Jasmyn Morris (JM): Over the last seventeen years, StoryCorps has been collecting interviews with people from all walks of life. We’ve heard from 600-thousand people at this point, so it’s hard to choose favorites. But one thing that’s been clear since day one is that kids always ask the best questions.
Lourdes Camarillo (LC): If an Ice Age happened, like all of a sudden, what would you do?
John Wikiera (JW): Do you remember what was going through your head when you first saw me?
Laine Jones (LJ): How did you get your bionic hand, Dad?
Brianna Freeman (BF): Do you like unicorns?
Aiden Sykes (AS): Are you proud of me?
Genna Alperin (GA): How has your life been different than what you thought it was gonna to be?
JM: It’s the StoryCorps Podcast from NPR. I’m Jasmyn Morris, and this week, we’re fighting the COVID blues with a little help from our little friends.
Isaiah Fredericks (IF): I am Isaiah DeAngelo Fredericks, I am 9 years old.
Josiah Fredericks (JF): Hello my name is Josiah, my age is 7 years old.
JM: When these brothers sat down for StoryCorps to interview their dad, Kevin Fredericks, they came with a long list of their own questions.
IF: When and where were you born?
Kevin Fredericks (KF): I was born in El Paso, Texas in 1983 on my grandmother Ruthie’s bed.
IF: Interesting to know. I did not know that.
KF: [Laughs]
JF: How do you describe yourself as a child? Were you happy?
KF: I was a very happy, curious child. There was a lot of playing outside in the hot sun and drinking water from hoses.
IF: You drank water out of hoses? Man, I am learning so much new stuff about you.
KF: [Laughs]
JF: What’s the hardest thing about being a dad?
KF: The hardest thing about being a dad is having a drink that you want to drink, and small people put their nasty mouth all over it. And then whatever they were eating is now in the drink, and then you don’t want it anymore. Or buying them food and they don’t want their food but they want your food. You’re just never satisfied.
JF: Why can’t I be in charge?
IF: Because then everything would be a nightmare.
KF: Because you are missing four teeth and no one’s going to listen to somebody who doesn’t have teeth in their mouth.
JF: [Laughs] Why can’t I be an animal?
KF: You have to take that up with your creator.
JF: Why can’t we own a roller coaster?
KF: [Laughs] We can own a roller coaster, we just don’t.
JF: Okay, then let’s do.
KF: [Laughs]
JF: Why do things rhyme?
IF: How’s he supposed to know that?
KF: [Laughs]
JF: Why can’t we have a van?
KF: [Laughs] Why can’t we have a van? Why are you asking these questions? Why do you want a van
JF: [Laughs] Why can’t I be more like you?
KF: What do you mean?
JF: I know I look like you, but more like you.
KF: Because you’ve got to be yourself, man. Follow your own path and enjoy being a kid. Being an adult is not as fun as it looks. Enjoy having nothing in your pockets, and no keys, and somebody else being responsible for buying all your food. Because one day you’re going to look up and say, ‘Man, I had it so easy.’ Who cut the peanut butter sandwiches in your life? I did! I cut hundreds and hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. [Laughs]
Any more questions?
JF: Are you proud of me? Me! Not him.
KF: [Laughs] I am very proud of you. You’re both fantastic children and I am happy and proud to be your dad.
JM: That’s Kevin Fredericks with his sons, Isaiah and Josiah, back in 2017.
That same year, the StoryCorps MobileBooth traveled more than 4,000 miles, from the Gulf Coast of Florida all the way up to Michigan’s Great Lakes, recording stories along the way.
And when the Booth stopped in Bloomington, Indiana, another trio sat down for an interview.
Maddy Waters (MW): I’m Maddy and I’m ten years old.
Zoë Waters (ZW): Hi, my name is Zoë.
Nick Waters (NW): Hi, I’m Nick and we’re triplets.
JM: Even though Maddy, Zoë and Nick grew up sharing everything—from a birthday to a bedroom—they still had some pressing questions for each other.
MW: How do you guys feel about being triplets? Is it nice?
ZW: Yeah, it’s really nice.
NW: Yeah, on the whole.
MW: The worst thing is we see each other every day, every minute of every day. So we can argue a lot.
NW: Yeah, and precisely because we know each other so well
MW: It kind of makes for very long arguments.
NW: Yeah.
ZW: But it is a very rewarding experience.
MW: Yes it is.
NW: Sometimes.
MW: It’s just really helpful whenever one of us has a problem, like Nick’s really good at math and you’re really good at reading comprehension and stuff.
ZW: We, we pool our —
MW, ZW, NW: Resources.
MW: One of our greatest strengths is that our friends get extra friends because there’s the three-in-one package.
ZW: But I’m a very quiet person on the whole. So I get kind of reserved and nervous when I’m meeting new people, especially.
MW: Hmm. You’re a little bit of an introvert, you would say?
ZW: Maybe.
MW: Have you ever felt that the house is crowded because you have two siblings, two parents, and three cats? And one cat in heaven?
NW: Not at all. Cats aren’t very substantial.
ZW: Not really.
MW: I’ve sometimes felt that way. But since we’re getting new rooms in a couple months, we’re going to be all by ourselves. How do you feel about that?
NW: Mixed emotions.
ZW: I don’t know how I feel. I’m kind of happy, but I always enjoyed having you two to talk to.
MW: Yeah, it’s going to be a hard transition for me, because I myself am not much for being alone.
NW: Yeah.
MW: And since I’ve had you all my life, I’ve had two other friends, even when I didn’t have any friends. It’s really been nice.
ZW: Yeah, it’s been so nice.
MW: I think having siblings my age gives me an open attitude toward life and people in general. And I just want to say you guys mean a lot to me and I want to thank you for being here.
JM: That’s 10-year-old triplets Maddy, Zoë and Nick Waters for StoryCorps in Bloomington, Indiana.
We’ll be back after this short break. Stay with us.
<BREAK>
JM: Welcome back.
Sometimes, interviews with kids can be tricky; they can get bored or fidgety. But six-year-old Jerry Morrison isn’t your average kid.
He’s obsessed with outer space, and can talk about it for hours—especially when he’s speaking with his uncle Joey Jefferson, a Mission Operations Engineer at NASA.
Joey Jefferson (JJ): Why do you like space so much?
Jerry Morrison (JM): Uh, there’s so much sights to see: nebulas, hot jupiters and supernova remnants.
JJ: Yeah.
JM: They look so beautiful.
JJ: You know how I fell in love with space? My mom gave me a really cool space shuttle. You would wind it back, and then…
JM: Oh, I have that.
JJ: You have that? So I remember playing with that all the time and I wanted to become a pilot. I used to fly planes when I was 17 years old. And then after that, I started commanding spacecraft at NASA.
JM: Have you ever been to space?
JJ: I have not but it’s a dream of mine.
JM: I want to live on another planet.
JJ: Another planet?
JM: Like, what kind of planet would you live on?
JJ: (Sighs) Of course everybody’s going to say Mars, right? Are you gonna say Mars?
JM: No. Kepler-452b.
JJ: Oh, yeah. So Kepler-452b is your favorite planet.
Do you know what we call those?
JM: Exoplanets…
JJ: And there’s, actually, we estimate to be trillions of galaxies out there. So there’s a lot of stars and a lot of exoplanets that we got to find. And so we need people like you to keep doing what you’re doing. And it’s one thing to get to this place where you know all this knowledge but it’s another thing to teach a knowledge.
JM: Yeah.
JJ: So you were in kindergarten and you taught the fifth graders, right?
JM: Yeah.
JJ: How did you like that?
JM: It was a big opportunity for me. I, like, taught all the planets. It was awesome.
JJ: (Laughs) How do you feel when we visit each other and we get to talk about space?
JM: It feels good. I learned from you a lot, like more than I could imagine.
JJ: You’re my favorite person to talk about space to. You know that?
JM: Yeah.
JJ: And you’re learning so much by yourself too, that you’re teaching me as well.
JM: Ha-ha…
JJ: And that’s really cool.
The more you learn the more we realize the little things in life we take for granted are
the very things that make life possible. So when I look up in the stars, I think about that.
JM: That is pretty cool.
JJ: My hope is that you are always going to be doing and learning about the things that you love the most. You can do whatever you want, but in the future, I think you’re gonna to go to Kepler 452b.
JM: That’s Joey Jefferson and his nephew, 6-year-old Jerry Morrison, contemplating the cosmos for StoryCorps in Los Angeles, California.
Our final story comes from Joshua Littman and his mother Sarah, two stars in their own right, at least within the StoryCorps galaxy.
The first time they recorded with us in 2006, Josh was in middle school and having a tough time socially.
He has a form of autism that can make it difficult for him to pick up on social cues. But at StoryCorps, no topic was off-limits.
Josh Littman (JL): From a scale of 1 to 10, do you think your life would be different without animals?
Sarah Littman (SL): I think it would be about an 8 without animals because they add so much pleasure to life.
JL: How else do you think your life would be different without them?
SL: I could do without things like cockroaches and snakes.
JL: Well I’m okay with snakes as long as they’re not venomous and can constrict you or anything.
SL: Yeah, I’m not a big snake person.
JL: But the cockroach is just the insect we love to hate.
SL: Yeah. It really is.
JL: Have you ever felt like life is hopeless?
SL: When I was a teenager I was very depressed and I think that can be quite common with teenagers who think a lot and you know, that are perceptive.
JL: Am I like that?
SL: You’re very much like that?
JL: Do you have any mortal enemies?
SL: I would say my worst enemy is sometimes myself. But I don’t think I have any mortal enemies.
JL: Have you ever lied to me?
SL: I probably have, but I try not to lie to you, even though sometimes the questions you ask make me uncomfortable.
JL: Like when we go on our walks? Some of the questions I might ask?
SL: Yeah, but you know what? I feel it’s really special that you and I can have those kind of talks, even if sometimes I feel myself blushing a little bit.
JL: Have you ever thought you couldn’t cope with having a child?
SL: (Laughs) I remember, when you were a baby, you had really bad colic and you used to just cry and cry—
JL: What’s colic?
SL: It’s when you get this stomachache and all you can do is scream for like four hours a night—
JL: Even louder than Amy does?
SL: You were pretty loud but Amy’s was more high pitched.
JL: I think it feels like everyone seems to like Amy more. Like, she’s, like, the perfect little angel.
SL: Well, I can understand why you think that people like Amy more, and I’m not saying it’s because of your Aspergers Syndrome, but being friendly comes easily to Amy, whereas I think for you it’s more difficult. But the people who take the time to get to know you love you so much.
JL: Like Ben or Eric or Carlos?
SL: Yeah…
JL: Like I have better quality friends but less quantity?
SL: I wouldn’t judge the quality, but I think-
JL: I mean like first it was like Amy loved Claudia then she hated Claudia, she loved Claudia then she hated Claudia.
SL: Yeah. . . You know what, part of that’s a girl thing, honey. The important thing for you is that you have a few very good friends, and really that’s what you need in life.
JL: Did I turn out to be the son you wanted when I was born? Like, did I meet your expectations, and. . .?
SL: You’ve exceeded my expectations, sweetie. Because, you know, sure, you have these fantasies of what your child’s gonna be like, but you have made me grow so much as a parent because you think –
JL: Well I was the one who made you a parent.
SL: You were the one who made me a parent. That’s a good point. But, also because you think differently from, you know, what they tell you in the parenting books.
JL: Yeah.
SL: I really had to learn to think out of the box with you. And it’s made me much more creative as a parent and as a person, and I’ll always thank you for that.
JL: And that helped when Amy was born?
SL: And that helped when Amy was born, but you are just so incredibly special to me, and I’m so lucky to have you as my son.
JM: That was Sarah and Josh Littman, whose interview was turned into one of StoryCorps’ very first animated shorts. They also recorded two more times over the years. To hear those updates and to watch the animation, head over to our website, www.storycorps.org.
There, you can also find out how to record your own interview, even while social distancing, using our new digital platform, StoryCorps Connect, which allows people to have a StoryCorps conversation remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This episode of the StoryCorps podcast was produced by Sylvie Lubow and Jud Esty-Kendall, edited by me, Jasmyn Morris. Our Technical Director is Jarrett Floyd, who also wrote and produced our theme song. Our fact checker is Natsumi Ajisaka.
Special thanks to Facilitators Mitra Bonshahi, Savannah Winchester and Emily Janssen, as well as producers Michael Garofalo and Liyna Anwar. This episode is dedicated in loving memory of Liyna, who, even in the toughest circumstances, showed us how to stay young at heart.
For the StoryCorps podcast, I’m Jasmyn Morris. Thanks for listening.
