The interview was another class project until she realized its significance.
She didn't realize its significance until she watched it.
She couldn't watch it until she tended to the technical stuff, such as camera angles and lighting.
Then Kelli Ramey, a senior education major, not only watched but listened to her grandfather, Adrian Ramey, tell his story on videotape. He told her about the German army. He told her about the concentration camps. He told her about the invasion of Normandy Beach on D-Day in 1944.
"It shocked me," Kelli Ramey said. "I cried and my dad cried. It made me more proud to be his granddaughter."
Adrian Ramey landed on Normandy Beach 60 years ago today, on the second day of the D-Day invasion. The 60th anniversary of the start of the invasion was Sunday, and the nation looked back to remember the sacrifices made to help win that war. Every anniversary grows more important with every passing year as more veterans die, and more people are taking the time to record the stories that family members have to tell. That is what makes Ramey's project especially significant.
Adrian Ramey told his granddaughter about his memories in front of a camera in 2003, recording his stories from World War II for the first time. His own children had not even heard them. Now they are preserved forever and on display for the world to see. Kelli Ramey created an online oral history about her grandfather where anyone can access it.
"I need to get this grandfather's story down before he passes on," Kelli Ramey said. "My dad was really, really excited that I got it on video tape."
Encouraging Adrian Ramey to sit down for the talk, which lasted about three hours, might have been the hardest part. It took three weeks.
"Some parts of it you just try not to remember," Adrian Ramey said. "It's unbelievable, but it's there."
Kelli Ramey's father finally convinced Adrian Ramey to sit down and talk. When he did, he told all sorts of stories. He told her about his role in the D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge.
"They came into encounters with the Germans; he hated them," Kelli Ramey said. "He remembered hearing bombs drop; it shocked me."
Kelli Ramey was especially moved, though, by his stories about the concentration camps at Buchenwald. Adrian Ramey described in the interview the "walking skeletons" he saw there.
"He was really a hero to these people," Kelli Ramey said.
Although Kelli Ramey's family was happy to get this all down on tape, some were surprised that he was willing to tell her before anyone else. Kelli Ramey said she hasn't had an especially strong emotional bond with her grandfather before.
"She seemed like she was interested in it," Adrian Ramey. "I figure well, she's getting down to being the last of the kin folk."
People who want to record the stories of World War II veterans are running out of time. Kevin Smith, assistant chairman of the Department of History, said the youngest veterans of that war are now in their 70s.
"We are approaching a time when we will no longer be able to thank these people directly," Smith said.
Before, veterans would escape to the workplace, keeping the horror stories of war hidden from their family. Luckily, more veterans are retiring and have had the chance to reflect on their lives. They are now more likely to sit down and share their stories with their family, even if it skips a generation as it did with the Rameys.
"You also want to pass down that legacy," Smith said.
It's typical for a young generation to want to learn about generations past.
"This kind of process, that is of remembering, is a common human thing," Luke Eric Lassiter, associate professor of anthropology, said. "It's an important part of how we construct our identity."
People often use new tools to record their family history, and Kelli Ramey's choice of placing her grandfather's oral history online is just part of that evolution.
"I don't know that the technology changes the process," Lassiter said. "It changes the dissemination."
Some people put their family history into records, books or songs. Putting it on the Internet, making it more accessible around the world, is becoming just as popular.
"You will find that that is exploding," Smith said.
Adrian Ramey hasn't watched his granddaughter's project yet, but he said he plans to sometime soon.
"I'm sure Kelli did a good job on it," Adrian Ramey said.
He said, though, that he enjoyed finally telling his 60-year-old story to his family.
"It wasn't a case of bragging or anything of that line," Adrian Ramey said. "Actual happenings."
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