Leisure

Essay Question:

Based on the way people in your family have fun, would you say that differences or commonalities across generations are more significant? (In other words, what do leisure activities say about your family and how it has changed over time?) Be sure to locate your family in time by providing historical context (such as dates) for each generation.

To support your argument, get some family stories about leisure activities. The following questions should elicit family stories that will be useful to you. Composing your own questions might be even more successful, especially if you base those questions on your knowledge of your family chronology and history.

• When your informant was a child, did he/she ever sneak away from school or chores to have fun? What did she do?
• What did your informant's parents do when they weren't working?
• How did your informant's family celebrate birthdays?
• What is the first movie your informant remembers seeing? Did any particular movie make an impression on him when he was young?
• Has your informant ever written to, or met, a movie star or an author or another famous person?
• Did your informant ever perform to entertain others (by singing, dancing, acting, etc.)? What were the circumstances, and what convinced her to do it?

More general questions for further conversation:

• What was the best gift your informant ever gave? What was the best gift he ever received?
• What was your informant's favorite toy as a child?
• Can your informant recommend a particular movie that really captures life when she was young?
• What is your informant's favorite book? movie? play? game?
• If your informant won the lottery or received a huge inheritance, how would it change his life? Would his parents or children give different answers to that question?
• Has your informant ever seen the movie Grapes of Wrath (or read the book)? What did he/she think?