The Interview

Since our project evolved from being focused on the people of the city to the city itself, we only did one official interview, and we met the subjects of our interview completely by chance. On our ghost tour, we stopped near a residential area so our guide could tell us another story. A man happened to be walking his dog, and the dog led him into our group. He went on to interrupt our tour guide and tell us that the ghost stories were a load of bologna, and he had lived in Savannah for thirty years and never once encountered the supernatural. He sort of took control of the tour for a few minutes. As we were walking away to continue on our path, Bella and I looked at each other and said 'Wait, we want to talk to him'. We strayed from the group and asked if we could talk to him later in the week. He agreed, and told us about how his wife is a renowned novelist, and how the two of them were teachers for quite some time. He also told us about how he used to have his own radio program. We got his information and set up the interview. We met at his home the next day, and spend the first twenty minutes of our visit hearing about the wife. His wife showed us the whole house (it was tiny, beautiful, but tiny, so it did not take long), and explained the house had been built in the late 1700's. When they moved to Savannah, it was the only house in the area that had not been remodeled, so they decided to do it themselves. They kept all the original wood and didn't touch the front exterior (besides a much needed paint job), and added a staircase that led to the only bedroom in the house. The house used to be all one level. It turns out that the woman, Susan Johnson, used their home has inspiration for one of her books, which is about the history of the houses in that area. It was fascinating to hear her talk about her research and immense success. Outside of the home, the conversation was great. They led fascinating lives together. They both taught in the south side of Chicago for a long time, and they were part of the movement in the 70's that aimed to improve inner city schooling. After teaching, they sailed around the world on a 12x40 foot sailboat. They went everywhere from Paris to Germany, to South Carolina where they docked before finding their home in Savannah. Truly you would have to hear the interview to grasp how wonderful they were. It was the only interview we did, but it was honestly they only interview we needed.