Vets asked for stories of Vietnam
VIETNAM STORIES
Brian Robertson is looking for Arkansas veterans of the Vietnam War.
He wants to hear their stories.
Robertson is the senior archivist and manager of the research services division at the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and is heading the center’s Arkansas Vietnam War Project.
The project is an effort to record veterans’ oral histories of their war experiences.
“We want to reach as many Vietnam veterans as we can,” Robertson says. “It’s important to collect these histories so we can understand what these guys went through.”
The Arkansas project is part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program, which is celebrating Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a short story collection centered on the war.
The Vietnam oral history gathering, which has already started, follows a similar effort by the Butler Center to record stories from veterans of the Korean War.
Those interested in participating in an interview can email Robertson at brianr@cals.org or call (501) 320-5723.
More information about the project can be found at https://www.butlercenter.org/arkansas-vietnam-warproject/.
COUNTRY STORIES:
Ken Burns’ eight-part documentary series
Country Music premieres at 7 p.m. today on AETN (see our article on Page 1E; it’s also covered in TV Week), and some country musicloving Arkies will chat about each episode.
Talkin’ Country, a half-hour-long show hosted by Arkansas radio legend Bob Robbins, country music journalist Charles Haymes and recording engineer Jon Raney, will air on AETN at 9 p.m., immediately after each episode of Country Music.
Along with the hosts there will be guests with Arkansas connections sharing their thoughts on that evening’s Country
Music. Tonight’s episode will feature Mark Jones, son of Grandpa Jones, and Dave Smith, host of Ozark Highlands Radio.
Other guests during the series will include songwriter Charley Sandage, musician Tim Couch, singer Barbara Fairchild and radio host Flap Jones.
“It was really neat seeing people from different perspectives on the country music business talking about the episodes,” Haymes says.
C’MON DOWN!
Regina and Mat Seelinger of North Little Rock celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary last week with a trip to Los Angeles and Studio 33 in CBS Television City for tapings of The Price is Right.
And Regina, a longtime fan of the game show, was told to “C’mon down.”
“I was the first name of the show to be called,” she says. “From there, I don’t know what I did.”
She actually got onstage with host Drew Carey and played the game One Wrong Price. Tune in Nov. 12 to see how she did.
“It was so much fun,” she says. “I will remember it forever.”