Here's the Story
Here's The Story: Voices of the People 2: Past, Present or Future
Clip | 9m 7sVideo has Closed Captions
Classic man-on-the-street interviews, Jersey style!
In the second episode of "Here's The Story: Voices of the People", filmmaker Steve Rogers invites subjects to step into a time machine that can take them to a time of their choosing. In this installment, "Past, Present or Future", discover where (and when) people choose to go—and the personal reasons that guide their journeys through time. Music was performed by Jon Francis and Ryan Gregg.
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Here's the Story is a local public television program presented by NJ PBS
Here's the Story
Here's The Story: Voices of the People 2: Past, Present or Future
Clip | 9m 7sVideo has Closed Captions
In the second episode of "Here's The Story: Voices of the People", filmmaker Steve Rogers invites subjects to step into a time machine that can take them to a time of their choosing. In this installment, "Past, Present or Future", discover where (and when) people choose to go—and the personal reasons that guide their journeys through time. Music was performed by Jon Francis and Ryan Gregg.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[MUSIC PLAYING] Can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
All right.
Tell us your name and where you're from.
My name is Tysha.
I'm Dr. Peter James Smith.
My name is John.
I'm from East Brunswick.
My name is Stanley Myers, from Sayreville, New Jersey.
My name is Willow Brown, and I'm from Red Bank, New Jersey.
There's no state more vocal about how it thinks, feels, remembers, loves, or lives like New Jersey.
New Jersey, you see, is a place for people with plain spoken, often profound, and always point blank points of view.
How would you describe yourself?
An average guy.
A bit quirky.
Artistic.
Sensitive person.
I'm a hick.
I like playing in the mud.
OK. Wow.
[ Laughter ] This is Here's the Story, "The Voices of the People."
If you could live in any time and place in New Jersey, where and when would you live?
Oh, that's a hard one.
2000.
2000, where?
In New Jersey, where?
I think Vernon's pretty cool.
OK, so you want to-- what about 2000 is something-- What do you like about that?
You alive then?
No.
Oh, no, I was not.
No, I was not.
OK, so you want to go back in time.
Why do you want to go to 2000?
What's 2000 like mean to you?
It was a good time.
No social media.
Oh, it was like before?
OK, yeah.
People were like more relatable with each other.
Yeah.
OK, I like that.
Is that a hickey on your neck?
No.
Just curious.
I have to say I love growing up in the '80s and '90s.
Loved it.
A lot more freedom.
There were no cell phones.
There was no proof.
If you could choose a time period to live in past, present, or future, which would you choose?
I think I would choose the 1980s.
The '80s.
Still, I'd relive it all over again.
Me too.
You're a big '80s fan.
We grew up there.
We graduated in the '80s, although we don't look it.
But, thank you.
But yeah, '80s totally.
I would say I would have to be Asbury Park, Stone Pony, as we're hearing things coming up.
I'm going to go '80s.
If you could live in any time and place in New Jersey, where and when would you choose?
The '90s.
The '90s because everybody was a lot closer.
Nobody was on their phones as much.
Everybody was interacting with one and each other.
And then me and Toy, if me and Toy, we was in the '90s, best believe we-- ooh!
Ooh!
What?
We would have been crazy.
You already know how we would have been.
I got to agree.
Like, the '90s back then-- And we loved dancing.
We loved dancing too.
'90s?
We was definitely back in every move.
With the celebrities, the artists, and everything like that.
Oh my god.
It would have been-- OK. Past, present, or future.
I could choose a time to live in.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Future, so that I could tell myself what I'm looking forward to and what I should do.
I would definitely be on Long Beach Island, because that's where I grew up.
And it would most likely be in the 1800s, because in Beach Haven, there's the historical area.
And when I was a kid, my sister and I would ride our bikes down to Beach Haven, spend the day packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in our bike baskets and drinks.
And we would go to Beach Haven and pretend that we lived in a certain Victorian home.
So I would go there then.
I would love to see this place at its peak at the turn of the century.
That would be fantastic.
See Convention Hall.
Go down to the casino.
I'd love to see this place like that.
The late 1950s, nice, quiet suburban town.
We're not too far from the Big Apple.
I've always been into the 1950s theme.
So I would live in that era for sure, for sure.
Even in New Jersey.
Yeah.
Even in Hoboken?
Even in Hoboken.
If I could live at any time and place in New Jersey, I would probably live when Frank Sinatra was around.
That'd probably be it.
Get to see him live, him starting out.
Here in Hoboken.
Sounds very corny and a little lovey-dovey.
But I would have loved to know my mom as a teenager in the '80s.
She's really my best friend now.
And I think we would have really gotten along together at the same age.
You think you would have been friends with your teenage mother?
Oh, I know it to be true.
Yeah.
What would you tell your teenage mother, if anything?
Any advice or something you'd like to just tell your teenage mother?
I think I would really just do my best to make sure she felt valued by me and give her the unconditional positive regard that she would really need to remain confident.
I would probably want to live in the present in a real way just because I don't want to go through the things that were upsetting again.
So they're those things.
And I'm OK with the hand I've been dealt with.
I've been pretty lucky and blessed and privileged in my life.
I had a complicated childhood, but I always had a lot of love in my childhood.
Of course, in a way, I would like to go back and see the people I miss and have lunch with them and hang out.
To visit.
Right, to visit.
But if I had to live, I'm just going to take the present.
If you could live in any time and place in New Jersey, where and when would you choose?
Right here, right now.
I think I was born at the exact right time for a person like me.
I'm a working and teaching artist.
And there's just no other time I think I would have been able to own my art, express it when I want.
Just so much of music and what I do as a woman was under someone else's control for so long.
It still kind of is.
So I think I did OK being born in '92.
I'd do it again if I had the chance, yeah.
Honestly, yeah, no, I don't want to go back.
And honestly, right now is pretty scary too.
So the future.
I'd go to the future just to see if it gets better.
Any specific place in New Jersey?
Right here.
Right here, 10 years in the future.
When you're rich?
Hopefully I'm rich.
Hopefully there's different things going on in the world.
And maybe it's better.
And maybe it all starts on this night, this interview.
Maybe this is the beginning of something new.
I do think that any of them, pick any of them, they were probably rad, bonfires on the beach and all that.
But you have to say right now.
You have to say right now because it's all happening.
And you need to know what's going to happen.
As far as right here, when I was 19, a girl broke my heart.
And I randomly moved to 22nd Street in Ship Bottom.
And then when I was 39, a girl broke my heart.
And I randomly moved back to 22nd Street, Ship Bottom.
And lived all kinds of places.
And this is the one I prefer the most.
Wow.
It's like you were meant to always be here.
The prodigal son of 22nd Street.
Your heart led you back twice.
Well, no.
My heart didn't lead me back.
My heart led me astray.
I got beat up.
My heart got beat up.
And I came back here both times, licking my wounds to fall back in love with myself.
It's like your heart leads you back.
So this is where my heart heals.
I understand that.
Let's look at that.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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