Week 9: Interview with the Donor

These past two weeks have been in preparation to hear the stories from Ronald Muse’s life through his donated collection; unfortunately, he didn’t turn out to be a vampire. I was hesitant to contact DeBary’s Historic Board again after their initial meeting with him. At the time, the idea that I would speak with him personally floated around, so many questions were left out of the email. Time had passed, and quickly, I might add, and I continued to work with the materials I had. After a while, I felt that the information provided was insufficient, and I was intimidated by the tasks ahead.

As I noticed that everyone was finishing their second assignments, I wanted to schedule this last possible meeting with him. The collection came from his mother, and I later found that many of the artifacts also came from his step-grandfather, Spruell Beall,  so I was not expecting him to know every little detail; however, if he had any context, it would have gone a long way for researchers. I decided to ask for advice at one of the weekly meetings with the group, and they encouraged me to reach out regardless. Once I did, the Historic Board then asked me to compile a complete list of questions to ask all at once. After reviewing my document, the board agreed it would be better for me to speak with him directly. While figuring out what I wanted to ask, I referred back to some of the tips from the oral history training and tried to form as many open-ended questions as possible to allow him to expand on his answers.

On Wednesday, I gained this new and valuable experience as it was my first time conducting any sort of interview, so I was nervous going into the Zoom meeting. This interaction helped me continue to push myself outside my comfort zone, and I wish I had the confidence to do the meeting so much earlier in the process. It slowed me down because I was new to the process and lacked the necessary information; I would have approached some tasks differently. The better part of this learning experience is that I know for next time, which I plan to implement with the next assignment starting this weekend. One of my immediate steps is to try to contact the donor, especially since there is not much time to sit and speculate about what might be happening in those photographs.

Beall Family, Ronald Muse sat on the far left

During my conversation with Ronald, he was an amusing guy with many stories to share. Unfortunately, we were cut short because it was my first time setting up a Zoom meeting, and I was blissfully unaware that it automatically closed after about 40 minutes without the updated version. He recounted intimate details of the family and their dynamics, and some of their hardships that a simple Google search would not provide. Ronald and his stepfather, Jack Beall, had a strained relationship, prompting Ronald to leave home at 14 years old, which is a factor that would not have been apparent from the artifacts alone. It’s also always very inspiring to me when people talk about topics passionately, and they know a lot about it, just information ingrained in their brains. I could tell that Ronald knew a lot about DeBary and its history, about places like Benson Junction. I really appreciate it when people share things I've never heard of before, because it feels like one of the most important things I can do in my life is to be fed with stories and facts that leave me feeling a little more full.