• Use a tape recorder to record interview. Taping interview will help you gather details that you might miss if you are only taking notes.

• Chat about something else for a while if person you are interviewing seems nervous at prospect of being tape-recorded. Your interviewee will soon relax and won't even notice tape recorder. And once you start interview, you will find that one subject will lead to another and one question will lead to another.

• Transcribe tape and write up your notes after you have finished interview. This, in itself, will provide a fine record of stories that are told "in their own words." And you will be in good company. Studs Terkel's oral history books are written that way, and they are fascinating to read. Terkel's books include Division Street (1967), Hard Times (1970), Working (1974), The Good War (1984), The Great Divide (1988), and RACE (1992).

• After you have finished all of your interviews and have written down stories, print stories from your computer and put them into a three-ring binder. Make multiple copies and give them to family members as gifts. Or you might want to consider publishing stories POD (print-on-demand). There are many POD companies, and for a price that starts out at a couple of hundred dollars, you can publish stories as a trade paperback. To find POD companies, conduct an Internet search with keywords, "print-on-demand."

Here are some examples of questions to help you get started with your interviews:

Subject: school

1. Where did you go to school when you were growing up? 2. Tell me about any amusing or unusual incidents that happened on your way to or from school.

3. What kinds of clothes did you wear?

4. How many students were in your class? How many students were in whole school? How many grades?

5. What was your favorite subject? Why?

6. What was your least-favorite subject? Why?

7. Who was your favorite teacher? Why?

8. Who was your least-favorite teacher? Why?

9. Tell me about your best friend.

10. Tell me about your happiest moments in school. What was your best accomplishment?

11. Tell me about your worst moments in school. Did you learn anything from your worst moments?

12. What advice would you give to students who are in school today?