The Object

After a cooling mountain rainshower, we gathered up ten DeSoto campers and headed to the MERF house for our first exchange between the girls and local Mentone residents. We spread out through the house where the girls and Mentonians interviewed each other about the object that they brought with them. Bonnie, a local resident, brought a magnificent saw that she handpainted with scenes of her childhood, which included a story about her vivacious sister who loved dancing in their barn and started writing love letters to her husband at the age of 14. Jean and her husband John came to the house, along with their two children Maya and Robbie, whom they adopted from Kenya. Another woman, Kathy was able to share her rich stories from life in Mentone that are incredibly intertwined with Camp DeSoto.

Our First Meeting

We just had our first meeting with the local senior citizens of Mentone, AL, with a great turnout of 25 participants, including one of the oldest members of the community, a 94 year old woman. We are looking forward to hearing her many memories of life in Mentone. After cookies and tea, Dr. Bill Berry, a Mentone resident, former principal, and current employee of Camp DeSoto introduced the project and shared why he cared about the project. I then shared the basic premise of "The Mentone Collective" which is to facilitate inter-generational relationships and understanding through interactive video media. We will meet regularly throughout the summer to record the thoughts, stories, and memories of the community. Then everyone, some timid and some zealous, tried out the Ultra HD Flip video and Kodak Zi8 video cameras on each other with the directive to share their first memory. We learned some fascinating things, where two members realized they were related, to some great laughs about some mischief that went on when they were teens. We look forward to learning and sharing with the DeSoto and Mentone community this summer.