Asking Personal Questions

Abstract

You might say I was grandmothered into the Regional Oral History Office at UC Berkeley as an interviewer-editor in 1970. In those days, there were few courses in oral history methods. The idea of a graduate oral history program was just a glimmer on the horizon. It seemed as if university archival programs looked for a reasonable match of skills and trusted on-the-job training eventually to produce a competent oral historian. When I began work, ROHO had recently begun a project on Earl Warren's California career, with the goal of documenting how he had evolved from a solemn law-and-order district attorney into the charismatic chief justice who would find a consensus for integrating the nation's schools and protecting individual civil liberties. The office was looking for interviewers who understood the state's politics and had some knowledge of the issues that had made Warren's reputation as a crusader and innovator in public administration. I shudder to remember some of my bloopers during the first few recording sessions. But I was saved by some serendipitous earlier experiences. Most fortunate, I think, was the tough political science professor at Connecticut College who suggested firmly that all social science majors sit for the U.S. Civil Service Junior Professional Assistant exam in the spring of our senior year. What on earth for, we wondered. You never know, said Miss Dilley. The exam turned out to be very similar to the PSAT of high school days and a boring way to spend a Saturday morning. Eventually, I received an official paper that said I qualified as a GS-5, whatever that meant. Subsequently, letters arrived at