"The Way Life Should Be?"

September 30, 2005
I have finished transcribing eight interviews. I feel like the data are amazing. I did two boys today. I have only done girls so far. They were different. The boys take a little more prompting. They are sometimes satisfied to leave it at “this is my house” and I have to ask them to talk more about why they took the picture and why it is important. Jim was interesting because he really talked about class differences in his town and how his mother was treated at school open house because she doesn’t have as much money. He is very reflective. He also loves his mother and what she does for the family. I think the mother/child relationship is getting discussed a lot in these interviews. They are very loyal to their parents. I also became interested in Bob’s stuttering. I was looking for patterns in his speech; when he did it and when he didn’t. Sometimes he articulated exactly what he wanted to say and other times he repeated not only consonants, but entire phrases several times when trying to express his thoughts. I am still working on titles and I am wondering if I can do something with the saying “Maine, the way life should be.” Bob mentioned it in his interview and it makes me think about a lot of different aspects of Maine and who came up with this saying and was it a tourist or a native? Where did he or she live? Should Maine be different in any ways?