This oral history interview is an intimate conversation between two people, both of whom have generously agreed to share this recording with Oral History Summer School, and with you. Please listen in the spirit with which this was shared.
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This interview was conducted on June 24, 2024 in the Hudson Area Library as part of Oral History Summer School 2024.
Debbie Waithe has lived in the local Hudson area for decades, opening and operating a private childcare business in the mid 1990s before retiring in 2023. She is married to former Hudson Police Detective Rodney Waithe and has three children and two grandchildren. In this interview, Debbie discusses Hudson and area community events, the Hudson library, and the joy that her family, children, and grandchildren bring her, especially related to dance. She also talks about the role that her childcare businesses played in the local community, the children that she cared for, and what she hopes that Hudson can do for children’s programming in the future.
Mary Arnatt is a PhD student in Cinema and Media Studies at York University. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Mary has lived in Toronto, Ontario and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. OHSS is her first time venturing to the East Xoast of the United States. She holds a BA and MA from the University of Calgary in Film, Communications, and Media Studies, and her research interests include horror, production studies, feminist theory, Canadian cinema, and audience/reception.
Oral history is an iterative process. In keeping with oral history values of anti-fixity, interviewees will have an opportunity to add, annotate and reflect upon their lives and interviews in perpetuity. Talking back to the archive is a form of “shared authority.”