I've been watching the first episode of "The Century: America's Time" with Peter Jennings and taking notes - the idea being to get a layman's vision of the history of the period before, during and after the era of "my story." It's way cool that most of this century was filmed. I find it fascinating to watch footage of folks as they go about their business - just like we do - folks long dead by now. For some reason, the fact that my beloved grandmother, Julia (Haller Cook) - whose stories I know by heart because, as a young girl, I had the forethought and interest to always ask her questions about her life - was born in July of 1900 gives me a special attachment to this early period. Whenever a momentous date is mentioned (for example, the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire in March of 1911) I think, "Gramma Julia was ten and a half years old then..."
I really should write down the many stories she shared with me. I sure wish I can recorded her!! :-)
and then bug a staff member to go retrieve materials for me! It was while I was exploring said stacks that I happened upon a rather thick, vintage notebook - page upon riveting page of hand-typed notes, copies of letters, inventories, etc...all on thin rice paper...the original "History of Center Compound, Stalag Luft III, Sagan Germany" that dated back to the 1940s! I immediately set about digitally photographing each and every page of this precious original document, and it's these pages that I'm now transcribing! I say that I literally "found" the history because at one point, Dr. Mary Elizabeth Ruwell, head of the Special Collections, happened by and noticed what I was doing. "Oh my goodness...you found it!" Apparently, this priceless bit of POW history (priceless at least to me and my project) had been misplaced and thus virtually lost in the vast expanse of resources in the collection! I feel especially lucky to have full access to it now and am learning a lot as I transcribe each and every page exactly as it was written "back in the day." 
