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Bay Area Residents Add To Oral History

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By WALT BELCHER

wbelcher@tampatrib.com

Published: December 13, 2008

Updated: 12/13/2008 12:14 am

TAMPA - Bill Brown had a story to tell. So did Fanni Green.

Brown, 58, a radio engineer, recalled a time in Naples when he was hired to be a "prisoner" at the local jail. Green, 48, a theater professor at the University of South Florida, told of how her life has changed since her 78-year-old mother fell, injured her shoulder and was diagnosed with dementia.

Brown and Green on Friday became the first two Tampa area residents to record 40-minute personal accounts for the StoryCorps project. This nonprofit effort to collect personal oral history has set up a mobile recording studio in Ybor City.

"Over the next four weeks, we will be collecting about 125 personal stories," says Whitney Henry-Lester, manager of StoryCorps' mobile booth. "The response has been tremendous, but we can only do so many."

The StoryCorps visit is sponsored by WMNF, 88.5 FM, with help from the Ybor City Museum Society and Ybor City Development Corp.

Henry-Lester says the rich history of Ybor City should provide stories about cigar rollers and the making of Cuban bread.

But stories are not limited to Ybor or Tampa history; they cover a wide range of experiences.

Brown, for example, recounted the 1970s when the jail in Naples ran short of inmates to work on road-cleaning crews. "They hired me and some other people to be 'prisoners' so the work would get done," he says.

Launched in 2003, StoryCorps has recorded tens of thousands of everyday people. The project is sponsored by NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Henry-Lester says the booth is booked through the end of the month. A limited number of reservations for the first two weeks in January will become available Friday at 10 a.m. The slots are expected to be filled in minutes. For information, call 1-800-850-4406 or go to www.storycorps .net.

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