Valuable life ways, constantly threatened by a quickly changing world, can be preserved through the telling of our own tales. As we remember the positive ways we related to events and people in the past, these ways can be reestablished or renewed. Of course, the simple pleasure of remembering is another reason to tell our own stories. As we tell more and more of our stories, especially as these stories are shared out loud with others, our memories of the events in our lives expand. New paths of reminiscence are taken that lead to new discoveries and new pleasures.
Oral histories are TOLD events.
They are oral in nature. Stories, and especially personal stories, are not alive until they have been told. A story is like a seed. Written, it is dormant and dead. It comes to life when it is told, for all of the teller's background, cultures, personal experiences, values, thoughts, and beliefs combine with his or her facial nuances, gestures, and body tensions to bring the story to its fullest living state.