let me second mindysan’s observation about the recorded oral history being exciting. there are many reasons to relate even the most mundane experiences of lived life. think about how much an archaeologist studying the construction of some castle or pyramid. what they wouldn’t give for a contemporary rundown of their diet, cooking methods, seasonings, etc., etc. in 100 years what changes will have been wrought .
think of it as a gift to the future whether you relate the exciting or the mundane.
Indeed, it’s likely not.
For oral histories, the most likely scenario is waiting until the people who can be offended (or whatever the issue might be) are no longer in the picture (which obviously may not be a viable option for any number of very good reasons), give an oral history to an organization that can archive the interview and put it out of public reach until a specific time, or doing it anonymously for public consumption with a way for future historians to access the necessary information of who the interviewee is later on, after the death of the subject for example.
[ETA] I will say that Story Corps is a specific kind of oral history, aimed at getting people who know each other to interview each other (with a professional guide on hand), so the goal is both creating a national oral history archive for the future, and to help families, friends, or whoever, make better connections and to understand each other better. Other oral history projects, especially those where the interview is conducted by archivists or historians, are going to have different goals - usually getting into a particular event, type of life (like a labor activist, an LBGQT+ individual, a woman, or a person of color, etc), or the like.
I appreciate all your follow up on this.
I think I was registering how important and individually interesting this project is, and thus wanting to be a part, but the reality is that it’s not for people like me.
You’ve given some good alternatives that I will follow up on when I get back home (currently on a family vacation), because I do think it’s important to leave breadcrumbs for future generations.
Thank you!
Glad I could be of help! You might want to look into contacting someone at the Oral History Association, who can most certainly help you find a way to be interviewed that works best for you:
They mostly have stuff for their members, but the website might have some links you can look into for various projects or you can just contact someone in the organization for help setting something up in the future.
I hope you do an oral history, as I think the lives of everyday people are critically important to document for the future.
A trashy early 70s movie reminded me- I’m so old I remember when bus stations and airports had little plastic chair-booths with tv you inserted coins to watch.
Now I’d be willing to pay to turn them off.
For no discernible reason I found myself softly singing the old Texaco jingle this morning.
*&^)##&% earworm!!!
I cannot believe I clicked…how could you do this to me!!!
Sharing is caring! 
Now I know I was right not to click! 
I actually had one of those toy trucks when I was little, and the toy Fire Chief helmet as well. Long gone now, though.
I remember porn sold in printed form and vhs!
There was a game on those lines called Santa Paravia. It had a flaw called “The Bankrupt Baron” where you could advance in title by bankrupting your fiefdom on public works
“Based loosely on the text game Hamurabi ,”
Yeah, that wouldn’t be a realistic mechanic unless you could only advance in title by bankrupting your fiefdom by lining your own pockets.
I’m so old that my first direct experience of a computer, involved riding my bicycle to the local university’s computer room where my older friend submitted a stack of punch cards that he’d previously coded, then waiting for much of the afternoon and then riding back to his house with a stack of printouts for him to debug.
After this, it seemed so cool to play hunt the wumpas, hammurabi, and lunar lander on a PDP-11, from those enormous floppy disks.
I’m so old that…
I remember paper dresses.
Didn’t have one. Don’t think I ever actually saw one. Was certainly intrigued by the fad, though. Everyone was talking about them! We thought about whether we could possibly make our own…I don’t think we really understood that they weren’t just tissue paper. We thought that the dresses might fall apart on you while you were wearing them!
(What brought it to mind was the topic about getting rid of silverfish, and questions of what do they eat…paper and clothing, among other things.)
The Clash released London Calling forty years ago today.
