Rughi
06-03-2007, 13:20
An idea started to hatch in posts 12 and 13 of this thread (http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=89453#post89453).
Good point Roger. E.g., the distiller at ND in the early 80's probably is still with us, I wonder who this gentleman is, his insights into the greatness of '70's-'80's ND bourbon would be most interesting.
Gary
I'd like to propose, and participate in, an effort to interview living figures in bourbon. They could be posted in this forum for easy access by all. Oral histories are a major source of knowledge for researchers and historians, and I believe enthusiastic and knowledgeable citizens without any particular training or credentials could make an important contribution in preserving the knowledge still within the memories of the living.
Interviewing could become something of which many different people on the forum could each be a little part. There's no reason to wait and wonder if anyone who writes books or articles will eventually do this, we could take this on ourselves.
I would believe there are retired distillery figures who would be quite willing to tell their stories and share their wisdom if approached in a proper way.There are people who read this board who know of or know personally workers from UD, HH, Beam and other distilleries. Perhaps they could lend a hand with making connections or conducting interviews.
As it's a particular interest of mine, if I even knew who to try to contact from the last decade of National Distillers, I'd see if I could do an interview when I'm out in Kentucky in a couple of weeks.
On the other site, a former distillery worker wrote a several part memoir of his work. It was fascinating reading the type of which I think we could lead the way in archiving if we took the initiative to conduct interviews. Who knows, it could end up being the legwork for someone to write a book ;)
Roger
Good point Roger. E.g., the distiller at ND in the early 80's probably is still with us, I wonder who this gentleman is, his insights into the greatness of '70's-'80's ND bourbon would be most interesting.
Gary
I'd like to propose, and participate in, an effort to interview living figures in bourbon. They could be posted in this forum for easy access by all. Oral histories are a major source of knowledge for researchers and historians, and I believe enthusiastic and knowledgeable citizens without any particular training or credentials could make an important contribution in preserving the knowledge still within the memories of the living.
Interviewing could become something of which many different people on the forum could each be a little part. There's no reason to wait and wonder if anyone who writes books or articles will eventually do this, we could take this on ourselves.
I would believe there are retired distillery figures who would be quite willing to tell their stories and share their wisdom if approached in a proper way.There are people who read this board who know of or know personally workers from UD, HH, Beam and other distilleries. Perhaps they could lend a hand with making connections or conducting interviews.
As it's a particular interest of mine, if I even knew who to try to contact from the last decade of National Distillers, I'd see if I could do an interview when I'm out in Kentucky in a couple of weeks.
On the other site, a former distillery worker wrote a several part memoir of his work. It was fascinating reading the type of which I think we could lead the way in archiving if we took the initiative to conduct interviews. Who knows, it could end up being the legwork for someone to write a book ;)
Roger