Here is a link to Deseret Book with a brief bio of Ruth Davidson and links to purchase her books: http://deseretbook.com/authors/author-info?author_id=22803The following is an interview that I conducted with my mother, Ruth Davidson. This interview was an assignment for my Media History Class at Brigham Young University:
Brandon: My name is Brandon Davidson and I’m here with my Mother, Ruth Davidson. It is March 27th, 2007, and my mother, she is a book author and she has a few books published and so she is a media practitioner. That is why I’m going to interview her for my oral history assignment. And so, Mother, thank you for joining me this fine day.
Ruth: You are very welcome.
Brandon: I just wanted to interview you about some of your old experiences when you were first thinking about getting ready to write, and so maybe some of your experiences in college and stuff.
Ruth: Well, I think actually my love of writing started even when I was tiny. I just remember in 1st grade just loving to write notes and the desire just kind of developed in me. Even in 7th grade I remember a friend of mine whose mother just pulled me aside and had read something that I had written creatively in a little Junior High book and she was so complimentary and I just remember how I felt having someone affected by my writing—just kind of the desire to have people touched by things I wrote grew with me from that point onward. In fact, in college I went into English and Journalism to develop that further.
B: Thanks for leading me into my next question. So I’m a communications student and I’m learning about communications. A lot of that deals with newspaper and journalism and I know in college you worked on a newspaper, and I was wondering if you could tell me all about that.
R: I loved it. It was kind of a rare experience because what happened is the University actually took over a little local community newspaper, which later they had to rescind that because they felt like it was a conflict of interest. But during the—I think it ran for about seven years that they had taken it over, but I was there at the inception and got to work on it for 2 ½ years and during that time, not only did I typeset there for them, but I also got to put some of my own articles in. So I got to interview several people. I just loved the experience. I interviewed like a woman whose husband had Alzheimers and I interviewed a little girl that had—I can’t even remember the name of what she had—but it was a condition where she had no sweat glands. I interviewed a mother of a boy who had a disease, too—it was just a fascinating experience and probably there were 20 or 30 interviews that I got to do and put those experiences in there. I loved that experience. I’m not quite sure what else to say about it.
B: Tell me, could you go into more depth about one of the stories you did for the newspaper, one that stands out to you?
R: Let’s see. One story that really touched me was about this little girl. She was I think in 6th or 7th grade and it was during the time when the “weight watcher” groups and all that were starting to get popular, where obesity had become a huge problem. And this little girl had been over 100 pounds overweight. And I got to interview her and her family and just watch what had happened after she had come in contact with this amazing woman called “Rose” who literally helped that little girl lose that weight. To interview them, to see the changes that came about in her life, to see the confidence—we even did a before and after shot. What she did actually was she held up some slacks that she used to wear and you could have fit probably four or five of her in those. It was a fascinating story and just neat to see someone so young overcome a huge difficult issue and then go on to just spread that kind of hope to others that were trying to lose weight. I think that one was—actually all the experiences were amazing. They are fascinating. I would love to share my portfolio with you some time.
B: That sounds good. Do I remember correctly that you said you used to do linotype?
R: Actually, I did typesetting—which is very similar today, but we can change our font with a click of a button. We had to program in font styles and do “Style A2” which was Times New Roman and you’d have to do a long series of commands just to get a line of type that we can get in seconds today. But it was still good—it was good for me to learn the kind of language that went into the newspaper. It was good to learn to edit and the whole experience I feel like really gave me some good background to know how to write journalistically.
B: All that was done on a computer, then?
R: Yes, but it was very new to the university. In fact, I was part of the training when they were just getting it going. I don’t even know how they did it previously. We stared on that typesetter—a big clunker machine. Huge. So it was interesting.
B: Before that, you would use a typewriter?
R: I would personally. I don’t know what the people did for the newspaper. I had a typewriter with a little self-correct backspace. I was so happy the day when that came automatic. I got really good at the “backspace delete.”
B: Can you tell me about your experiences when you started seeing a computer come in and how that would change writing?
R: You know, really I started to see the computer more when I started working for a law office. I hadn’t quite graduated and I got married and we took one year off to earn some money to go back to school and during that time, I worked for a law office. We began with the basic old IBM typewriters with the little “backspace delete” that would make the corrections. I remember my boss in particular had a set of interrogatories that were so long and lengthy, and I was so excited the day they actually got the computer. It was a treat to be able to use them and instead of re-typing everything over, I could just plug in “interrogatories” and use it from there. Computers were just barely—I can’t even remember. It had to have been around `81 or `82 when they were getting more popular in the workforce and stuff. But I loved it. It saved so much time.
B: So you remember having to re-type pages and pages of everything?
R: Oh, yes. It was a bear.
B: Yes. We were talking about that in class. I personally remember when we had that computer at home. . .
R: That little Atari?
B: Was that your first computer?
R: You mean the first personal PC?
B: Yes.
R: That would have been it. Yes. It was so basic, it was just amazing. In fact, I didn’t even really learn how to work it that well. I only got interested in a computer when we actually went back to college. We bought an old one—the computer screen was 5 by 5 and we used a program called “Wordstar” that is obsolete now. But I just remember loving it—you could just go on, re-work it, re-type it—it saved so much time. So probably about `83 or `84 we started with a computer in our lifestyle, and we’ve never gone without one since then.
B: I also remember a time when you talked about losing a whole book once.
R: Oh—what happened there, we had these little disks that would save all the information. They were so—all it was was a disk with a floppy inside it and what had happened is I had saved all of a book on the floppy. Basically, I think Derek when he was little got ahold of it and it completely erased it. The computer broke and so that was the only copy I had of it. That was one of my longest books so it was so hard. It was a loss only an author I think could understand. But it was really hard. Thank goodness I was able to recover eventually. It probably took me another 6 months to recoup what I feel like I’d done. Now, because of that experience, I do hard copies, even though I do trust computers a lot more now to save it, where before they just did not have the capacity to hold what they do now.
B: How long was the book?
R: In terms of a novel, probably 250 to 270 pages long. So it was lengthy.
B: So you lost all of it?
R: I lost all of it—because of little fingers exploring. Yep, that was hard.
B: We’re going to kind of change the discussion a little here and take a different route with where we’ve been going. I kind of wanted to ask you about your memories earlier, your memories of different media. So I was wondering when you were little what memories you might have had?
R: All I remember—I think it was about 3rd, 4th, 5th grade—around there, we got this old black and white TV and that was basically our entertainment. I just remember shows like “Gilligan’s Island,” “My Three Sons”—shows like that, and I remember feeling so sad if you missed them because you couldn’t make up watching them. But we were pretty consistent watching every night if we got our chores done and our homework done. We had 2 ½ acres and we were outside a lot, but we sure loved our TV program. I remember even loving getting sick because I could watch it more without having to get things done.
B: How many channels were there?
R: You know, I think there were probably 4 to 5 but I only remember three—Channel 5, 4 and 2 were the ones that we watched. They usually had the programs that were more clear and they were kind of the more popular stations. That’s all I remember.
B: You already mentioned some programs that you used to watch. Do you remember that you particularly enjoyed?
R: Besides “Gilligan’s Island?” You know, I can’t even remember the sequence of all of them—but I remember enjoying the ones like “I Dream of Jeannie” or “Bewitched,” even there was one called “My Girl” or something like that with Marlo Thomas. They were all really clean and fun. I don’t even remember the media as being as saturated with filth as it is now. You didn’t even really have to be careful about what you were watching. They were mostly family-oriented movies. I just really enjoyed them.
B: Do you remember when TV first went to color?
R: I just remember my Grandma was so rich because they got one and we loved to go to her house and have cookies and watch it. I had to have been in my teens. It was kind of the new thing, but it was quite expensive to get it. I do actually remember watching it in color and loving it. Color I think was my mid-teen experience.
B: Sorry if this seems like a weird question, but do you remember any major news stories?
R: John F. Kennedy stuff I remember vaguely. You kind of just have these vague memories of, “something serious is happening.” I can’t really remember specifically. I remember being sobered by things but that’s really what stands out. I think I remember some space stuff. But it was pretty vague because I was little.
B: To take one last turn, I wanted to ask you what you’re doing now with your media experience, what books you’re writing and what you’re doing now.
R: Well, actually for years, as a mother, I kind of haven’t been working actively in the field. I wrote creatively and I’ve got about 12 books that I want to get published there, but when I actually went back into the market, I wrote books catered to the LDS audience. They’re being carried by Deseret Book now about infidelity and pornography and some of the problems with sexual sin. In fact, I’m currently working on a book that I hope to get published in the next three to four weeks. That’s what I’m currently doing. I think one thing I’ve discovered is that it’s easy to get the media out there. The marketing is tricky. So right now I’m trying to work on getting the marketing going better. But also Deseret Book is very helpful with that, as well. That’s where I’m currently at.
B: I remember you telling me about how one time you were in a circle and you started talking about publishing.
R: That was way back in college. I just remember one night sitting around—I think it was a family night activity or something—and we actually went around the group and they asked everyone what was their dream. What did they want to do after school, you know, the dream of their lives? And I just remember feeling, I’d never even really expressed it openly, but almost in a prophetic way, I said, “I’d love to start my own small publishing company and publish my own books and then help others get their works published, too.” That’s what I’ve been able to do in the last 7 to 8 years. Actually, a small publishing company took my first book and I remember watching what it took to get it out and I thought, “Holy cow. I could do that.” So I watched closely, I learned what they did and I mimicked it. I started my own little business and from beginning to end got three other books out. And actually I’ve helped at least one other, at this point, get work published, as well, a good friend. So. . .
B: So kind of a dream come true?
R: It is a dream come true. And I don’t see the dream dying until I die. I’ll keep working on it.
B: Sounds good. Thank you so much for helping me.
R: You’re welcome.
B: Maybe even some grandkids will read this.
Ruth: You are very welcome.
Brandon: I just wanted to interview you about some of your old experiences when you were first thinking about getting ready to write, and so maybe some of your experiences in college and stuff.
Ruth: Well, I think actually my love of writing started even when I was tiny. I just remember in 1st grade just loving to write notes and the desire just kind of developed in me. Even in 7th grade I remember a friend of mine whose mother just pulled me aside and had read something that I had written creatively in a little Junior High book and she was so complimentary and I just remember how I felt having someone affected by my writing—just kind of the desire to have people touched by things I wrote grew with me from that point onward. In fact, in college I went into English and Journalism to develop that further.
B: Thanks for leading me into my next question. So I’m a communications student and I’m learning about communications. A lot of that deals with newspaper and journalism and I know in college you worked on a newspaper, and I was wondering if you could tell me all about that.
R: I loved it. It was kind of a rare experience because what happened is the University actually took over a little local community newspaper, which later they had to rescind that because they felt like it was a conflict of interest. But during the—I think it ran for about seven years that they had taken it over, but I was there at the inception and got to work on it for 2 ½ years and during that time, not only did I typeset there for them, but I also got to put some of my own articles in. So I got to interview several people. I just loved the experience. I interviewed like a woman whose husband had Alzheimers and I interviewed a little girl that had—I can’t even remember the name of what she had—but it was a condition where she had no sweat glands. I interviewed a mother of a boy who had a disease, too—it was just a fascinating experience and probably there were 20 or 30 interviews that I got to do and put those experiences in there. I loved that experience. I’m not quite sure what else to say about it.
B: Tell me, could you go into more depth about one of the stories you did for the newspaper, one that stands out to you?
R: Let’s see. One story that really touched me was about this little girl. She was I think in 6th or 7th grade and it was during the time when the “weight watcher” groups and all that were starting to get popular, where obesity had become a huge problem. And this little girl had been over 100 pounds overweight. And I got to interview her and her family and just watch what had happened after she had come in contact with this amazing woman called “Rose” who literally helped that little girl lose that weight. To interview them, to see the changes that came about in her life, to see the confidence—we even did a before and after shot. What she did actually was she held up some slacks that she used to wear and you could have fit probably four or five of her in those. It was a fascinating story and just neat to see someone so young overcome a huge difficult issue and then go on to just spread that kind of hope to others that were trying to lose weight. I think that one was—actually all the experiences were amazing. They are fascinating. I would love to share my portfolio with you some time.
B: That sounds good. Do I remember correctly that you said you used to do linotype?
R: Actually, I did typesetting—which is very similar today, but we can change our font with a click of a button. We had to program in font styles and do “Style A2” which was Times New Roman and you’d have to do a long series of commands just to get a line of type that we can get in seconds today. But it was still good—it was good for me to learn the kind of language that went into the newspaper. It was good to learn to edit and the whole experience I feel like really gave me some good background to know how to write journalistically.
B: All that was done on a computer, then?
R: Yes, but it was very new to the university. In fact, I was part of the training when they were just getting it going. I don’t even know how they did it previously. We stared on that typesetter—a big clunker machine. Huge. So it was interesting.
B: Before that, you would use a typewriter?
R: I would personally. I don’t know what the people did for the newspaper. I had a typewriter with a little self-correct backspace. I was so happy the day when that came automatic. I got really good at the “backspace delete.”
B: Can you tell me about your experiences when you started seeing a computer come in and how that would change writing?
R: You know, really I started to see the computer more when I started working for a law office. I hadn’t quite graduated and I got married and we took one year off to earn some money to go back to school and during that time, I worked for a law office. We began with the basic old IBM typewriters with the little “backspace delete” that would make the corrections. I remember my boss in particular had a set of interrogatories that were so long and lengthy, and I was so excited the day they actually got the computer. It was a treat to be able to use them and instead of re-typing everything over, I could just plug in “interrogatories” and use it from there. Computers were just barely—I can’t even remember. It had to have been around `81 or `82 when they were getting more popular in the workforce and stuff. But I loved it. It saved so much time.
B: So you remember having to re-type pages and pages of everything?
R: Oh, yes. It was a bear.
B: Yes. We were talking about that in class. I personally remember when we had that computer at home. . .
R: That little Atari?
B: Was that your first computer?
R: You mean the first personal PC?
B: Yes.
R: That would have been it. Yes. It was so basic, it was just amazing. In fact, I didn’t even really learn how to work it that well. I only got interested in a computer when we actually went back to college. We bought an old one—the computer screen was 5 by 5 and we used a program called “Wordstar” that is obsolete now. But I just remember loving it—you could just go on, re-work it, re-type it—it saved so much time. So probably about `83 or `84 we started with a computer in our lifestyle, and we’ve never gone without one since then.
B: I also remember a time when you talked about losing a whole book once.
R: Oh—what happened there, we had these little disks that would save all the information. They were so—all it was was a disk with a floppy inside it and what had happened is I had saved all of a book on the floppy. Basically, I think Derek when he was little got ahold of it and it completely erased it. The computer broke and so that was the only copy I had of it. That was one of my longest books so it was so hard. It was a loss only an author I think could understand. But it was really hard. Thank goodness I was able to recover eventually. It probably took me another 6 months to recoup what I feel like I’d done. Now, because of that experience, I do hard copies, even though I do trust computers a lot more now to save it, where before they just did not have the capacity to hold what they do now.
B: How long was the book?
R: In terms of a novel, probably 250 to 270 pages long. So it was lengthy.
B: So you lost all of it?
R: I lost all of it—because of little fingers exploring. Yep, that was hard.
B: We’re going to kind of change the discussion a little here and take a different route with where we’ve been going. I kind of wanted to ask you about your memories earlier, your memories of different media. So I was wondering when you were little what memories you might have had?
R: All I remember—I think it was about 3rd, 4th, 5th grade—around there, we got this old black and white TV and that was basically our entertainment. I just remember shows like “Gilligan’s Island,” “My Three Sons”—shows like that, and I remember feeling so sad if you missed them because you couldn’t make up watching them. But we were pretty consistent watching every night if we got our chores done and our homework done. We had 2 ½ acres and we were outside a lot, but we sure loved our TV program. I remember even loving getting sick because I could watch it more without having to get things done.
B: How many channels were there?
R: You know, I think there were probably 4 to 5 but I only remember three—Channel 5, 4 and 2 were the ones that we watched. They usually had the programs that were more clear and they were kind of the more popular stations. That’s all I remember.
B: You already mentioned some programs that you used to watch. Do you remember that you particularly enjoyed?
R: Besides “Gilligan’s Island?” You know, I can’t even remember the sequence of all of them—but I remember enjoying the ones like “I Dream of Jeannie” or “Bewitched,” even there was one called “My Girl” or something like that with Marlo Thomas. They were all really clean and fun. I don’t even remember the media as being as saturated with filth as it is now. You didn’t even really have to be careful about what you were watching. They were mostly family-oriented movies. I just really enjoyed them.
B: Do you remember when TV first went to color?
R: I just remember my Grandma was so rich because they got one and we loved to go to her house and have cookies and watch it. I had to have been in my teens. It was kind of the new thing, but it was quite expensive to get it. I do actually remember watching it in color and loving it. Color I think was my mid-teen experience.
B: Sorry if this seems like a weird question, but do you remember any major news stories?
R: John F. Kennedy stuff I remember vaguely. You kind of just have these vague memories of, “something serious is happening.” I can’t really remember specifically. I remember being sobered by things but that’s really what stands out. I think I remember some space stuff. But it was pretty vague because I was little.
B: To take one last turn, I wanted to ask you what you’re doing now with your media experience, what books you’re writing and what you’re doing now.
R: Well, actually for years, as a mother, I kind of haven’t been working actively in the field. I wrote creatively and I’ve got about 12 books that I want to get published there, but when I actually went back into the market, I wrote books catered to the LDS audience. They’re being carried by Deseret Book now about infidelity and pornography and some of the problems with sexual sin. In fact, I’m currently working on a book that I hope to get published in the next three to four weeks. That’s what I’m currently doing. I think one thing I’ve discovered is that it’s easy to get the media out there. The marketing is tricky. So right now I’m trying to work on getting the marketing going better. But also Deseret Book is very helpful with that, as well. That’s where I’m currently at.
B: I remember you telling me about how one time you were in a circle and you started talking about publishing.
R: That was way back in college. I just remember one night sitting around—I think it was a family night activity or something—and we actually went around the group and they asked everyone what was their dream. What did they want to do after school, you know, the dream of their lives? And I just remember feeling, I’d never even really expressed it openly, but almost in a prophetic way, I said, “I’d love to start my own small publishing company and publish my own books and then help others get their works published, too.” That’s what I’ve been able to do in the last 7 to 8 years. Actually, a small publishing company took my first book and I remember watching what it took to get it out and I thought, “Holy cow. I could do that.” So I watched closely, I learned what they did and I mimicked it. I started my own little business and from beginning to end got three other books out. And actually I’ve helped at least one other, at this point, get work published, as well, a good friend. So. . .
B: So kind of a dream come true?
R: It is a dream come true. And I don’t see the dream dying until I die. I’ll keep working on it.
B: Sounds good. Thank you so much for helping me.
R: You’re welcome.
B: Maybe even some grandkids will read this.
R: And they can get published.
B: They can live their dreams. Thanks, Mom. This is Brandon Davidson signing off. Thank you, bye.
