Oral History Program Gary Rex Chambers Interviewed by Karla Chambers 24 August 1980 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Gary Rex 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: Gary Rex 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. Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Gary Rex Chambers (b. 1951). It was conducted in the family home on August 24, 1980. The interviewer is Karla Chambers. In this interview, Gary discusses his recollections and experiences growing up in a large Mormon family. KC: This is Karla Chambers and I’m interviewing Gary Rex Chambers at 2660 North 450 East in North Ogden. We’ll be discussing life in a large family. Thank you for coming, Gary. Will you tell me your given name and where and when you were born? GC: My given name was Gary Rex Chambers and I was born September 1, 1951 in the old McKay Dee Hospital. KC: Who were your parents and what can you tell me about each of them? GC: My dad was Leo Joseph Chambers and my mom was Marva Hale Chambers. I remember my dad being a fine example and my mom also. We had choice experiences going on camping trips together as a family. We went up to Timpanogos. Usually, the four oldest boys and my dad would go up in the high mountains. I remember my mom as always being a sweet lady. She had control of her temper and was always an example for us. KC: What can you tell me about your early childhood? GC: I remember moving out here to North Ogden. I remember playing out here with my brothers and sisters—playing in the barnyard and having cows. I remember Randy and Trey having two little calves that they took care of and sold. We had a 1 park next door where we could always go and play baseball and football. We had a lot of fun. KC: How about your older school years? GC: We had a really fun class in high school. All of my friends were LDS and we stayed out of trouble for the most part. My brothers Craig and Randy had gone before me and sports were a big thing for all of us. All the coaches acknowledged me because of what Randy and Craig had done before me, even though I wasn’t nearly as good as they had been in sports. I remember having a really enjoyable time in high school. KC: What do you remember about each brother and sister? GC: My oldest sister, Linda, was about the closest sister age-wise. I remember we would tease her a lot. One particular time when we were kind of young, I did something for her and she gave me a kiss. I went up in the bathroom with Randy and we scrubbed it off for about five minutes. She was nice and helpful to us. My brother Craig was quiet. I remember when he had to ask somebody a question, he’d make Randy go do it. We’d go to the store and he wanted to know where something was so he’d send Randy. Craig, I think, got us started in athletics. He set the example and was always excited about it. I remember going to Weber High ball games and watching Craig play. Randy, the next oldest, was the closest to me. He was one year above me in school. He was probably the top of the class in everything. He was in with the student body officers. I remember riding home from practice with him once and they were talking about who they thought would win the votes for Mr. Warrior. 2 They said they thought that Randy would get it because he won all of those things. The neat thing was that he had all of those honors but didn’t let it go to his head. He was a super example. He was probably the best in athletics and he had a super personality. He was really outgoing. Next in line was my brother Reed. He was two grades under me. He was a good kid. He was always getting in trouble. He was Mr. Personality, too. Everybody liked him. He’s usually late for everything because he’s staying to talk to people. Next was my sister Lonnie. She was always a sweet young girl. Never causing any trouble, just a sweet calm personality that took everything in stride. She still is like that. She doesn’t let anything bother her. Lori is just about the opposite. We used to call her the tiger when she was growing up. If you crossed her at all then she lit right into you. She was a good girl and stayed out of trouble. She was a cheerleader in high school. Next was Rodney. Growing up, we were a little older and he was younger so we kind of took him under our arm. We pampered him and when he got older he turned out to be obnoxious because we pampered him. His senior year he did a real reversal and got his life together and went on a mission. Next is Kelly who just graduated from high school last year. Kelly was kind of the same class. He was the baby of the family as he grew up. He was a sweet boy. We would play with him and pamper him. He grew up and had problems that way because we pampered him. He’s getting ready to go on a mission in the spring and I think he’s getting ready to pull out of it like Rodney did. 3 Our last and youngest sister is LeeAnn. She’s always been a sweet young thing. She’s always been sweet and happy with everybody. I think the difference with the large family—I feel sad that from about Randy down, the kids didn’t have a chance to go hiking with dad like the older siblings. Dad got a little tired for hikes up in the high mountains. I felt sad that they didn’t get to do that. But the younger siblings did get a little more of the material things. The younger kids have had more of an opportunity there, but the older kids had more time with dad and mom. KC: Can you think of other times that are happy memories? GC: My time in high school was all happy. We would do many things but nothing serious. The older brothers and sisters would set a good example and give us a good path to follow. We were happy most of the time going over to the park to play baseball after chores. All of those times were just happy, enjoyable times. KC: What do you remember as your saddest time? GC: I don’t remember many sad times. One sad time was when we were in elementary school and they had a basketball program at the school. They were picking teams and Randy was the captain. He picked his team and we had everybody up on the bleachers and I was just about ready to cry because he didn’t pick me. I really can’t remember many sad times. Most of the times were really happy at home. We had good friends that we could always go play with. It was more or less a real happy time. KC: What do you think is the nicest thing about being in a large family? 4 GC: I think the fact of having people there that you can do stuff with. I can always remember mom being home when I’d come home from school. I’m sure dad could have used the money, but mom was always home. I think it was neat that she took the concern to do that. I enjoyed having brothers and sisters there that I could play with, then having some friends close by. We’d always have a family that we could go over and play baseball or basketball with. When we were growing up, we all four of us sleeping in the back room. As I look back on it, we weren’t deprived of anything. It was fun to have somebody there and have that close association. KC: Can you think of what might be the hardest part of being raised in a large family? GC: Some of the hard parts when I was growing up were that we didn’t have a lot of money and that was kind of hard going through school. Until I was probably a senior in high school I don’t remember getting a new coat. Craig would get the new coat and he’d hand it down to Randy and I’d get it after that. I remember wearing the hand-me-down coat the first day of my junior year and the seniors would say something like how good Randy’s coat looked on me. That would have probably been the only thing, but we really didn’t suffer. We learned a lot of lessons from it. We learned the importance of work. We had to take care of the yard and take care of the house. It taught me many lessons. KC: Just out of curiosity, how many children would you like? GC: I’d like just as many as Heavenly Father will let us have. From my wife’s point of view, it’s a little different. I’d enjoy six, seven, or eight children. But I’ll enjoy whatever comes. 5 KC: Thank you. 6