette Davis
“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway
“Take everything in moderation, including moderation.” — Oscar Wilde
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.” — Sir Walter Scott
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.” — William Shakespeare
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis
“May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.” — Frank Sinatra
Wishing you the Happiest of New Year from the Toast of the Town team!
As always if you are looking for help with your next event support is just a CLICK away.
For most of us, New Year’s Eve means watching the ball drop in Times Square on TV. For a lucky few, it may mean a fun party. For Abraham Sirkin, December 31st, 1941 was spent at the White House, ringing in the New Year with President and Mrs. Roosevelt. Invited to the White House by the First Lady, Sirkin had the opportunity to rub elbows with a few political officials and FDR himself, who understandably was not in a very jovial mood. Sirkin was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy in May 1997.
SIRKIN: I was drafted [into the National Guard in April, 1941] and sent off to Fort Dix. After a week of this very busy mind-numbing time, I was sent off to Fort Jackson, South Carolina….
During my training…I was very impressed with Norman Corwin’s wartime radio dramas. So I drafted one and an acquaintance who was Washington Bureau Chief of the New York Post said, “Why don’t you send it to Eleanor Roosevelt?” He said she sometimes helps individuals get over bureaucratic problems.” So I put it in an envelope with a note saying this might be of interest to somebody in the war effort in Washington.
Shortly thereafter I got a note from her saying she had sent it over to Archibald MacLeish, Head of the Office of Facts and Figures….
I got a little note from him saying thank you very much; it was interesting….When I came to Washington on leave during Christmas-New Year’s time, this fellow on the Post said, “Well, why don’t you give [Eleanor] a ring? She likes to see all kinds of people in whom she takes an interest.” So I called her office and they said, “Come to tea.” This was December 31, three weeks after the war started….
So I went and had tea. She had three other people there. One was Morris Ernst, a well-known lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. One was an African-American lady who was a very prominent social worker. I didn’t say very much. I listened to all these interesting people.
She may have asked me a question, I don’t remember. Then we broke up and I was about to go back to my hotel, which was nearby, the Roger Smith Hotel. She asked me where Iwas going and could she give me a lift in her car. En route, she said, “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?” I said, “Nothing,” and she said, “Well, why don’t you come over after dinner to the White House?”
So about 10 o’clock, I showed up at the gate….
I went into the room that was filled with people and Mrs. Roosevelt greeted me and I was goggle-eyed. I saw the President in his chair, I think it was a wheelchair, and I recognized Harry Hopkins and Secretary of the Treasury, Morgenthau, and a fellow I knew in my college days. He was at City College, Joe Lash. He later became her biographer. He was the only person I knew there. One other young person there was the daughter of Secretary and Mrs. Morgenthau.
As I came in I was gawking at the scene. Mrs. Roosevelt was trying to introduce me to a couple of other guests, two elderly Unitarian clergymen from Massachusetts…but I was just staring at everybody and she elbowed me in the ribs to pay attention. Recently, when I went to see the statue of her at the Memorial, I could still feel her elbow in my ribs, saying ‘Pay attention.’
I remember I spent most of the evening hanging around with Joe Lash and I asked a few questions of Harry Hopkins. I realized later, I didn’t know it at the time, that in another part of the White House Churchill was there, and he had been at dinner, but he was with his own people for New Year’s Eve. So I didn’t see any of those people. I just heard about it later.
But, as midnight approached I happened to find myself standing alone next to the President. He was sitting in a chair twiddling the dials on the radio and listening to the noise in Times Square of the crowd waiting for the lighted ball to come down. He turned to me. I had been introduced to him but he didn’t have the faintest idea who I was, just one of Eleanor’s friends. Since no one else was around, he just expressed himself to me with a frown….
This was just three weeks after Pearl Harbor, the Philippines were going under and I suppose he was getting periodic reports that weren’t very good. We were abandoning Manila and here were all these people screaming and yelling in Times Square.
He turned to me as I happened to be standing nearby and expressed his displeasure. “Why do these people have to make all this noise just because it’s a new year?” I got the impression he felt that way about any new year but especially at this time. He was deploring the fact that people make all this screaming noise when there are obviously very serious things going on….
I was reading complaints about this new statue of a serious looking President in the Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, but that is the way I remember him that evening. Some people want his statue with a cigarette and triumphant grin. There was no triumphant grin on his face that night.
The tradition of the party host giving the perfect New Year’s Eve toast has been one that has carried on for hundreds of years. You may be considering what to say this upcoming holiday to all of your friends and family that gather to ring in the new year. To help ignite inspiration we thought we would share with you some of history’s most memorable New Year’s Eve toasts.
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” — Benjamin Franklin
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” — T.S. Eliot
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” — Dr. Suess
“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; ring out the false, ring in the true.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson
“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“In victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” — Helen Keller
“There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of Champagne.” — Bette Davis
“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway
“Take everything in moderation, including moderation.” — Oscar Wilde
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.” — Sir Walter Scott
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.” — William Shakespeare
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis
“May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.” — Frank Sinatra
Wishing you the Happiest of New Year from the Toast of the Town team!
As always if you are looking for help with your next event support is just a CLICK away.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent
— often attributed to Thomas Jefferson
This is not a quote by Thomas Jefferson, though Google would have you believe it is. Google tends to be a poor teacher, in that it’ll list the most popular answer, not necessarily the most accurate. In fact, Jefferson’s Monticello estate (Monticello.org) lists the quote as “spurious”—not found in his letters, speeches or papers. But whoever said it or didn’t, it’s not half bad. And we know, from simply having lived our lives, that it’s mostly true.
The idea behind the quote isn’t complicated. Bad things don’t usually happen because a huge number of people want them to. Bad things happen because enough people look the other way. People who know better—or should—decide it’s safer, easier, less messy, or less exhausting to stay quiet. People also don’t act because, frankly, we have other interests, other concerns. We might have a family member who is not well, or conflicts with a spouse. We might have financial difficulties. Or maybe an ice storm is coming our way, and we’re not prepared. When our choice is whether to pay a healthcare bill or the electric bill, it’s hard to focus on much else.
Silence, in other words, is not simply a failure to engage because “we won’t look.” It’s also that our national government plays itself out in a city far, far away, while we have immediate concerns much closer to home. Far, far away may as well be another galaxy and will just have to wait. Then, when our immediate concerns pass, other immediate concerns quickly replace them.
Besides, most of us have already done our duty. We voted. We voted so that senators and congresspeople that we put in power could fight for us. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work? Why lay the guilt on us when it’s the system that’s breaking or broken?
Those in power depend on the fact that, in general, people won’t act unless they’re personally affected by a change or a law. And even then, it usually takes a small avalanche of negative changes before people realize they’re in it up to their necks. By that time, it takes a lot of effort and suffering to dig our way out.
We’re living in a time when trust in our representatives is low, misinformation spreads faster than we can stop or contradict it, and people are exhausted by constant conflict, most of it starting from the top. It’s awfully tempting to wash our hands of it, to tune out. It’s tempting to assume that someone else will speak up, someone with a perfect life and no personal problems to contend with. Instead, we should remember that we’re all dealing with personal difficulties, and that those cannot distract us from looking at the bigger picture. Because the only “trickle-down theory” that actually works is this: “A fish rots from the head down.”
The ancient Greeks had a version of this quote. So did the ancient Chinese, the ancient Egyptians, and the ancient Romans. It’s been true, in other words, for five thousand years. We don’t have to be heroes or experts. A healthy society isn’t built by perfect people with perfect lives. It’s built by people with messy, difficult lives who—when the fish starts to stink—refuse to pretend they can’t smell it.
