Kim Rogers from Junction City Retirement and Assisted Living in Junction City, Oregon

Kim Rogers – Generations and Work Life

Interviewer: Do people work harder today than in past generations?

Kim: Is it my opinion?

Interviewer: Yeah, your opinion. laughs

Kim: They don’t work anything close to what it used to be. You know, I mean… I don’t know. I only know a little bit about what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard. But a lot of the times I don’t really make a judgement about what I’ve heard, I go by what I see and what I know is true. But…

Interviewer: Yeah

Kim: Some of the things that I went through. They were difficult but you stick with it.

Kim’s Most Important Memory – Commercial Diving

Interviewer: What is your most important memory and why?

Kim: Probably commercial diving, I learned a lot on that trade. The Gulf of Mexico … It was something totally new as far as the kind of work it was. Did a lot of diving before that with scuba and stuff but this is all different, all surface inclined you know everybody counting on each other to make sure we come back to the world and learning to trust the crew and the people you are with.

Kim’s Personal Philosophy

Interviewer: What has been your personal philosophy throughout your life.

Kim: Living as healthy as possible, staying fit, you know. When it feels right than you know it’s the right thing to do, do it. If you can help others along the way, go for it.

Kim’s Family Traditions

Interviewer: What were your family traditions?

Kim: Cooking! laughs Cooking and once in a while mom would make something particular. She always used to bake, and dad would do a lot of the footwork going around different neighbors to take over some pie for somebody who’s having a real rough time getting around or whatever you know because Ma was really a Christian lady. And dad was too but he didn’t show it a lot, you just knew that he was a really caring individual is all and everybody knew him. The family was pretty close, we were all pretty tight.

Interviewer: Nice, did you ever bake with her?

Kim: Yeah somewhat, you know. I wanted to learn to certain things. I never really got the hang of doing breads and stuff, but you know… pecan pie I really wanted to learn that but it’s like, “No that’s a secret!” and well okay.

Kim’s Best Memory

Interviewer: Okay Kim, what is your best memory?

Kim: A variety of things… well winning the ball games you know that I practiced most of my life playing. Basketball, some football and track and making friends with a lot of people that I went to school with. Everybody pretty much could identify with each other in a lot of ways. It really didn’t take any words, just a matter of showing how you feel about each other and being real, you know.

Probably the best thing was my dad taking me aside, yelling again, telling me certain things that he knew about when it came to being a real family man. And he really did a good job there. He instilled that in all of his boys that no matter what… what we may choose to do one day, just remember tomorrow is always the result.

Interviewer: I love that.

Kim: And we all stuck by that quite a bit, even though we all kind of went our own blind way, you know, once in a while but it made a lot of sense if you really think about it. And dad knew it too, he was anxious for his boys to grow and be the kind of people knowing about family, together and counting on us and me counting on them. Everybody working together when it comes to emotional and you know finances too and just things that really matter.\

Transcription and Audio Edit by Samantha Alcaraz