A New Assignment
Did you vote for this week's Assignment America? Correspondent Steve Hartman explains why this week's choice is a little different.
The story that got the most votes was about a grandma from St. Petersburg, FL who was raising 11 kids on her own. Because of some very sad circumstances, she ended up being the guardian for most of her grandchildren and even a few of her relative's kids. All this, and she's living in a one bedroom apartment. The story was going to be about how the community had rallied to help her out — they even got her a house to live in.
Nice story, right? I thought so too. Unfortunately, after initially agreeing to do the story, grandma turned out to be more camera-shy than she thought. Even more unfortunately, she didn't tell me this until I got all the way to her doorstep in St. Pete! Yes, I was disappointed. But Assignment America isn't "60 Minutes." We don't go chasing people with cameras who really don't want to be on television.
So that's how I ended up doing your second choice story. It's about a group of old-time African American fishermen from Virginia who are trying to preserve a piece of their fishing heritage. Fifty years ago they would sing songs called "chanties" as they pulled in the fishing nets. Now they get together once a week, sing the songs on dry land, and try to keep the history alive. Fortunately they were all terrific characters — with nice voices — and not a camera-shy one in the bunch!
