Oral History Program Randy Kent Chambers Interviewed by Karla Chambers 24 August 1980 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Randy Kent Chambers Interviewed by Karla Chambers 24 August 1980 Copyright © 2012 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management University Archives All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Randy Kent Chambers, an oral history by Karla Chambers, 24 August 1980, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Randy Kent Chambers (b. 1950.) It was conducted in the family home on August 24, 1980. The interviewer is Karla Chambers. In this interview, Randy discusses his recollections and experiences growing up in a large Mormon family. KC: This is Karla Chambers. I’m interviewing Randy Kent Chambers on August 24, 1980 at 2660 North 450 East in North Ogden. We’ll be discussing life in a large family. Randy, thank you for coming. Would you please tell me your given name, and where and when you were born? RC: My name is Randy Kent Chambers and I was born February 4, 1950 in Ogden, Utah. KC: Who are your parents and what can you tell me about them? RC: My dad’s name is Lionel Chambers and my mom’s name is Marva Hale Chambers. I remember going hiking with dad. No matter where we went on vacation, Dad would always take us on one mountain, sometimes two. When we were involved in sports in school, he would take us out back and pitch to us. Mom was the one who prepared the food and made sure we got to school. She helped us get our jobs and made sure we got up in time to go to them. KC: What can you remember about your early childhood? RC: In early childhood we were just about in the same place as we are now. There was Craig, myself and Gary. We always palled around with Craig and his friends. We’d go over to the school about every day and play baseball. We had a given time every day that we’d meet behind the school and play. I remember one 1 Saturday afternoon, I took a big piece of sheet rock and I was dragging it over the long sidewalk in front of the school and writing things about the principal of the school that shouldn’t be repeated. The following Monday, they asked everyone in every class if they knew what had happened. I let them know that I might know something and when they called me in, I told them I’d seen two Negro boys doing it. I went to junior high at Walqhuist Junior High and that was probably the furthest I’ve ever been from the family. I had a lot of good times out there. I played basketball and baseball. I went out for football and it was too much work. High school was strenuous. I went out for football my sophomore year. My junior and senior year I ran cross country instead. I remember half of those guys would come in real close in the races. I remember we had a five or six mile race and we were running across a street and I saw another runner bum a ride on the street. By this time everybody else was probably a half a mile in front of us, so we crossed the street and got a ride. Just as we were getting out of the car, the coach saw us. He didn’t really say anything. He just laughed as hard as he could. I remember also in high school we used to do drama class. We were about forty-five minutes late for lunch because we would lock kids in the bathroom. One time they had an emergency fire alarm that we pulled out. The principal called me in. I was a student body officer and on the basketball team. He said, “I could have you expelled from school right now, but I’m not going to because I like you. The next time you do anything I’m going to kick you out and make it real hard for you to get back in.” 2 KC: What can you tell me about your brothers and sisters? RC: Growing up, I was probably closest to Craig. I think that was what helped me the most—being close to Craig and his friends. I didn’t really have any friends of my own. I was always with his friends. Then there was Linda, my older sister. Craig and I used to wait for her to come out of the bathroom and then we’d chase her in her towel. He used to pick on her quite a bit. She used to take great pride in keeping the house clean. That was her project. I remember Craig and I would wait until after she was done cleaning the kitchen and then we’d go in and put the dishes back on the table and open all the cupboards. Gary would generally do everything that we would tell him to do. I had a lot of fun with both of them. Lonnie and Lori—I remember thinking they were an embarrassment because it seemed like they never combed their hair. I remember, too, about this time, I had a hard time giving prayers because I’d say, “Bless Mom and Dad and Linda and Craig and Gary,” and I would forget to bless Lonnie and Lori. Lorraine I remember as being really sweet and doing nice things for us. I remember when I went to school she was crying and crying and I promised her that I’d come home every day after school and play with her. I remember the last three children they had to come and forcibly take us home from behind the school when Mom was in the hospital. I remember Gary would always get so upset when Dad would come over behind the school and tell us we had to come home because Mom had another baby. It felt like a regular occurrence—like every Saturday we’d have to go home from playing ball 3 because Mom had had another baby. One time we told him we’d be right there and went on to finish the ball game. LeeAnn was really sweet and the baby of the family. Everybody treated her like the honey of the family. I think we pampered Rodney until he got into his obstinate years, then it was too late to do anything about it. KC: What are the happiest memories that you have as a family? RC: As a family, I remember camping by the lake. There would only be five or six other tents up there. I remember going out on a raft. It was too cold for us kids to swim. I think out camping experiences were the funnest. KC: Do you remember any sad times? RC: Our folks would always tell us that if we slurped our soup or put our faces down in our soup, we’d get our faces pushed in. One time Gary put his face down and started slurping and we pushed his face down. He started squealing and I thought it was funny, but then I felt bad and I went and found him and told him I was sorry. KC: What do you think is the best part of being in a large family? RC: The friendship that we still have and the closeness. I remember playing ball every summer and going hiking. I look back on the hand-me-downs and how our clothes were never in style and I think we were forced, more or less, to develop talents in order to be accepted. We learned to develop our personalities and get along with people without needing fancy things. We would laugh about how if you grow up in a large family you have to have quick hands. But there was never a day when there wasn’t more than 4 enough good food to go around. I remember a sad experience of thinking that every morning we had to have mush—whole wheat mush. I complained to the kids at school that we had whole wheat mush every morning and it made me really sad to hear what they had—some of them didn’t have anything. KC: Would you go down the line and tell us the nicknames of each of your siblings and how they got it? RC: I don’t remember having one for Linda. Gary we always used to call ‘Gabbie’ because he wouldn’t talk very much at all. Lonnie was called ‘Lonnie girl’ because she was so sweet. Lori was ‘Tiger’ because she’d get so mad. She could tear anybody apart. We called Kelly ‘Bird.’ I don’t remember a nickname for Lorraine. She was always so sweet. LeeAnn we nicknamed ‘Honeybun’ because she was a sweet little kid. My nickname came from Coach Kottle at Walqhuist Junior High. We were playing basketball and on the bottom of the back of my t-shirt I’d crossed out the words and written in marker, ‘Hey Poopsy.’ As we were warming up one day, I untucked my shirt and the guys behind me started laughing and carrying on. Coach Kottle came over and looked at it and laughed. From then on he called me ‘Poopsy’ and the name stuck. KC: Thank you Randy for coming today. 5