Questions to ask your grandfather

15 questions to ask your grandfather about pets and animals

People who will not talk about themselves will talk about a dog. These questions use the animals of a life to reach the houses, the family and the losses around them. Let him finish the story he always tells. Then ask "who else was there?" or "what happened the day after?" and you will hear a version nobody has.

How to use this list. Ask by voice and record it. One or two questions a visit is plenty; the follow-up ("Who else was there?" "What did she say?" "What happened the day after?") matters more than the next question. The 2 marked tender come last: ask them once, late, in person, with "or would you rather leave that?" in the question.

1. What is the most trouble a pet ever got you into?
2. What was the first animal that was yours? What was it called, and who named it?Who named it is who was in charge.
3. Was there a dog or a cat in the house when you were growing up, and whose bed did it sleep on?Where the dog slept is a map of the family's affections.
4. Did you grow up around working animals: horses, cows, hens, pigeons? Who looked after them?Working animals mean a working childhood, and that is a different book.
5. Tell me about an animal that got loose. Who chased it, and where did it end up?
6. Were you ever bitten, kicked or stung badly enough to remember? What were you doing at the time?
7. Who in the family talked to the animals as if they were people? What did they say to them?How someone speaks to a dog is how they speak when nobody is judging.
8. Was there an animal that was not supposed to be in the house, and who let it in?
9. Did an animal ever save the day, or ruin one? Tell me the whole thing.
10. What animal were you afraid of as a child, and did you ever get over it?A childhood fear and its ending is a complete small story.
11. Which pet was really yours, and which was the family's that you ended up feeding?
12. What wild creature did you see that you have never forgotten? Where were you?
13. If you could have one of them back for an afternoon, which animal, and what would you do?
14. Which animal did you lose that you still think about?tenderGrief for an animal is often the first grief, and the safest to tell.
15. Did you ever have to put an animal down, or give one away? Who did it, and who cried?tender

What these questions are for

A good book about a person needs more than facts. It needs the person on the page: how they talked, what they wanted, what they did when it mattered, the story that shows them. These questions cover 9 of the things a writer needs about your grandfather: the story that shows them, loves and tastes, where they came from, habits, routines and work, their place in history, their voice and sayings, key relationships, wants, fears and wounds, loss and fate.

When people ask these. Grandparents' Day; Veterans Day; a milestone birthday.

More questions to ask your grandfather

• All questions to ask your grandfather
• Questions to ask your grandfather about his childhood
• Questions to ask your grandfather about family history
• Questions to ask your grandfather about love and marriage
• Questions to ask your grandfather about his work
• Questions to ask your grandfather about the war
• Questions to ask your grandfather about faith and beliefs
• Questions to ask your grandfather about food and the kitchen table
• Questions to ask your grandfather that are funny

Or see questions for everyone else, and how to interview a parent about their life.