So, I've been doing radio for a few months now. Writing for radio, is, well, tough. You have to know your story because you have to be quick. You have to use verbs, not adjectives. Quick doesn't mean boring, quick means compelling. And sometimes, you get it right and tell a story that people will not only hear, one they'll also see.
Jeanne Robert Foster could have been a radio star. Neighbors of Yesterday has a scene set: knitting, hair furniture, and a woman--our main character. We hear this woman's voice, we see her framed by the antimacassar and holding knitting needles. There's plot, an existential one. It's conversational, as the woman tells us that "it does not trouble her delight in [neighbors of yesterday] that they are but shifting shadows". It's intriguing. Who are the neighbors of yesterday? Why does she love them, and, in what ways does she show her love? Maybe she is knitting for them. I want to meet this woman. I'm in the room with her, on her stage. That's what good radio writing does.
So, Foster was ahead of her time. A rural American documentary series didn't need to come along then. She did a good job of it for me, her listener of today. This magnifying eye seems impartial and lets me believe that it's the truth. Stories need some truth.
Foster knew her stories. Maybe this was her grandmother sitting at home, talking softly about Life. And, like any good radio ending, a zoomed out look at the woman we just intimately uncovered-- her idea on immortality explained.
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