Interview with My Grandparents

So for one of my classes I had to interview my grandparents about their experiences in the past with the media. I am supposed to post the transcript to the internet, so here it is. It probably will be really boring for any of you to read, but here is what I learned from doing this:

My grandparents are really neat people. Not that I didn't think that before, but they just have some really interesting stories.

From listening to the recorded interview and transcribing it all, I realized that older people are so much more welll-spoken than our generation. They never say "like" and I say it like a million times ;) But seriously, they just are more poised in their language selection. Does that make sense?

Also, I think it would be really neat to do regular recorded interviews with my grandparents for posterity's sake. Like I said, they have so many cool stories and who actually knows if they're recorded anywhere? I think my grandpa has done a really good job of recording his life history, but there's something about hearing their voices that makes it special.

I love my grandparents and the good example they have set for me about the value of hard work and sacrifice. They built the home they still live in with their own hands. And then they built a cabin in the woods. It is one of my most favorite places in all the world. The best story Grandpa told me in our interview was that when my dad (their oldest of 3 kids) was serving a mission, Grandpa milked cows to earn some extra money to support my dad on his mission in Taiwan. Grandpa was a schoolteacher so it wasn't like he was raking in the dough. But he took on extra work so that he could help my dad out. I admire him and respect him for that. I know how much my dad's mission meant to him and I'm sure he was grateful for the support.

Although Grandpa is a little quirky and Grandma snores really loud, I'm so glad I have them in my life. They always came to major life events and they're planning on coming to my college graduation in April. They told me their only worry is that Chantel (my cousin) and I might be walking at the same time! They are so sweet and I love them!

Here is the transcript (for my assignment's sake, but also for posterity.)

David Storey and Audrey Bell Bean Oral History Project

Interview with Dave and Audrey Bean

Date of Interview: December 6, 2010; Interviewer in Provo, Utah; Interviewees in LaGrande, Oregon (done by telephone)

Interviewer: Courtney Bready

Transcriber: Courtney Bready

Begin Recording 1

Courtney:        It’s Monday, December 6^th and I’m talking with Dave and Audrey Bean, my grandparents about their experiences with the media. Before I began recording, I just asked them to share what their memories are as far as their exposure to the media is concerned. Now say that again, Grandma.

Audrey:           Well when I first, when we first had TV, I was a kid and it was black and white and it was rather fuzzy I should say, you know it wasn’t really clear.

Dave:               And about an 8 inch screen.

Audrey:           And it was… boy were we tickled to death.

Dave:               It doesn’t get any better than this.

Courtney:        Do you remember how old you were?

Dave:               Pardon?

Courtney:        Do you remember how old you were?

Dave:               Oh gosh

Audrey:           I was in high school.

Dave:               Yeah, 18 maybe, 17.

Courtney:        Cool.

Dave:               Now radio programs. Years ago they used to have some radio programs like, uh, The Shadow, and they’d say “The Shadow knows” and it was a mystery. And they had Sam Spade who was a detective. What was the show Audrey where they had the creaking door? They’d always open the door and it squacked? It’d make your blood run cold.

Audrey:           I can’t remember.

Dave:               But then on TV there is a program that’s been running for years, which we still enjoy watching and that’s Perry Mason.

Courtney:        Oh yeah!

Dave:               Haha. But television now, I think they’re trying to do something which has been needful for a long time. You can be sitting watching TV and half asleep and all of a sudden they kick into an ad and the sound level about three times as many decibels as you were getting before

Courtney:        Mm hmm

Dave:               And that is very irritating.

Courtney:        Yes it is, I agree. Eric and I were just talking about that the other day.

Dave:               Yeah. Oh, what else?

Courtney:        Do you remember, like, any major events that you heard about on the radio or saw on TV?

Dave:               Well, starting out major events on the radio was the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Courtney:        Mm hmm

Dave:               I was five years old when that happened and I didn’t know why my parents were listening to the radio on Sunday, because they never did that.

Courtney:        Oh.

Dave:               And uh, why my mother was crying, I didn’t realize that, uh, gee I had an 18-year-old brother that was gonna be subject to the draft and so on and so I well remember that.

Audrey:           So do I. I remember going in and sitting in. We were, as I remember we were in Boise, living in Boise at the time and then mother had uh room that had sliding glass doors where the living room was and us kids couldn’t go in there unless we were nice and clean

Courtney:        mm hmm

Dave:               SO you never went in there huh?

Audrey:           Oh yeah, we did. But uh, you opened those doors and we went into this radio and all sat down around the on the floor and listened to that. And that was really quite a big event. A very big event.

Courtney:        Right.

Dave:               Well another thing, since you didn’t limit the media, I guess we can cover anything.

Courtney:        Yeah, anything.

Dave:               Uh, when we were kids, we would go to the theater where they showed movies and before they would show them, they always had news reels.  And I remember lots and lots of news reels that uh, showed exactly what was going on and where in the second World War and when we were fighting in the Pacific and fighting in Eurpoe and so on and they’d run the news reels always before they would show the movie.

Courtney:        That’s cool. I didn’t know that.

Dave:               And uh, that you know, we didn’t have television at that time so that was the only way we got to really see what was going on. Do you remember those Audrey?

Audrey:           Oh yes.

Dave:               Yeah.

Courtney:        So would people, did people ever go to the movies just to watch the news reels?

Dave:               Oh probably. But at least, and see since we didn’t have television, the movie theaters were extremely popular. We had oh three or four  here in LaGrande.

Courtney:        Oh really?

Dave:               Let’s see, we had the Liberty, the State, the Grenada, and then we put in the drive-in theater so I guess we had four.

Courtney:        Wow.

Dave:               And uh, people went to the movies a lot because there wasn’t any television so that was the best source of visual entertainment.

Courtney:        Right.

Dave:               And besides, you could get a sack of popcorn for a dime, you could get a 12 ounce soda pop for a nickel, and a good sized candy bar for a nickel.

Courtney:        Well that’s certainly changed, hasn’t it?

Dave:               Uh yeah. Only now I get my popcorn free because I get it at Bronson’s Lumber when I go.

Audrey:           Well and another thing about the movies Courtney is that if you were ever to see a movie with a couple uh, and if they ever went into the bedroom, it was twin beds. I mean, it’s noth—the movies were not like they are today.

Courtney:        Yeah

Dave:               You hardly ever saw people smoking and drinking in the movies either.

Courtney:        Oh really?

Dave:               Way back when. And kissing was very limited, shall we say. They weren’t trying to slobber all over each other or chew on each other, anything like that.

Courtney:        Huh.

Dave:               Like you see now.

Audrey:           Does that help you any?

Courtney:        Yeah, keep going.

Dave:               Or does that add to the confusion?

Courtney:        No, I, I like it. Um, do you remember, let’s see what was I gonna ask? Um, did you, you guys had a TV when you had kids, right?

Dave:               Yeah.

Corutney:        Did you always have it?

Dave:               I don’t remember.

Audrey:           What was the question again?

Dave:               If we had a TV when we had kids. Whether we always had it.

Audrey:           Uh, no we got our first TV. I had a camera, that I had bought when I was working. A real nice camera. And I was able to sell that camera, or trade that camera for a TV set to go into our 10 by 55 foot trailer. And that was back when Jeff and Jeanette were babies. And that was about our first TV.

Courtney:        OH, OK.

Dave:               And it seems to me that way back when that the news media was a lot less biased than what you see now.

Courtney:        Oh yeah

Dave:               That you could pick up a newspaper and you could count on learning what was going on and you’d get it from a, more or less a neutral viewpoint.

Courtney:        Mm hmm

Dave:               Rather than trying to scew it right or elft or who  knows which way.

Audrey:           They just reported the news, that’s exactly what they did, they didn’t try to embellish it or anything, they just reported the news.

Dave:               But to give you an example, uh, we have a good friend here in LaGrande who has a son who is Jim’s age and he worked for a big newspaper back East, Chicago I think. Anyway, he told his father, very proudly, “We don’t report the news, we make the news.”

Courtney:        Hmm.

Dave:               And that is what is so irritating and probably why very few people really trust the news media.

Courtney:        Yeah, that’s true.

Dave:               By the way, he got fired.

Courtney:        Oh really?

Dave:               For plagiarism.

Courtney:        Oh, I thought he was supposed to be making the news.

Dave:               Well, he made the news alright, but he made somebody else’s news.

Courtney:        Yeah.

Dave:               And he got canned.

Courtney:        That’s funny. Um do you remember, you talked about Pearl Harbor, do you remember, and you listened to that on the radio, right?

Dave:               Yes.

Courtney:        Do you remember any wars, war coverage or anything on TV?

Dave:               We didn’t have TV

Courtney:        Not that one, but like, later.

Dave:               Which war?

Courtney:        Um, any of them, later.

Dave:               There was no television coverage of the Second World War.

Courtney:        Right.

Dave:               So I don’t know… the first TV coverage I may have seen of the wars, probably, I don’t even remember if we had any TV coverage of the Korean war. The Vietnamese War, yes.

Courtney:        I think it was Vietnam that was the first one.

Dave:               Yeah. Now here’s just a little footnote. Television was invented by Philo Farnsworth.

Courtney:        Mm hmm. We talked about him

Dave:               Who was, I believe the uncle of my favorite missionary companion.

Courtney:        Oh really?

Dave:               Yep. Lynn Farnsworth who married Mary Smith, J. Reuben Clark’s granddaughter.

Courtney:        Huh.

Dave:               Mary, Mary Clark, J. Reuben Clark’s granddaughter.

Courtney:        That’s cool.

Dave:               Yeah, I thought so too. I got to go to the wedding. Anyway, and my, my missionary companion never mentioned that, never bragged about it or anything. He was just cool.

Courtney:        That’s cool. We actually get to go visit Philo Farnsworth’s grave for some extra credit points, so

Dave:               Ah. Where is it?

Courtney:        It’s in Provo—the Provo Cemetery

Dave:               Uh huh. Because uh, Lynn Farsworth grew up in Beaver, Utah.

Courtney:        Oh, OK

Dave:               Yeah and there’s lots of Farnsworths around. He’s currently in uh, I think Scottsdale, Arizona. In fact, when we picked your father up from his mission, we came through that area and stopped in and visited Lynn Farnsworth and his wife.

Courtney:        That’s neat.

Dave:               Anyhow. OK. Going back years ago, there were comic strips in the newspapers, the Sunday funnies and what have you. One of them was Dick Tracy. Well, Dick Tracy had cute little wrist radios that they could communicate with back and forth to find out what was going on in town you know where they needed the police and what have you. I thought, man that’s cool. Won’t get any better than that. And then years later in Dick Tracy they had little picket sized televisions on their wrists and I thought, that’ll never happen. But uh, consider what we have now in the world of technology and Dick Tracy was just ahead of his time.

Courtney:        That’s true.

Dave:               Yeah.

Audrey            :           And there was Flash Gordon.

Dave:               Oh yeah. That’s another comic strip. OK now here’s one for you talking about media… You didn’t say we had to limit it to the US.

Courtney:        No.

Dave:               In Russia, during the Cold War, there were two major newspapers: Pravda and Itsvestsa I think or Itsvestia. Anyway, one of them, translated means “The Truth” and the other one translated means “The News.” I had a Russian landlady in Berlin and she told me that the saying in Russia behind closed doors was, “there is no news in The Truth and there is no truth in The News.”

Courtney:        Huh.

Dave:               That’s how much they thought of their media because it was totally controlled and in many nations of the world, that’s the case: the news media are controlled by the government and they tell you what they want you to hear and it’s just plain, flat-out brainwashing. I went to a, a movie in Leisig, which is 175 miles behind the Iron Curtain. I went there in 1979, I sat in an audience amidst a bunch of uh, young men who were Russians, Russian Tank Corp, and they were showing a movie which was primarily propaganda about Mother Russia and how wonderful and how beautiful it is and they were all cheering, “Oh go Mother Russia, oh tremendous.” I thought, “how can you swallow this?” The answer is because they never heard anything else.

Courtney:        Hmm.

Dave:               In fact, when they had Russian troops in Germany, and in East Germany and East Berlin and so on, we were told that when they sent those troops home, that they had to spend time in Siberia to be re-trained and re-programmed because even though the East Germany economy was terrible, it was so much better than what they had in Russia that they didn’t dare send them straight home and let them talk about what they had seen.

Courtney:        Wow.

Dave:               Like, running water, indoors.

Courtney:        Wow.

Dave:               Flushing toilets, things like that. So the news media in many nations of the world is totally controlled by the government that controls the country.

Courtney:        Interesting.

Dave:               Fortunately, we’re not at that point in this country, but there sure is a lot of news media that is controlled by somebody that I don’t care for.

Courtney:        Yeah.

Dave:               So as long as we still have news media that puts out both sides, we’ve got some hope. Once that ends, we’re in trouble.

Courtney:        Yeah. Well there’s so many more sources now for news that it’s easier to get both sides I think.

Dave:               Well, they want to put an end to people like Rush Limbaugh and uh, Bill O’Reilly, Fox News, things like that because they’re very conservative and far right and “we don’t want that”

Courtney:        of course. Well, can you think of anything else?

Dave:               I don’t know, can we think of anything else Audrey?

Audrey:           No I can’t, really. Unless you ask a question and we can come up with something.

Dave:               I do, OK I’ll tell you a story about something that I vividly remember.

Courtney:        OK.

Dave:               I was teaching a class, a ninth grade, low level math class, it was the bottom of the bottom of the ninth grade in math ability. When we heard about the assassination of President Kennedy, so I just happened to have a radio in my room and we stopped talking about math and I turned on the radio and we listened and talked about it and so on. And it really had quite an effect on those kids. So even though they had very low ability in math, they still had an understanding of what was going on and what was happening.

Courtney:        Mm hmm.

Dave:               Now, here’s one, you probably can’t use this. When your father was on a mission, I milked cows to help support him on a mission. And you go out in the barn and the cows don’t talk to you very much, they’re just kind of boring and I had a radio that I would take out there and I played the radio in the barn and as long as I was listening to news or whatever, things were OK. But when they started playing the kind of music that is on our local radio stations, the cows would get nervous and milk production went down. So the media has an effect, not only on people, but on animals. And so I stopped playing the local radio stations and I took a small cassette player out there and I played Book of Mormon tapes and things like that and, or I would play classical or semi-classical or easy-listening music and the cows were fine. I don’t know what would have happened if I had tried country western, they might have gotten all excited. But anyway, it just pointed out to me that the tempo and the beat of the music coming across the media had an effect on the cows and on milk production.

Courtney:        That’s interesting.

Dave:               And so, they say, music calms the beast. Well, it depends on what kind of music.

Courtney:        Right.

Dave:               And it depends on whether you’re talking about a two-legged or a four-legged beast. Because I’ve seen kids get so hyper and stirred-up because of the type of music they’re listening to.

Courtney:        Mm hmm.

Dave:               And in the Church, we’re cautioned to be careful what you listen to. And with good reason.

Courtney:        Definitely.

The Bready Bunch

What? Two people isn't much of a "bunch" you say? Fine then. We'll make it three. :)

June 18, 2011

Busy?

To say that Eric and I have been busy would be an understatement.

Eric's schedule looks something like this:

His evenings are filled with studying and tutoring students. Plus grading, etc. for his Organic Chemistry TA job. This schedule doesn't really show all his work hours. Not to mention the insane amount of studying he needs to do for Physics, BioChemistry, and Calculus II. Thursday nights are usually taken up by his calling.

Overview: 

15.0 credit hours

20.0 hours of work (he just took on an extra recitation thanks to one of his co-workers getting fired)

10.0+ hours of lab research

4.0+ hours of volunteer work

This is what my schedule looks like:

Yes, I have class until 9 or 10 pm three days out of the week. But on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm usually in the sewing lab until 10 anyway. And I don't actually take lunch breaks. I usually use them to make up hours I've had to miss to do school projects and stuff. 

Overview:

40.0 hours of work

11.0 credit hours

As you can see, we've been a little busy. I would like to say that we're loving every minute of it, but who actually loves having every waking hour of their week booked before the week even begins? We do enjoy being busy most of the time, and we know we're preparing ourselves for the future and the family we will have someday, and that makes it all worth it!

In case you were wondering, we rarely do the dishes (in fact, the sink is overflowing at this very moment) and we don't clean unless people are coming over, and even then, it's only on the surface. So if anyone wants some extra chores, I know exactly where you can find some!

We are holding on as tight as we can, just trying to make it to Thanksgiving. That will be a much needed break and hopefully carry us through the rest of the semester. 

Maui

Welp, I'm back. We haven't had the internet at home for awhile and all our pictures are on Eric's computer. But, I do have pictures from Maui!! We went to Hawaii with my family way back in July and we had a great time! Thanks Mom and Dad :)


This is Eric and Katie while we were on our way to Eric's chosen birthday activity. We celebrated Eric's 23rd birthday while we were in Hawaii. I can't imagine a better way to spend the day!

He wanted to go hiking in the jungle.

It was actually really beautiful! We went on someone's property that has all these gorgeous waterfalls so they leave it open for the public to enjoy. Here's one of the waterfalls...

By the way, on the way to the falls, Jody HATED the choice of music and all the singing along that was happening. It was hilarious.

Eric was a dare devil and wanted to jump off all the waterfalls. I would only jump from the really low spots.

Then, later that night, we went to Bubba Gump's for Eric's birthday dinner!

Where we enjoyed DELICIOUS food and a lovely sunset.

Then we went to visit "the tree" which Eric had never seen before. I tried explaining it to him over the phone when I was here 2 years ago with my family right after Eric and I got engaged. However, he was quite impressed seeing it in real life.

And of course, all trees are made for climbing...

We actually got up on a pretty good spot. Here is Cassie, demonstrating how high we were

The next day, we went on a snorkeling trip! It was so fun!

The best part of the trip was that Eric and I got to snuba dive! I was TERRIFIED to try it because I don't necessarily even love snorkeling, but I did it, and I'm so glad I did! By the way, don't we just look so attractive in snuba gear? :)

And here's us with Jody and Dad... Jody LOVED the experience!

We got to see the turtles up close and personal. It was way cool!

The next morning, Eric and Scotty got up at 2:00 am to go on a bike ride to see the sunrise on the Road to Hana. When we were signing up for the excursion, I was planning on going, but the guy told me we would be going 20 mph around hairpin turns and that if I couldn't keep up, they would throw me in the van. Since I haven't been on a bike in.... a really long time.... I opted out. But they had a great time!!

Here they are in their sweet gear!

And the beautiful sunrise

My favorite part of the trip was just being able to lay out by the pool, reading my book until I was so hot I couldn't stand it. Then I would either play in the ocean, or cool off in the pool, and then go back to my book. It was the perfect R&R vacation with just the right amount of entertainment mixed in. Eric probably wouldn't agree... he likes to keep busy.

One day, Eric and I rented surfboards for an hour. I had only been surfing one other time and it was with an instructor who pushed me into the waves in order to catch them. So this time, I pretty much layed on the board on my stomach the whole time, trying to catch a wave. Well just at the very end, I caught it, and I KNEW I had caught it. I was trying to stand up, but only made it to my knees before realizing I was CRUISING straight towards where all the people were playing in the waves. I was just screaming and apologizing and going so fast I didn't know what to do with myself. Everyone just kind of squealed and dove out of my way, grabbing children as they went. It was absolutely hilarious and SO fun!

Another day, Eric, Scotty and I rented paddle boards. You know, where you stand up on a large surfboard and use a paddle to move around. We picked the windiest part of the day apparently, and it was WAY harder than it looked! But it was really fun at the same time. I was the only one who didn't fall off, by the way :)

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation and I wish I was back in Hawaii right now. I got such an amazing tan and it is for sure completely gone. Hopefully we'll be back next year!

America, America!

The Fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday. I love everything about it--the food, the family get-togethers, the friends, the fireworks, the parties, and just the overall feeling of happiness and gratitude that I have throughout the entire day. I am so grateful that I am an American and that I live in such a wonderful place.

I have always thought that my favorite part of the 4th was being at home in Washington with my own family. Fort Vancouver claims to have the best fireworks show west of the Mississippi and I love going every year. However, when I found out Carrie Underwood was coming to Provo for the Stadium of Fire this year, there was no question that I would be staying here. She is pretty much my favorite person in the world and the only celebrity that I care anything about. She is my idol. (Please excuse the cliche.)

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I have a pretty sweet job with some awesome benefits. One of those happens to be that Fillmore Spencer is the legal counsel to the Freedom Festival so they have access to pre-order seats at the Stadium of Fire and they get really good seats. Ours were in row 2. They were worth every penny I paid!

Waiting for the show to start

Not the most flattering shot, it's just to show how close we were.

Jacob was excited too! He LOVED the flyover.

Carrie came out to sing the National Anthem! It gave me the chills. Seriously. It was absolutely amazing.

And this was me when she finally came out for the concert. Like I said, she's my idol. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning! :)

She is gorgeous. I want to meet her. She's coming to the Rose Garden in Portland in September. Only $1,800 for the meet-and-greet. Daddy? Pleeeeease???? :)

When she sang "Temporary Home" I teared up during the last verse where she sings about the old man in the hospital room, thinking about my grandpa. She is a very spiritual person and I could feel of her goodness throughout her performance. Someone needs to share the Gospel with that girl!

The other parts of the show were pretty amazing too!

Surprisingly, I have to say, I am a Provo 4th of July convert! Their fireworks were so awesome! Except for maybe the rogue ones that shot straight into the crowd. One of them burned Jenny Oaks Baker. Oops.

In my opinion, they'll never top Carrie Underwood, but I'm sure I'll return to the Stadium of Fire again next year.

The Narrows

Last weekend Eric and I went down to St. George/Zion National Park. My boss has a condo in St. George that he so graciously allowed us to use for the weekend (thanks Randy!!) We invited our good friends Doug and Kelly to join us for the trip. They just got married in May and are living in Cedar City while Doug finishes up at SUU.

Our plan for Saturday was to get up early, go on a hike, come back around 1, hang out at the pool, play some tennis, eat some sourdough pancakes for dinner, and then go see Toy Story 3. We may have been a little ambitious in these plans, but we accomplished all but one of the activities listed.

Doug wanted to take Eric and I to hike the Narrows at Zion's. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, this hike is up a river bed. You walk in the water pretty much the whole way. It is gorgeous, but rather treacherous for someone as uncoordinated as myself. I was pretty nervous about it, but I have to admit that it turned out to be probably my favorite hike of all time!

Here are some pictures from the beautiful slot canyon:

Check out that gorgeous scenery!

I think I made that face because Eric was pulling his shorts up... ?

Eric was being a good boy and holding my hand across the river. It's kinda hard to see where you're stepping and there are some pretty dang slippery rocks down there. (I have some SWEET bruises from falling)

Check out dem baby blues! Mm hmm!

Me and Eric. We do fun things.

Waterfall.

"The Boulder." This is where we stopped and turned around. We had already gone 7 miles up the river and hadn't been in the sun at all yet. Plus, we'd been wading/swimming through dang cold water. So cold in fact, that I couldn't feel that my feet had bad blisters ALL over them. So by this point, I was not a very happy camper hiker. Hence why I didn't notice the massive boulder hanging above our heads in mid-air until I saw these pictures.

What this picture doesn't show you is how we got UP that waterfall. It was tricky. I wouldn't have made it without the rope that the nice hikers coming down lent us, and Doug. At one point, I was dangling from the rope on one arm and Doug on the other. Pretty scary. After warming up and eating lunch, the only way down was to jump. And yes, I did plug my nose, thank you very much. After jumping, I was happy again and had a blast going back the last 7 miles, just in case you were worried about me. (This can mostly be attributed to the fact that the sun was directly above us in the sky, keeping the canyon and water nice and warm.)

At any point where the river was deep enough, we floated. We filled our reservoirs with air and our packs made for very nice flotation devices. Everyone we passed said things like, "Let's do that when we go back down," and "Wow, that looks fun!" I can't take credit for the idea though... It was Doug and Kelly's. If any of you hike the narrows, please steal this idea. It will make your adventure a million times better! (Just watch out for the rocks below the surface... Tailbones don't like them very much.)

The four of us at the END of our hike: Eric, me, Kelly, and Doug

Like I said earlier, there were other activities as well, but they just didn't get photographed.

All four of us LOVED Toy Story 3. I think it's mine and Eric's new favorite movie!

Thanks Doug and Kelly for the AWESOME weekend! We love you guys!