Oral History/ Recorded Memories
What do our town’s longest-living residents remember? That’s what we wanted to know when we started doing recorded interviews with them in 2017. So we listened, asked questions and recorded. Then, we cut up their comments into audio clips by topic.
There’s some pretty interesting memories here – everything from service in World War II to using a party-line telephone to growing up at the Washington Monument State Park.
Click below to take a listen…
Pass It On Bob Swain
Charles Robert Swain, born May 23, 1926, remembers the principal at Boonsboro High School, his mother’s restaurant on Main Street, and service during the Battle of the Bulge….
Pass It On Jim Bowers WWII
James Lee Bowers, born 1926, was sent directly to the front lines just after Christmas 1944. He landed in Liverpool, England. With freezing water halfway up their legs, they crossed the English Channel and got off near LeHavre, France. Carrying a 90 pound pack on his 123 pound frame, he scrambled up the hill toward Camp Lucky Strike….
Doug Bast Boonsboro Historian
Douglas Garns Bast is a local legend. Born to a locally significant family, Doug has lived in Boonsboro all his life and has been collecting and documenting its history since he was a boy. He is an expert on the history of Boonsboro, as well as many other topics such...
Pass It On Sara (Zimmerman) Sweeney
Sara Ann (Zimmerman) Sweeney of Boonsboro was born March 3, 1941 to Jean Smith (Shank) and Alfred Cook Zimmerman. At the time, her family lived at 27 N. Main Street (next to Pete's Barbershop) in a home owned by Dr. Draper who was away serving in World War II. In...
Janice Gantz – 95 years Growing Up in Boonsboro
We interviewed Janice Gantz in 2018 at age 95 in her kitchen at 202 Potomac Street. Her neice, Karen (Snyder) Cunningham who calls her by her nickname "Peck", sat with us during the interview, helping to prompt memories. Janice Gantz, born in 1923 at her grandparents...
Pass It On – Eleanor Lakin Retired Architect
Eleanor Virginia Lakin was born in July 3, 1937 in Boonsboro. She grew up at 331 S. Main Street. Her Lakin ancestors came to this region in the 17th century, settling in Jefferson, Maryland. Her great-grandfather, Abraham Lakin, owned a dental practice in the 1850s at...
Washington Monument Memories
Darce Easton, born April 30, 1930, moved with her family at the age of 6 to live at the Washington Monument State Park in Boonsboro. Her father, Robert Palmer, had been named the first superintendent of the park and job meant moving to live in the ranger’s house on park property.