Oral History Program Rodney Neal Chambers Interviewed by Karla Chambers 13 July 1980 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Rodney Neal Chambers Interviewed by Karla Chambers 13 July 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: Rodney Neal Chambers, an oral history by Karla Chambers, 13 July 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 Rodney Neal Chambers (b. 1958.) It was conducted in the family home on July 13, 1980. The interviewer is Karla Chambers. In this interview, Rodney discusses his recollections and experiences growing up in a large Mormon family. KC: This is Karla Chambers. I’m interviewing Rodney Chambers on July 13, 1980 at 2660 North 450 East, North Ogden. We’re going to discuss some memories of being raised in a large family. Thank you, Rodney. Would you please tell me your given name, where and when you were born? RC: Rodney Neal Chambers. I was born here in Ogden, Utah on June 27, 1958. KC: Who are your parents and what can you tell me about them? RC: My dad is Lionel Joseph Chambers and he married Marva Hale Chambers. Dad’s a welder. He works with his brother in a welding shop down on 24th Street. Mom’s a housewife and a piano teacher. KC: Can you tell me anything about your relationship with your mother? RC: I love her very much. She’s an excellent cook and excellent mother. KC: How about your father? RC: Dad set many examples for me. He’s always at the games to encourage us. He’s very athletic himself. He teaches us hard work and patience and he’s fun to be around. KC: How many brothers and sisters are in your family? RC: I have five brothers and five sisters. I’m eighth. There are three younger than me. KC: What can you tell me about your brothers and sisters? 1 RC: Linda is the oldest girl and the oldest childhood. We’ve always been close. Then there’s Craig and Randy. I put them together. Linda has always been high in my standards and the example. Reed and Gary played a lot of sports and helped me out a lot that way. With Kelly I remember all the fun time we had in ball games. Lorraine is just below me, then there’s Kelly and LeeAnn. Everyone looks down at Leanne as being the special one. KC: What kind of influence have your older brothers had on you? RC: They’ve always had a great influence on me, I think. My mission is one. Athletics is another. The way to handle myself—I’ve always watched my brothers and see the way they act with certain pressures and the way they do things. I’ve always tried to do the things that they’ve done. Their example to me is the best thing they can give to me. KC: What can you remember about your early childhood? RC: I remember, like I said earlier, always looking up to my brothers and wanting to be with them. I remember all the fun camping trips we had. There weren’t many beds, so they took turns letting me share the bed with them. KC: I recall a story of a camping trip when nobody would let you in to sleep in their bed. Would you share that? RC: I’ll give you mom’s version of it. She claims that I got everybody mad at me and nobody would let me sleep with them. I made my rounds to Craig and Randy and Gary and Reed and nobody would let me sleep with them. I slept in the van that night and it was actually one of the most comfortable night’s sleeps I had. KC: What do you remember of grade school? 2 RC: I remember I was in second or third grade and I was still quite scared about it. I would always try to stay home and I remember Reed chasing me around the school grounds trying to get me in. After third grade I went. Lori was two years older than me and I could always go play with her during recess and things. She always set a good example for me in school. KC: Any memories you’d like to share of high school? RC: The only sibling I was with in junior high and high school was Lori. Any time she saw me she’d come over and talk to me and introduce her friends. I played ball in ninth grade with probably the best coach I’ve ever played for—Gary Stokes. KC: Are there any memories that stand out from when you were playing ball? RC: I guess the first of my so-called career was fourth grade. Basketball was the first sport I played. I wanted to play but I was too scared. My older brothers dragged me over to the sign up. The same with baseball—they dragged me over to the sign-up so I’d get involved. I’ve always enjoyed playing. We have a family team now down at the ball park here in Ogden. KC: What position do you like to play? RC: I play outfield. I don’t think I’m good enough to play infield. I like the outfield where I have time to run up to the ball. I enjoy being on the family team. Sometimes I slow pitch. KC: How do you think meal time was different in a large family than it might be in others? RC: Well, of course, more plates and more noise at the table. Mom always cooked homemade meals. When we were younger, anything store-bought was a treat. I 3 think with other kids, anything homemade was a treat. At meal times we were always relaxed. Instead of passing things around the table, we’d throw rolls to get them there faster. I always enjoyed meal times because we’d talk and joke and tease each other. KC: How were chores handled? RC: Just whoever. I remember getting up with dad and going out to weed the garden early in the morning before he went to work and we went to school. Before me, the family had a cow. KC: You mentioned ball as one of your favorite activities. What are other favorite activities you liked to do? RC: We would usually plan on one big family trip a year. Tony Grove, I think, was our favorite. I have many great memories of being out there together. Camping, I think, is one of the funnest times we ever had. We would go up to South Fork quite a bit. We named it Pizza Bay. I think we named it that because of Reed. We’d tube down the river. We took a long trip up to Oregon with one of Mom’s brothers who lived up there. We went deep sea fishing up there. The trips have been fun and enjoyable. KC: What do you remember about holidays and birthdays? RC: I looked forward to birthdays because of the cake that Mom would make. My favorite was German chocolate cake. We’d have all the family out. I wasn’t necessarily looking for the presents. I loved the association with everybody. I missed quite a few holidays because I was playing baseball. KC: Can you think of the worst tragedy you had to experience? 4 RC: I remember well the death of my grandfather. That was the closest death to me. After that, my grandmother died. They were on my dad’s side. Other than that, there really weren’t any tragedies. KC: Did your grandparents play a big part in your holidays when you were younger? RC: They did. We always looked forward to going up there on Christmas. We’d all draw names. I remember Christmas, Thanksgiving, and any birthdays we’d all go up to Grandma’s. She’d always have lots of food and she’d cook it all herself. They would always take time to talk to us. They were great grandparents. KC: What would you say is the hardest part of being raised in a large family? RC: I guess the hand-me-downs. I don’t think that’s too hard. I’ve never felt that I was second best. In our family, I don’t think there were any hard parts of being in a large family. We had arguments and contentions with each other, but we were close. KC: What is the best part of being in a large family? RC: Meeting together. And when we’d walk downtown and someone would say, “You’re so-and-so’s brother,” or “You’re so-and-so’s sister.” The coach in high school would always call me Randy or Reed or Craig. I didn’t care. I always wanted to be like them. It made me want to achieve more and be more like them. KC: How many children would you like to have? RC: I think I’d like a large family. I think with my experiences, I’d like my children to have those experiences too. KC: Thank you. 5