The interviews in this section are part of an oral history project I began with my middle school students several years ago. Our idea was to talk to the elders of the community, particularly the ranchers and long-time residents who seemed to have a special connection to the land. We discovered that something different happens when people talk to kids. The old-timers remembered things they hadn't thought about in years -- important things like rainy Christmas mornings, the best spots for catching steelhead, and what it was like riding along the muddy roads to school in a horse drawn sulky cart. We began to see ourselves as the gatherers of stories that would otherwise be forgotten, and this became an ongoing labor of love continued by students each subsequent year.

"Everyone lives a story," said one of our first interviewees, Caroline Henning, a lady who has made her home in the local mountains for eight decades. And indeed, as time went on, we discovered that many people we knew and worked with every day, both young and old, had unique perspectives and remarkable experiences to tell about. The age of our subjects suddenly seemed much less significant than their willingness to talk and share. Our own lives grew rich with new memories. Borders blurred as we wandered through time and place, learned of work and wisdom, and vicariously faced adventure, both epic and small. We taped everything, and I typed it all.

Now I have become a woman obsessed. I cannot meet an interesting person without wondering if they would agree to be interviewed, and I seem to meet interesting people everywhere I turn. The result is an eclectic collection of conversations with all kinds of fascinating people - from a cowboy to a Congresswoman and everything in between. What do they have in common? First and foremost, each agreed to sit down and talk with a group of middle school students; that in itself is a special kind of graciousness, though I have yet to meet anyone who was not afterwards glad to have done it.

Beyond that, what they share is incredible passion and spirit. They have taken vastly different paths, but each one tells us, in word and deed, to find our own mission and embrace it fully. "What will you do with your one wild and precious life?" asks the poet Mary Oliver. Be open to the answer. And when you do it, do it well, with all your heart.

There’s no magic without the kids. Thanks to every student who has been involved in this project since its inception.

Cynthia Carbone Ward