I came home from doing research at the Bentley for IP to find a group of 7 people (all senior citizens) standing across the street from my house. They were staring and pointing at it. I knew I had to know for myself what they were doing so I turned my car off and ran over to them.
Turns out, they were on a tour of historic Kerrytown. I introduced myself to the group leader, a woman named Grace Shackman. It was actually a course that Grace was teaching through Washtenaw Community College, they visited a number of locations including Ypsilanti and other places. Today, it just so happens that I found them on their walking tour of Ann Arbor! I told Grace I felt like I was lacking direction in my project and she agreed to meet with me at my house this Thursday. She said she knows a great deal about my very house—which I’m very excited to here. I plan on recording the session as long as Grace is OK with it.
This can really open up a new dimension to my research—I can begin incorporating conversations I have with real-life people, like Grace. After all, she is a historian and knows a great deal about Ann Arbor. The image above is a picture of the group I snapped a little while after our interaction, I saw them walking around town while I was driving.
