it's real!

I've been working on a history project due next week. That sounds dreadfully boring, and it seems dumb that I'm really excited about it. But it's not just a history project, it's a family project. My subject is my grandpa, who read this blog everyday. The assignment is to conduct an interview with someone born before 1952 (I don't know why 1952 is the cutoff. A little random if you ask me. but hey, I don't write the rules.) and include historical stuff like views on wars, memories from the Depression, and advances in technology, etc. It's been interesting.
Since my grandpa lives 1000 miles away, email is the new tape recorder for this interview. Which works nicely (cut/paste, if you know what I mean). Today I just got a really long email from him, and it was all of his responses to the questions. I was so surprised he remembered something about everything on the list, even though not everything was needed. He even remembered small details.
The cool thing is, when you learn about this stuff in school it only seems half real. Like a story almost. Like this was so long ago that it doesn't even seem like it happened. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson seem more like ancient legends than actual people. But when he wrote on the page that his dad (my great grandfather) worked on the WPA, I got really excited. We learned about that in APUSH! It's actually real! I even remember when he said "You need to know this for the test!"
And when he said that he remembers the president talking about Pearl Harbor and he remembers where he was when he heard about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and that makes it seem so much more real.
I've never had a relative (well, as in a parent or grandparent) who has gone to war, I'm not a descendant of a famous American. So this was a cool way to connect myself to the place I live in.

Thanks, Grandpa.