Oral History Program Lionel Joseph Chambers Interviewed by Karla Chambers 24 August 1980 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Lionel Joseph 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: Lionel Joseph 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 Lionel Joseph Chambers (b. 1920.) It was conducted in the family home on August 24, 1980. The interviewer is Karla Chambers. In this interview, Lionel discusses his life and his experiences with raising a large Mormon family. KC: This is Karla Chambers. I’m interviewing Lionel Chambers on August 24, 1980 at 2660 North 450 East in North Ogden. We’ll be discussing his life in a large family. Thank you for coming today. Would you please tell me your name and where and when you were born? LC: Lionel Joseph Chambers. I was born in Eden, Utah, November 29, 1920. That makes me kind of old. KC: Who are your parents and what can you tell me about them? LC: My mother’s maiden name was Ada Ann Sallings and my father is William Leonidas Chambers. Remember the famous story of Leonidas and the Spartans? KC: Tell me about your dad. LC: He was a pretty good sized man. I understand he went out for football and he got a little rough and they kicked him off the team. I imagine he weighed about 220. Mother was rather small—about 100 pounds. Quite a contrast there but seemed to get along real fine. KC: What can you remember about your early childhood? LC: I remember my first year at Lorin Farr Elementary. My first grade teacher’s name was Mrs. Thomas. She was rather an elderly lady but we all enjoyed her and she 1 was a fine teacher. Of course, through the years, there were many different experiences there. One of the most fascinating experiences I had in grade school was a local contest that they had a Lorin Farr. They gave a prize to a student in each class who was considered the most courteous. My sister won it in her class and I won it in my group. The prize was the opportunity to take the family to a picture show which was quite a treat at that time. Out of the seven finalists, one was chosen for a prize which I won. That prize was to take myself and anyone I wanted to the Paramount Theater in the summer months. I’m sure that I saw more shows that summer than I’ve seen since. I used to take an elderly neighbor who was in his seventies and he seemed to enjoy that considerably. He’d get dressed up and wait on the porch for me to come downtown. It got kind of tiresome after seeing the shows two or three times. The shows would run for a few days at a time before they’d change. KC: Can you remember anything with your brothers and sisters? LC: Most of our vacation period would be centered around the 4th of July and the 24th of July holidays. We would probably be going up into the Ogden Valley and the pasture land where dad would have his team of horses and trying to make a dam in the fork of the Ogden River so that we kids could swim in the cold water. All of the adults would get the food ready and talk. We would never stay overnight but we used to look forward to those. We’d see our cousins and grandma and grandpa. We always looked forward to Christmas and Thanksgiving. KC: What do you remember about your older school years? 2 LC: I played a little ball in junior high school. I was so good at playing full back in football that I made the all-city tackle. That was an accomplishment. I never went out for it in high school. KC: What did you do after high school? LC: I went two years at Weber College. After graduating in 1941, I took a fall course as part of training. I remember on December 8, 1941, going out for a lesson in flight training and we were barred because of the Pearl Harbor attack. We couldn’t fly anymore until we were cleared by the FBI. It was then that they told us that the CPA, which was the course that we were taking, would join up with the Air Corps in case there was an emergency. At this time we were at war with Germany and Japan. Most of us went to Salt Lake and enlisted in the cadet program. They didn’t want me very bad because they let me hang around for a couple of years. KC: You were in the States for two years and then what? LC: I was home for two years. In 1943 they called me up and put me through a basic program as a private. I’d enlisted as a cadet at $75 a month. I ended up as a private for $21. Every night when I went to bed I could see Ben Lomond, the mountain. I realized home was just nearby and the homesickness was kind of a sickening feeling. It wasn’t as bad as when they shipped me off to Kansas for further training. I thought it was a waste of time because I’d had two years of college and they were just giving me college that I’d already had. From there, we went into the cadet program and trained to be a fly boy. KC: Did you go overseas? 3 LC: Yes, we went over in November of 1944. We finished our missions up and I was ready to take a leave of absence in the spring of 1945 to the Isle of Capri when the war ended. The rest of the crew flew home and I took the slow boat to China home. KC: Any experiences while you were there that you’d like to share? LC: I enjoyed flying. The first mission that we went on took us about ten days before we got it over with. It seemed like the weather was bad. Each time we’d get just a little further through the briefing before the mission was called off. One day we might get through the briefing and afterwards they’d notify us that the mission was off. When we finally did get up in the air and on course to the target, we looked down to see a circle of explosions on the ground. It looked like firecrackers until you realized they were shooting at you. It kind of pulled in your head to realize that if one of them hit you that would be it. KC: Did you have any close calls? LC: No. The Air Force had done a good job of bombing before we got there. Most of the heavy targets had been taken care of in previous raids. We still had plenty of anti-aircraft firing at us, but we had means of combating that. KC: How did you meet your wife? LC: Before I went in the service, she showed up at church one day with a couple of her girlfriends. We got to corresponding during the war. I saw her afterwards and that lead to eleven children. KC: What can you tell me about what you remember about them growing up? 4 LC: Linda was a very cute little gal. She used to put her younger brothers in dresses and have tea parties. Craig was about as shy as I was in school. I was the shy one in my family, too. Randy was more outgoing. He learned to compliment early and get favors. He still does. Gary is a very fine athlete. Rod and Kelly have kind of carried that tradition on. Reed used to get his lessons when he was on the bus to school. He never seemed to study at home. None of the kids seemed to study at home. I guess they got through alright. They all have good jobs now. Maybe studying isn’t the answer. Lonnie was a tall, slender girl. Lori liked sports. She did quite a bit of running. She came home with quite a few accomplishments in high school. We used to have to make sure we got Rod on our trips because the boys would leave him at home. Dad would be the one to carry him up the hills and through the mountains. As long as Rod made it, we figure Kelly would make it too. Maurine was a problem for us in her later life. She’s finally ended up in Seattle. Laughter But we’ve forgotten about that. LeeAnn is ornery, especially when she’s sleeping. She likes athletics quite a bit too. These accounts are second-hand from her mother—telling her mother about her contests in school and she’d have won a ribbon for being first in the high jump or hundred-yard dash. She’d have six or seven of theses, then pull out another piece of paper that said she was the all-around athlete there. She’d tell that to her mother and I found out from her. KC: Did you ever dream you’d have eleven children? 5 LC: Never thought about it and it was too late after they were here. Now most of them are gone. There’s three at home. But, of course, double that number comes back on Sundays, which we’re glad to see, along with the grandkids. KC: What aspirations did you have for your family? LC: I’ve told them that I wish they would profit by my mistakes, but I don’t think they will. I think we all have to go through our trials and tribulations. KC: What do you think is the nicest thing about having a large family? LC: I think there’s been quite a bit of love among the kids. They all seem to enjoy their siblings and are glad they’re there. Some of the younger have set goals that the older ones didn’t quite attain. We’re all different. KC: Thank you. 6