I discovered this brilliant photo on Retronaut, my new favourite online trove of archival goodies. Retronaut (“See the past like you wouldn’t believe”) is a website of oddities, gags, and vintage visual treasures.

One of the many perks of my job as Echo Memoirs’ photo editor is stumbling upon weird and wonderful photos from the past, buried under important Historical Events. I am always hungry for more when I find something that doesn’t quite fit in the official narrative of the past. But how do you search an archive for “Really strange beauty queens” (see: Miss Idaho Potato; Miss Diaper Queen, and Miss Sausage Queen, 1955)? Or “tea parties with animals“?

Retronaut satisfies my appetite for history’s outtakes. Offering surprise and discovery, this site’s “holdings” will make you laugh, astound you, and make you marvel at the way we were.

If this sounds like you, please see the full job posting, including required skills and talents, and contact story@echomemoirs.com with a CV and an unconventional cover letter. No formalities needed. Let your personality shine. Intrigue us. Make us laugh.

We’re looking forward to meeting you.

ECHO MEMOIRS | PREPRESS COORDINATOR

However, science says, there’s more than warm and fuzzy feelings that make these stories so potent. An article recently published in the New York Times, “The Stories That Bind Us,” reported on interesting research out of Emory University about the role of narrative and mythmaking in families. The study by professors Robyn Fivush and Marshall Duke found that children who hear stories about “highly stressful events” in their families’ past, told “in an emotionally expressive and explanatory fashion,” have higher levels of self-understanding and self-esteem. Teens that have grown up hearing stories of their parents’ childhood, their extended family and the generations before them have higher levels of self-understanding and emotional well-being.

In their study, Fivush and Duke administered the “Do you know?” test to the children of four dozen families. The test is a set 20 questions designed to gauge a child’s knowledge of their family history. The question include, Do you know where your mom and dad went to high school? and Do you know where your parents met? The researchers also taped several of their dinner table conversations. The more parents told their children about their family history, the more empowered their children were in the world; family stories about facing challenges serve as roadmaps for children to overcome obstacles in their own lives. Astoundingly, “the ‘Do You Know?’ scale turned out to be the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness,” says the New York Times article.

The dinner table has always been an important focal point of family life. We’re often thinking about what to serve for a well-balanced dinner. Beyond a serving of veggies, we can nourish future generations with family stories — food for their hearts and minds.

In my 15 months as Echo Memoir’s photo editor, I’ve come across quite a few photos of dashing individuals in mid-stride on Vancouver’s Granville Street. In decades past, getting one’s photo taken near the intersection at Robson Street was a rite of passage and a must-do with visitors from out of town. It was simply a part of the experience of going downtown for thousands of Vancouverites. So, who took the photos?

An answer to this mystery was delivered over the radio last week. I was listening to the Early Edition on CBC Radio and Joan Seidl, the Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Museum of Vancouver, announced the upcoming full-scale exhibition celebrating the man behind those enigmatic pictures: Foncie Pulice. “Foncie’s Fotos” (Thursday, June 6, 2013 to Sunday, January 5, 2014) will showcase negatives undeveloped until now, and a background on the man behind about 15 million images of those street photos. Foncie had imitators, but he was the last one standing when he retired in 1979. At his peak, Foncie took up to 5,000 photos daily. (For a very detailed history of Foncie’s career, see one of my favourite sites, The History of Metropolitan Vancouver, by the late great Chuck Davis).

Foncie passed away in 2003, but his legacy is preserved in photo albums across the city and across Vancouver. As Davis put it, the street photographer’s work “may be closer to the spirit of the people shown than any carefully composed studio portrait.”

If you have a Foncie Foto that you’d like to share, the Knowledge Network is creating a documentary of the photographer’s life.  The filmmakers behind the project have a website, Foncie’s Corner, where they are gathering all the Foncie photos visitors can provide. If you don’t have a portrait to contribute to the project, you can still browse through a rich collection of photos and stories. One entry by Ted Reeve goes with the photo above: “My parents Rev. Canon Charles Reeve and Mrs. Dorothy Reeve of Calgary. Definitely on vacation, as he is not wearing his clerical collar. July 31st, 1953.”

Now I know about “Foncie’s Corner,” I have nostalgia for a time when getting your picture taken was an event. With our pocket cameras and endless digital film, the currency of images feels as if it’s diminishing. In Foncie’s time, you were captured looking vibrant and alive, and you couldn’t edit and scrutinize the way you were. These photos give the subjects and the viewer something really priceless: a path back in time.

When we started over a decade ago, everything was done the bespoke way. We’ve always wanted to handcraft things as unique as the stories we tell. For clients who want our limited-edition service, we proudly run our own bindery. And after a three-alarm fire in our old studio left us with the decision of whether or not to keep the bindery, we made the choice quickly. The presses were rescued and we built facilities to suit our new place.

In the bindery, our clients’ books are  hand-sewn, glued and pressed by our own staff trained in the fine art and craft of hand bookbinding, a craft that requires patience and precision.

Below, our bookbinder Jill Shumka — who’s a skilled baker, too — assembles a work of art. From printing to the first reader cracking the spine, the bookbinder’s process takes seven days.

Here’s how it looks:

In the December 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review, John T. Seaman Jr., partner at the Winthrop Group, and David Smith, a founding director of Winthrop, describe how you can use “Your Company’s History as a Leadership Tool“:

“…communicating the history of the enterprise can instill a sense of identity and purpose and suggest the goals that will resonate. In its most familiar form, as a narrative about the past, history is a rich explanatory tool with which executives can make a case for change and motivate people to overcome challenges. Taken to a higher level, it also serves as a potent problem-solving tool, one that offers pragmatic insights, valid generalizations, and meaningful perspectives—a way through management fads and the noise of the moment to what really matters. For a leader, then, the challenge is to find in an organization’s history its usable past.

In this comprehensive article, Seaman and Smith examine how heavy hitters IBM, Kraft and Coca-Cola used their decades of history to ease their staff through big transitions. To ease a potentially prickly integration with Cadbury, Kraft used the parallel histories of the two companies to build bonds between employees.

If 2012 was the year of storytelling to customers and fans, this year, more companies will be using storytelling in-house to empower and engage employees.

Our tips:

• Know which kind of story to tell.
• When illustrating your company values, show, don’t tell.
• Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable — exposing your failures and moments of weakness lend your  story authenticity.
• Lose the jargon. Engage your audience with a conversational tone.

How have you used storytelling to lead?

{ The HBR article can be previewed online, or you can purchase the full article from the magazine website }

When we heard that Wendy McDonald had passed away on December 30 at the age of 90, we were saddened by the news. But affectionate memories of Wendy quickly followed. McDonald, the former CEO of BC Bearing Engineers Ltd., was someone who charmed, inspired and impressed everyone she met — including our team, who had the pleasure of working on Wendy’s biography, You Got That Right! John remarked, “She was an amazing person. Absolutely filled with life energy.” That energy was infectious and endless. McDonald’s lifelong friend Grace McCarthy told the Vancouver Sun that the BC Bearing spark plug danced all night at her 90th birthday, six months ago.

McDonald was born in North Vancouver in 1922 (née Stoker), and married Robert McPherson in 1942. She took over McPherson’s single machine shop when he went to serve in the second world war. Pregnant and caring for two young children, McDonald found her calling in business. Her natural knack for building personal relationships was the secret to her success:  She had a tremendous personality and she knew the names of every child of everyone she did business with,” says McCarthy. Former company president Dermot Strong once remarked, “None of us will ever be able to replace Mrs. Mac or mimic her way of relating to people so naturally.”

Wendy was a pioneer. She excelled at running a business at a time when married women were just breaking into the workforce. Under Wendy’s leadership, BC Bearings grew into a formidable international business with 60 locations worldwide. She also grew and mentored her family of 10 children and 28 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren. Throughout her career, McDonald stayed in touch with the day-to-day operations of her company, getting to know all her employees at every opportunity. She was also engaged in her community:  McDonald served on countless corporate boards and became the first female chair of the 103-year-old Vancouver Board of Trade in 1990. For her contributions to the community and country, she was recognized with numerous awards, including the Order of Canada in 1997.

“She had guts. She knew what she had to do. And she … was not afraid to ask for advice. Courage, confidence and humility — boy, what a combination!” said friend Bill Wellwood, in You Got That Right. In an email to our team, Echo president Samantha wrote, “What a woman. I’m so proud we helped capture her remarkable story.” Documenting Wendy’s legacy was an honour.

Our thoughts are with Wendy’s wide network of family, friends and colleagues — and with Wendy, whose life well-lived was a gift to those around her.

This evening, we unveil our new studio to our friends, family and clients, past and present. Our senior designer, Cathy, and Sam have collaborated on five eye-catching canvases featured on our walls, including the one above. That’s Cathy’s grandmother on the motorcycle on the left. This evocative image was the perfect one to pair with Isak Dinesen’s quote.

In the new year, there’s another project that takes Dinesen’s aphorism more literally: The Human Library. Founded in 2000 in Copenhagen by Dany Abergel, Asma Mouna, Christoffer Erichsen, Thomas Bertelsen and Ronni Abergel, the Human Library is a project to mobilise people against violence by building connections through stories. A Human Library is filled with “human books,” people who have chosen to tell their story and share their experiences. Library visitors can borrow and read check out books for 20 to 30 minutes. Human Libraries helps readers and books to transcend stereotypes and prejudices, and ultimately, build understanding.

One UK “book reviewer” wrote, “A human book … exists in the real four-dimensional scope of human experience. The reader can’t skip bits or neglect their book, a human book requires fixed attention and, through that intimate engagement with another’s story, invites empathy through real human engagement.” Recently, we’ve become so comfortable crafting and receiving communications through text, having conversations can challenge our social beliefs and habits in surprisingly radical ways.

In Canada last year, the Ottawa Public Library had six branches and the Canadian War Museum involved and let visitors check out books titled “Sex worker,” “Peking Opera performer” and “Bus driver,” to name a few. In 2013, the CBC will be sponsoring Human Libraries across the country. Other organizations are also providing this amazing service including, the Toronto Public Library, the University of Alberta, and the PuSh Festival in our city. On January 18-20, 25-27, and February 1-3 (12:00PM – 4:00PM), 30 books will be on offer at the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch.

Tonight, we’re fortunate to have such a funny, warm and original library at our disposal. The Echo team and family will be celebrating this festive season in the stacks.

Happy “reading” and happy holidays.

Founded in 2003, Storycorps has collected over 40,000 interviews from more than twice as many participants in its “Storybooths,” semi-permanent recording booths. One copy of the stories from Storybooth sessions goes to the storytellers, and one copy is archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Some of the conversations are even aired on NPR’s Morning Edition, reaching an audience of millions.

Its storytellers come from a diverse pool: They are mothers, bus drivers, people who have served in the military, teachers, and people with Alzheimers. They are anyone who has a story to tell (and if you ask us or Storycorps, that’s everyone).

Storycorps’ main instrument for collecting American stories are through its website. Anyone can submit a story that they record, and the ones they have collected are completely remarkable. They confirm that everyone has passions, dreams, hopes and failures in their lives. You can also hear the interviewer and interviewees form tighter bonds and share unprecedented moments of intimacy; in other words, they confirm the unique power of being given an audience to stories —people are made to feel like they are special, and that they are part of a shared humanity.

On the importance of listening and making space for everyday life stories, Storycorps founder Dave Isay says, “We all want to know that our lives have mattered and that we won’t ever be forgotten. If we take the time to listen, we’ll find wisdom, wonder and poetry in the lives and stories all around us.”

As an alternative to Black Friday shopping sprees, Storycorps found a way to get something truly priceless: Today is the fifth National Day of Listening. On this new holiday, Storycorps asks everyone to take a few minutes to record an interview with a loved one. They’ve provided amazing resources on their website, including a Do-it-yourself instruction guide, a question generator, and tips on what recording equipment to use. Participants are invited to upload their stories on a SoundCloud listening wall.

On the 2012 Listening Wall, partners Tonia and Elaine talk about their love: Tonia says, “It started far, far away. We started 3,000 miles apart, and now we’re 2 feet apart in our tiny apartment in Brooklyn….On our 36-hour date, you came to New York and we romped around…. Underneath all the tsotchkes at the Cubby Hole [bar], drunk on a little Jameson, and we talked about our passions and our dreams. It was a magical night.” I love their story’s unassuming simplicity and universality. Hopefully the Wall will be completely plastered with more stories after tomorrow’s holiday. We hope it will include yours, too.

In Canada, it’s not our Thanksgiving weekend, or our National Day of Listening, but we are grateful for the privilege of documenting stories each day we are at work. Happy Thanksgiving to our American family and friends, and thank you for letting us listen.

Moehringer’s memoir of growing up in a Long Island bar, where his uncle worked, is one of my favourite books I’ve read all year, full of palpable characters and pithy truths. But while Father Amtrak is brimming with pieces of wisdom for J.R., he may be wrong about writers. These past weeks at work have shown me that scribes give us more than good stories. The best ones craft the perfect sentences more often than others, spin stories that transcend good yarns. In other words, some people are really good at guessing.

Speaking of powers of prescience, Echo writer Dan Fost, said that the San Francisco Giants would win the 2012 World Series (Does he say this every year?), and what a win for the City by the Bay this past Sunday! Dan happens to be the author of Giants: Past and Present and, if his Twitter photo is any indication, a die-hard fan. For the Giants’ story up until their sixth World Series title win in 2010, Dan’s book is a super read. Sports Illustrated wrote, “Dan Fost’s book captures the whole wild history of this great team. He’s got the triumphs, the heartbreaks…and the orange-clad, beard-wearing freak-flag-flying fans.” We agree; it’s a joyful trifecta of sports, sentences and stellar stories.

I also want to highlight great work from other writers we’re working with. Recently, we’ve also had the pleasure of reading new chapters from Mickey Goodman. Mickey is an Atlanta-based freelance journalist and she can write about anything: social issues, lifestyles, design and travel. Her current Echo project has her researching and writing about pipe molding and beer making, and she makes it interesting and funny. I want to have Mickey by my side at the next cocktail party I attend.

Lastly, earlier in the month, John and I were lucky to spent a few days in Port Hope, Ontario, with Toronto writer Larry Krotz. In between photo-research sessions, we heard about Larry’s latest book, Piecing the Puzzle, which chronicles how a team of researchers, including scientists from Manitoba, identified the global AIDS/HIV epidemic in the 1980s. This groundbreaking international scientific collaboration is an important history, but Larry treats the stories behind a school approaching its sesquicentennial with equal regard. The search for the story is as important as the writing, and Larry will go—and has gone—around the world to find an engrossing narrative.

When we read a book, we are trusting the writer to take us somewhere, hopefully with sensitivity, humour, accuracy, and intelligence. We will have to travel a distance, whether it’s in time and/or place, and the words are the hints that help us make better guesses at what it might feel to be a boarding school student in a small Ontario town, or the euphoria of being a SF Giant fan outside AT&T Park last weekend.

Without skilled word smithing we just wouldn’t have the great stories.

I’ll bookend this post with another perfect quote from Moehringer on stories that gives words their proper due: “Every book worth a damn is about emotions and love and death and pain. It’s about words.”