As an historian, parent, and daughter, I have a long standing intellectual and personal interest in oral history.

This interest was deepened through my conversations with Nirmal Kumar De (lovingly called Baba by all who knew him) who was my father-in-law.

Baba was an Indian immigrant who came to the United States in 1970 with his wife Rekha. They arrived in America with a medical position at Hahnnman hospital and $16. With these in hand, Dr. De built a successful medical practice, he opened 3 medical offices in Philadelphia and staffed them all himself and eventually built homes for his family in Pennsylvania and in India. He worked hard, saved money, invested in the stock market, purchased and managed rental properties as well as sent money back to India for his family. Despite this backbreaking pace of accomplishment, Baba was always gentlemanly, kind and polite. His only child, Raj, says that he cannot remember a time when Baba raised his voice or spoke rudely to another person. In his later years (and even as his health failed him), Baba was loving, kind and proudly bragged he had the best son, daughter and grandchildren. He was an exemplary father and grandfather and we aspire to the standard he has set for us. The video histories we have of Baba are truly priceless to us.

In 2014, Ariel interviewed Lawrence Oscar Grell (a.k.a. Luby) who was a World War II veteran, father and grandfather. Donna, his daughter, asked me to interview her father who was in his early 90s. Luby was born in Oroville on March 17, 1927. He grew up in the Swedish hamlet of Richvale, surrounded by his extended family. After graduating from Biggs High School in 1945, he joined the U.S. Navy at the "invitation" of President Harry Truman. At the age of 18, Luby sailed through the Panama Canal and crossed the Pacific to Japan. In 1946, Luby returned home and began farming rice with his brother, Roy. Luby loved music and regularly made the 150 mile trip to San Francisco for an opera and Italian dinner. In 1950, Luby married his childhood sweetheart, Dorothy (Dodo) Warren. Luby and Dodo and their children were active members of the Richvale Evangelical Free Church, where Luby taught Sunday school and served as Chairman. Luby loved adventure and to travel and he traveled to Egypt, the Forbidden City in China and through Russia. When we conducted the interview, Luby's wife, daughter (Donna) and grand-daughter (Lulu) were present and periodically chimed in and prompted him to tell stories. At the time, I was concerned that the integrity of the interview was compromised by the environment. In retrospect, I realize that the interview is more precious because of the presence of family members. It has captured the family in that moment of time and saved it for perpetuity.