Ok... this is coming to Seattle... but I thought the Snohomish people might be interested... webpage.... http://storycorps.net/ newspaper .... Families gather to share history Associated Press MOSCOW, Idaho - Katherine Sterling sat with her 90-year-old mother Catherine for an hour inside a gleaming Airstream trailer with dark-tinted windows, asking about her life, her most memorable moments, her biggest regrets and other personal questions as a technician recorded the conversation. They were the first people in Idaho to participate in the traveling StoryCorps "Mobile Booth" project, a 10-year effort to collect remembrances from a quarter-million Americans from around the country and preserve them digitally for participants, local historical societies and the Library of Congress. "I had my mother here today because we take every opportunity like this," Katherine Sterling, 57, told the Lewiston Tribune. "We never know if we're going to have another one." Considered the most ambitious oral-history project ever undertaken, the soundproof Airstream trailer studio that arrived in this north-central Idaho community Thursday for two weeks of recording sessions has borne witness to tales of immigration in New York, stories about the Dust Bowl and the Depression in North Dakota, and reminiscing about forests in Montana. In the hundreds of interviews that have taken place since the portable project hit the road May 19 in Washington, D.C., the box of tissues on the table between two orange couches is frequently used. "Sometimes it's life-changing for people," said James Angelos, 29, a StoryCorps facilitator from Brooklyn, N.Y., who is recording interviews. "It's a sacred space that's created." He and other facilitators brief the questioner and subject on interviewing techniques before turning on the microphones. Afterward, they catalog the topics discussed in a database that future researchers will use. National Public Radio is also broadcasting select interviews during the undertaking. "I thought it was a great way to preserve family history," said Kathy Dahmen, 60, who brought her 83-year-old father, Rinehart Dahmen, for an interview. Both are from Pullman, Wash., a few miles west across the state line. "She wants to see what I can dig up, you know," said Rinehart, who worked at the Washington State University creamery for 28 years making ice cream, milk and cheese. Katherine Sterling said the memories captured from her mother are as much for future generations of Sterlings as they are for academic researchers. "I like to think a great-great-grandchild might pick up the CD sometime and receive a message they might be looking for," she said. "I would encourage everyone who has a loved one, family member or enemy - interview them." The Mobile Booth will travel to Seattle for two weeks of interviewing from Sept. 7-26. [email protected] http://www.rootsweb.com/~waskagit - Skagit USGW http://www.thirdstbooks.com - 3rd St. Book Exchange http://www.facesfromthewall.com - Faces From the Wall - Vietnam/Washington