Good morning, Last nite I visited with Milt Cohen's family after a memorial service at his synagogue. Milt stopped biking at age 96, about the time I moved to town, so I didn't know him first hand but I knew him by reputation. I spent time talking to his wife and sons and heard some amazing stories. Many of you may know that most of our current bike laws date to the early 60's when Milt's middle son Gar got him into biking for the first time. Milt's 3 sons are all now active bicyclists - Neil is a racing cyclist, Gar rides recumbents and Jonathan lives car-free in San Francisco using a bike.
It got me motivated to start taking action on an idea I've had for a while. Since we started Positive Spin we've operated on a shoe string financially, but we've been rewarded richly with the stories that people tell about their bikes. It's been an ambition of mine to capture these stories somehow in a way that they can be preserved and passed on. I've claimed the internet domain name "ifwheelscouldtalk.org" for the purpose, but don't know how to proceed next. Ideally I would like the story collection to involve school age kids as a way of exciting them about writing and storytelling (maybe interviewing adults or digging for stories). The model that inspired me is David Egger's 426 Valencia Project http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/dave_eggers.html
I can't take this much farther alone. I'm looking for volunteers (teachers, tutors, english majors, authors, historians or anyone who is excited by this idea) to help launch it. Ultimately I envision city-wide story contests and published books for these stories. Currently it will be run under Positive Spin to take advantage of our non-profit status. For now though here are the specific items that are needed.
Webhosting A way of indexing the stories (written, spoken and video) Volunteers to record the stories Volunteers to engage kids in writing the stories A leader to direct the program
I don't expect this all to happen overnite. It's a great idea that can take time to build into a substantial part of the community. However, I'd like to get volunteers to help record and organize stories from the Cohen family while they are still in town for the next few days.
Thanks! Nick Hein