The year was 1937, over a half century ago, and two years before the Great Depression. H. Lee Waters, a photographer from Winston Salem, traveled to more than 100 towns in North Carolina and took moving pictures of people. He didn't ask them to pose - just be themselves and he would be an observer.

Benson, Black Johnstonians, Clayton, Smithfield and Selma. The simple, everyday life, became historical memories archived for generations to come. The pictures of people and places are, in many ways, the story of America. Its our story.

For the historian or educator, all of the people in the different town movies have been frozen in time. Over a thousand photographs have been scanned and stored on individual Photo CDs. Use on your computer and print or insert the photographs into your lesson plans, make a slide show or add them to a family history book.