I met with the Historic Records Coordinator this afternoon and I have my first assignments as a volunteer for the College Station 75th Anniversary celebration. Gulp!
1. Pulling together newspaper front pages, headlines and stories from local newspapers (The Eagle, The Battalion (Texas A&M's newspaper) and the High School newspaper) and various library archives that relate to significant dates in College Station's and America's history from 1938 to 2013. Mm! That should keep me busy for a while! I plan to make a start on Friday at the Carnegie Library in downtown Bryan. I think I'll need some kind of plan or framework otherwise this will be a completely indigestible task.
2. Skimming through the city's oral history transcriptions and picking out notable quotes and stories. Sounded simple until I took a look at the transcriptions...pages and pages of typed up notes from meetings, one to one rambling interviews that go on for 20 pages etc.etc. Might leave that one for a while!
3. I quote from the Multimedia Coordinator's email, "Writing her personal interpretation of things she finds interesting or unique about College Station and Texas, since she is fairly new to our community. I would very much like to get this perspective in order to tailor some of our materials to these type of folks." My personal interpretation! Foolhardy man! Does he not know what he might be unleashing!
I was mulling this last suggestion over with the Records Coordinator. One of the things that had struck me is that College Station has no centre or downtown area (shops are grouped in malls or retail parks with massive parking lots but these are spaced out several blocks apart along the main arteries criss-crossing College Station) and so there is no focal point or place where you might run into someone you know. This makes it hard for new comers to identify with the place or get to know people. However, it seems that here people's sense of community is very faith based. I have been struck by the number of churches and the number of people who tell you what their religious affiliation is. At the committee meeting last week, almost everyone made some reference to their church. Yes, said the Records Coordinator, it would be interesting to get your perspective on that...
The 2011 UK census showed that between 2001 and 2011 there has been a decrease in people who identify as Christian (from 71.7 per cent to 59.3 per cent) and an increase in those reporting no religion (from 14.8 per cent to 25.1 per cent). There were increases in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing the most (from 3.0 per cent to 4.8 per cent).
The 2009 US statistics provided by Gallup show that 50% of Texans report attending 'church' once a week, the national average was 42%. In 2012 77% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. "The United States remains a largely Christian nation; more than nine in 10 Americans who have a religious identity are affiliated with a Christian religion. There has been little change in this portrait of religious identity in the U.S. from last year."
I'm not sure how all this adds up, as calling yourself Christian and attending church are different measures, but the Texans I've met so far are certainly much more upfront in talking about their religion/church/attendance which contrasts with British reserve, but I'm not sure whether my perspective on this issue is of any interest to others.
The other cultural difference that has struck me is that the man in the street - or should I say the man/woman in the car - doesn't show much interest in being 'green' or other signs of awareness of environmental issues. You should see the number of plastic carrier bags that pour out of the supermarket doors every minute of the day! There are free shuttle buses that tour round College Station and Peter goes to and from work on the one that stops about 5 minutes from our house. We haven't yet met another member of the faculty that uses them. Shuttle bus? Never used it. Always take my car...
There's a slightly worrying expectation that I'm going to add something to this history project as an outside observer. I'm going to have to do a lot of research and careful mulling over of ideas or I'll be putting my foot in it, left, right and center (ha! ha! I meant centre).
What have I started!
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