PARIS – The Web site of Western Maine Cultural Alliance, http://www.westernmaineculture.org, now offers voices from the past through audio downloads. See http://www.westernmaineculture.org/WMCA_folklore.html.

The audio selections were created as MP3 files and are part of a multi-media presentation on the folklore page of the site, “Enjoy a Taste of Western Maine Folklore.”

Creating the audio downloads was made possible, in part, by a grant from Maine Humanities and from support by Lake Region TV where digitizing and editing was done.

Much of the material was selected from the Oxford Hills Oral History Project conducted between 1989 and 1991 by local historian Peter Lenz.

Interviewees were born around the turn of the 20th century and reminisced about the numerous changes in their lives – lives lived before telephones, cars and numerous other things taken for granted.

There are also a few exerpts from a folklore project conducted by folklorist Jo Radner on behalf of WMCA in 2002.

WMCA Director Toni Seger said she regards the audio project as important because it preserved the past and made it much more accessible.

“Tape deteriorates over time in ways digital files don’t,” said Seger. “Tapes can also be lost or damaged,” she said. “These excerpts are very short, but they’re rich with information about another time and are filled with emotion.”

The exerpts range from a 90-year-old woman recalling childhood mischief – taking coins from her mother’s purse and spending it on candy – to a veteran remembering trying to celebrate Christmas overseas during World War II.

“Communities appeared to have been much closer in those days,” said Seger. “People didn’t have much money, but insisted they never felt poor because they knew their neighbors were always looking out for them.”

The Web site, which is a virtual location for arts and culture in western Maine, also includes an artist’s sampler page with exhibitors from four counties ranging from York to Franklin, searchable data bases and many other features.