Oral History Program Malinda Kilgore Interviewed by Joe Jay 27 April 2008 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Malinda Kilgore Interviewed by Joe Jay 27 April 2008 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii 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 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: Kilgore, Malinda, an oral history by Joe Jay, 27 April 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Mindy Kilgore. It is being conducted on April 27, 2008, by Joe Jay, at her home in Washington Terrace, Utah. The interview concerns her recollections and experiences of growing up in Weber County, Utah, and her brief time as a student at Weber State University. JJ: My name is Joe Jay and I am here with Mindy Kilgore and we are in her home here in Washington Terrace. It's not exactly your home is it? MK: No. JJ: Whose home is it? MK: It's actually my parent's house. JJ: Your parent's house. MK: I rent from them. JJ: You rent from them? MK: Yes. JJ: Who are your parents? MK: Danny and Sherry Blaylock. JJ: Danny and Sherry Blaylock. MK: They bought this home twenty-something years ago for $16,000. Yeah, those were the days. 1 JJ: Twenty years ago? MK: I think. It's probably getting close to thirty years ago, actually. JJ: $16,000? MK: Yes, $16,000. JJ: And what's it worth now? MK: Probably my house, because it does have the basement and stuff like the other houses in the area, but it's probably around ninety to a hundred thousand. The other house, is like $140,000, $160,000. Is that what they are selling for? JJ: Where are your parents from? MK: My mom grew up in Roy and my dad grew up in Ogden, up Twenty-Ninth Street. So my mom went to Roy High and my dad went to Ogden High. JJ: How did they meet? MK: They were set up on a blind date by a friend and the first date went really poorly, but then the second date went much better and my mom waited for my dad while he was on his LDS Church mission. They got married shortly thereafter he got home. JJ: Are you the oldest? How long had they been married before you 'popped up'? MK: I am the middle child of five kids. They were, let’s see, they had probably been married for about ten years before I was born. My mom had a lot of miscarriages before she had any kids. They didn't think they were going to have any kids and then they end up having five. 2 JJ: So you are the middle child. You have two older siblings? MK: An older sister and an older brother and two younger brothers. JJ: So you really are the middle child. MK: The middle child. JJ: How was that growing up for you? MK: It totally rocked. JJ: Did it really? MK: It was the best because I had my older brother and sister, one of each, to show me, you know, the ropes. Do everything before I had to and learned how to work my parents as far as getting away with stuff, from them, from their mistakes. And so, I just kind of got lost in the middle it, you know, I could pretty much do what I wanted within reason but there wasn't too much focus on me so, which I enjoyed. JJ: Did you ever get any type of a middle child syndrome? Were you ever, did you ever feel like you weren't meeting the expectations or you were being over looked, or anything like that? MK: No, I don't think so. I kind of, I enjoyed being the middle child. It fit my personality well; I'm not so much the "go out, getter done" first of the pack kind of person. Not that I am a follower either, I guess I just like to do my own thing. Being the middle child I go to do my own thing. So I was pretty nice. 3 JJ: That's cool, ok. Did you have any expectations? Did your parents, how were they with you growing up? Did it seem as if your siblings met expectations and those were on you as well or did you just kind treat you with fair reign? Or how did that work? MK: I think the only thing I was kind of jealous of or had issues with was my older brother got away with a lot more than the girls did. You know, the girls, especially be being the baby girl, even though I am the middle child, I am the youngest girl, and I was always a kind of "daddy's girl," my older brother got away with a lot more in the teenage years and stuff. But, I was never, I could have never gotten away with, I don't know, they were really strict with my sister, so. JJ: And she is the oldest? MK: She is the oldest, yes. JJ: So they were strict with her? MK: Really strict with her and my brother fought it a lot. JJ: Did he fight it and get away with it? MK: Not really. He'd clash and there was a lot of tantrum throwing with him so I kind of figured out that really didn't work because he'd still get in trouble. JJ: So with the girls seemingly getting it harder than the older brother, was that more of, was that mutual between your parents or was it one of your parents in particular. MK: No, they pretty much stuck together on things. They, sometimes my mom, I could get away with a little more with her. My dad was pretty strict as far as, he was the 4 disciplinary. If you screwed up, you were going to get it from him kind of thing. And not that he was any less strict than my mom but he was just the one we were more afraid of. But, I don't know, as far as expectations go, they all kind of expected us to live the family values and there wasn't much different, however, with my youngest brother, he gets away with murder. JJ: Really? MK: Yeah. He doesn't, we all were expected to work for our money growing up as kids so we worked odd jobs either with my grandpa. You know, mowing lawns or doing yard work and stuff. JJ: Where did your grandpa live? MK: He lived out in Roy. So he would come pick us up as kids and we would go out and do stuff with him. He actually had a lawn mowing business, yard care business that he did on the side, kind of thing. So Saturday mornings he would come pick us up and we would go mow lawns and stud and we would have to do that for spending money. We didn't get an allowance or anything like that. That was our spending money. If we worked for it—we got it. If we didn't—oh, well. JJ: And how long did you work? How long would this carry on for with the kids in your family? MK: I personally worked with my grandpa and or my uncle, I also worked with him at an apartment building/office building cleaning apartments and offices, doing some lawn mowing and stuff like that, doing some yard maintenance or ground maintenance there. 5 But, I started that when I was probably eleven or twelve, with my grandpa. Between the two of them I worked that until I was at least fifteen or sixteen. Through the summers mostly, not much in the winter. JJ: And your two older siblings did that? MK: My older brother did it. My older sister, she worked, like fast food jobs and stuff. She didn't really, she was too girly, prissy to do anything. JJ: But not for fast food. MK: Any labor, but not for fast food. She went and did that. But, I managed to stay away from fast food, never had one of those jobs, very grateful for that. But, I was going to say something but can't remember now. JJ: About working? MK: Oh, my older brother worked with my grandpa and my uncle and then I started and then my younger brother started as my older brother got old enough to go get real jobs. We just kind of went through the line up as one got old enough to get a real job then they'd leave and then the younger one, the next in line, would start and kind of work through it that way. And then my younger brother actually after my uncle died, the one we worked with at the office building, he kind of took over, his whole job and kind of did it on his own and he did that clear up until he left on his mission. So, I think I stopped doing that like, I think I was fifteen cause then I started working at the scout camps during the summer. JJ: What was the scout camp? 6 MK: It was camp Keisel it was a Cub Scout day camp I was on the staff as a kitchen helper slash cook whatever you want to call it. I worked there for three summers and each year there was different people there. Usually there was one or two other girls my age up there so we would kind of hang out together. When we weren't working in the kitchen or whatever we would go hang out go hiking or just mess around that kind of stuff. It was a blast to get paid for something you really wanted to do anyway. JJ: You enjoyed it? MK: It was like a big giant vacation all summer. That you got paid for. I mean it wasn't really good pay but I didn't really care. JJ: But you're being paid to camp. MK: I was being paid to play in the mountains and I was fine with that. JJ: And how many summers did you do that? MK: I started that I guess when I was 14. So I did it when I was 14, 15 and 16 so, three summers. JJ: Then what did you do after you were 16? MK: I'm trying to remember. I don't think I had a job so much in high school. I'd still do just odd jobs around kind of. I didn't start working until I graduated. JJ: What year did you graduate? MK: ‘98. JJ: And from what High school? 7 MK: Bonneville high school. JJ: How was high school for you? MK: It was a blast I loved high school. JJ: Did you? MK: Sophomore year was not so much but junior and senior year I loved it. JJ: Why not sophomore. MK: Well sophomore I think you're still trying to get in the groove. You're working you way out of the awkward junior high stage. I think it was kind of fun to be not that I didn't like sophomore year, it was fine, it was fun. My older brother was a senior so I did catch a lot of crap from him and his friends picking on me and stuff because I was the little kid. JJ: They really did pick on you? MK: Oh yeah. JJ: Did they go out of their way to find you and pick on you? MK: Whenever I was walking down the hall they'd tweak my ears or whatever you know just being stupid just flip my hair or mess it up and stuff. JJ: Did you get them back? MK: Uh I didn't really care. They thought they were so funny. JJ: Where is Bonneville? MK: It's just about 5 blocks south from here almost exactly same east and west. 8 JJ: Why were your Junior and Senior years so great? MK: Junior and Senior once my brother graduated, I kind of got to be on my own so I didn't have someone looking over my shoulder all of the time. I got more into my niche of things I think. Junior high I struggled a lot with classes. I had a hard time getting good grades and I think I finally made up for it in high school got to the point where I could do well in my classes and stuff, and things were pretty easy so I didn't have to try as hard to make sure I was doing well academically. Then I finally had more friends in high school and you have a lot more freedom when you have a car. My senior year I had pretty much filled all my requirements as far as graduation requirements so I took a lot of art classes and a lot of crap classes, I was on the yearbook staff. That was fun to get out of school to do all the different sports pictures and that kind of stuff. I was actually earning credit for messing around and being a social butterfly so that was great. It was just a fun time. And finally all the boys were my height being that I hit 5'8' in like seventh grade. I was finally feeling out the awkward moments and was just having fun it was a good time. JJ: So you graduated in '98, at that point what were your plans? MK: I had always planned on going to college. I did start up at Weber State University. I always thought I would go to college and graduate. I didn't know what in. I knew I wanted to do something with art and I enjoy children so I thought it would be fun do something like an art teacher, but I also enjoy psychology, so I thought it would be fun to do art psychology emphasis and there's a program up in Bozeman Montana that's a child psychology through art but I never made it to Bozeman. 9 JJ: How did you hear about that program? MK: I actually had a friend that she was going up to Bozeman for music. She is a very gifted singer and plays guitar and all that kind of stuff and she has actually now recorded a couple of albums does a lot of gospel singing. She went up there now she lives in Oregon, but we were going to go there together and be roommates but I didn't really have the money and my parents weren't really to hip on the idea, so that never panned out, but that was the plan if all the stars had aligned. JJ: What have you taken at Weber? MK: I've only gone to Weber for one full semester I did the communications class and a drawing class, and I did that first year program or whatever it’s called where you have like counselors and all that stuff that kind of make it. JJ: Tell you how to make it through the full four years? MK: Yeah, I guess they didn't do a very good job. JJ: I don't think they meant the first year experience to be just a first year experience. MK: They probably didn't intend it to be that. JJ: Why didn't you stay at Weber? MK: Because I got married which was right after the first semester barely by the skin of my teeth and it just came to be a financial necessity that I work full time. JJ: So you took a semester off and that became two three. 10 MK: Exactly. I stayed there because I got a job there in the bookstore art department. They had just moved it over to the Shephard Union building when I started there. That was going to be a good little job to have there while I went to school. JJ: How long did you stay there after? MK: I worked there until my daughter was five months old so about two years. JJ: Why did you eventually leave? MK: After I had my daughter I was still happy there, but one of my coworkers, his name was Nick Something, I can't remember his last name, but he worked a part time job at canyon gallery and he had worked there for a couple months or so, but he told them he was quitting to move or something. I can't remember. But he told them he was quitting and they needed someone to fill that position. I needed a full time job, not just a part time, so I didn't really think too much of it and one of our suppliers, while I was at the bookstore I was in charge of ordering a lot of the art supplies, and we had a sales rep from Rolls distribution and he sells to the canyon gallery also. He was asking me what my situation was and if I was looking for a new job and he said there was an opening there, and I said that I'd heard of it but I really need something full time, and he said well you should really give them a call and see. So anyway I did, I called up just to see what they were looking for and talked to Mary Dawn and then I went up for an interview and talked with the owners and they pretty much hired me right on the spot. so I put in my two weeks at the bookstore and started working at the gallery. JJ: And where do you work now? 11 MK: The Canyon Gallery and framing in Fruit Heights, Utah. JJ: You still work there? MK: I still work there. JJ: How long have you worked there? MK: Probably much longer than I should have. JJ: More than four years? More than a degree? MK: More than a degree. No, I think it'll be nine years in October. JJ: Really? MK: Yeah. It's been a while for sure. JJ: So you're how old? MK: 27. JJ: And you worked there for 9 years so you started there when you were 18? MK: Yeah. JJ: So when you started there did you expect to work there for a decade? MK: I did not. No, I really didn't but it's worked out. Works well for my situation of now being a single mom. The single parent routine has been interesting. I can drop my daughter off to school in the morning and go to work and pick her up in the evenings. On Wednesday she goes with her dad for her mid week visit and on Friday for the 12 weekends so I work later on those days. It's priceless to have that kind of flexibility where I can still be a mom and meet my financial needs. They are very understanding. JJ: So you work full time and you're a definite full time mom, what else do you have time for? MK: Church service, currently I am serving as the primary president in my ward and so I do a lot of that. The full time mom stuff is soccer and dance, all the different lessons and activities that way. My house always ends up to be the neighborhood gathering spot we always have a play day on Thursday with all of Brooklyn's little friends from school, and I do a lot of babysitting for people around in the neighborhood just for the fun of it. We enjoy going bike riding and going to the park and stuff in the summer. Mostly it's time consuming to take care of a house and a yard work and be a mom that's pretty much all you can fit into a day. At least that's all I can fit into a day. JJ: So what are your plans for at least the next nine or ten years? Do you see yourself still up at the gallery in a decade? MK: You know, I enjoy working and I enjoy being around people so I think I would always have at least a part time job I guess. I'm hoping that I don't always have to work full time. I really enjoy being a mom and I'd rather be at home with the children helping out at the school volunteering stuff in the neighborhood and community. But I do think it's a nice break to be able to get out of the house and interact with adults versus being with children all the time. A lot of my friends that are stay at home moms get a little frustrated and anxious with being at home all of the time? 13 JJ: So do you plan on going back to school? MK: You know I think at some point. I would very much enjoy going back to school. I don't know it's not a huge priority for me at this point in my life. I think you can learn a lot just on your own just real world experience and so as much as I'd like to have that degree that says I'm smarter, I don't know that that's ever really going to happen. JJ: But you're insistent that your daughter goes to college. MK: I am insistent that she goes to college. I think it's a good experience I think it's important to get all the education you can I wish I would have finished when I went to Weber. I wish I would have kept going. JJ: So having the experience that you've had over the past nine years would you go back to that first semester and do anything differently? MK: Knowing that I was going to get divorced and all that too? JJ: Well maybe if you had not even had that option just going straight into school and not having your life the way it is now would you do that? MK: No I don't think I would I've learned a lot, and I'm a better person because of the things I've been through. I can always go back to school but I could go back and go through the experiences I've been through, so I'd keep it the same but maybe change a few things along the way. 14