The first interview(s) can help you deal with this problem of meandering
memories. They should be spent establishing a time line of the person's
life. If it is not a whole life, but a single event, a time line of what
happened leading up to, during, and after the event is helpful. You will be
asking questions with factual answers. When were you born? When did you start
school? What dates were brothers or sisters born? Marriages, deaths, joining the
army, all these datable events of a life should be put on the time line. You can
draw an actual line and tape the papers together, so you have a visual
representation of the person's life history. You can just record the dates any
way you want to, just as long as later on you can easily explore it and look for
events and gaps between events. If there are ten years and no events, then next
time ask what happened during those years. You may want to schedule a couple of
"TIME-LINE" sessions, so you have the opportunity to see where you need to ask
more questions. The time line will give you clues to future questions. The rest
of taking an oral history really consists in filling in the blanks and building
on this time line. You go back and fill in the spaces with lesser events, and
more importantly, the memories and feelings elicited by recalling those events.
Don't turn of the spigot of words while it is running. Sometimes, you
will get those memories and feelings while you are just doing the time-line. If
that happens, keep taking notes, or keep the recorder running! Don't tell
someone to wait until later to tell you something.) You may also take off on
tangents and run into events that didn't come up on the original time-line. Put
them in and run with it.