The Third Thirty: A Community Oral History Project

I truly, truly do believe in trying to constantly evaluate who you are and how you are, and my basic philosophy has always been love. If you have love in your life, in your family, and in your companions you have the most important thing in learning to live. And the thing of it is, we cannot know who we are, except when we are interacting with another-human-being.

"I think life is pretty much a crapshoot. I think that it takes some cunning and some intuition to do the best with the cards that you've been given. But I think that's the minority part of it. Mostly, it's the times that you were born into, your DNA and nervous system, and the culture you were brought up in. It’s so profound and all encompassing! We're pickled in all of that.  I’m so grateful for all the mercies that random fate has given me."

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"Now [in] the last part of my life, I realized that [some of] the lessons we learned may not be appropriate anymore. Yes, we learn a lot from our parents, but sometimes those things need to be relearned or redirected or thought about -- whether or not they're still valid lessons."

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"I would like to have my time of dying a happy time, and have people relieved of my care.  I think I’ve had a good life, and I won’t mind if it ended."

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"I would hope people would respect different nationalities and ethnicities and recognize that we're all a human family. What happens to anyone happens to the family and we ought to take care of each other."

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"I used to tell my students and my kids: if our life's work to leave our communities or our world more sustainable and socially just is a legacy that can be accomplished within our lifetime, maybe we're not thinking big enough."

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"I learned how to listen to people. I learned how important it is that people need to be touched. I don't necessarily mean physically, but they need to have their story heard, or their emotions honored. I think that has carried me a through a lot of situations."

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This story is about my brother, Ed, age 75, who was born in a different time than I. His life was affected by two wars, and friends and family were what has made his life meaningful.
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 -Joan Swanson, Oral Historian

I have known Lonnie Locke for about 20 years. I really got to know her when she co-facilitated a 10-week Study Circle on Race for my theatre company, the Heartsparkle Players. That was an experience that helped our group to first, talk about race and then to be able to portray stories about race and racism with a more complex understanding.  Lonnie was born in Linden, Alabama. She came to Pasco, Washington 54 years ago. She has lived with her family in Lacey, Washington for the last 22 years.  
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-Debe Edden, Oral Historian

Jill Severn is a writer and community activist, known in Olympia for her work for and with Quixote Village, a tiny home village that opened in 2013 specifically for people experiencing homelessness. Following are excerpts from my interview with Jill at her home in Olympia on Monday, October 15, 2018.

​-Kris Tucker, Oral Historian ​

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My Third Thirty interview was with Mohammed Bentlemsani on October 10, 2018. We were both relatively new to the Olympia community when we met in the early 1990’s. Our sons grew up together and they are still friends today. ​

​-Eric Trimble, Oral Historian