Oral History: My Father Stephen Charles Mayer

Who are you and where did you grow up?
My name is Stephen Charles Mayer and I was born October 1, 1959. I grew up really, in the western suburbs of Chicago. My family was middle class; my father was essentially a missionary for much of my early years.

His mother was a self-made millionaire of all things, when woman were generally not successful business women, but she was. And so she gave us enough money to have a better lifestyle than the amount of money my father earned, so we could grow up in a neighborhood where people, generally men, made more than my father earned.

So we, in our town in Wheaton Illinois, which is where most of my memories of my early years were made, most of the people were a mixture of Protestants and catholic middle class Americans. There were African Americans in the community, not in the neighborhood where I lived.

There was a section in town, back when there were sections in towns, where most of the Africans American lived. There was not a racially mixed community. There were probably Hispanics, but not noticeably different.

(So in the next portion of my video, the volume wont work, so I am going to paraphrase everything.)

What are some of you childhood memories?
Growing up in a small town, I remember playing outside with my siblings. I grew up the oldest of three brothers and with an older sister. I remember being able to wander the town at a relatively young age. I could go downtown, where people would recognize me as my grandmothers grandchild; she was a well know business woman in the community.

As kids, it was the age of the “Lone Ranger” where it was still okay to play “Cowboys and Indians” or “Americans and Germans.” Today that would be unacceptable and politically incorrect. You don’t hear kids playing “Americans and Terrorist,” it was a different time.

What is the difference of kids today and kids of your generation?
I don’t think there is too much of a difference. I do think that today, kids are more media driven. Growing up we didn’t have the variety of TV shows there are today. We couldn’t just put on the Disney channel, or look at YouTube, or play video games.

Even though it’s not too long ago, but a computer was also non-existent growing up. When you needed information you had to go to the library and actually look inside books. If your family had enough money, you could afford to have a encyclopedia; my grandmother gave us a collection. Writing papers, you had to use a typewriter.

Do you remember anything political?
Growing up in the sixties, I do remember the Civil Rights Movement. As a kid who was very interested in the news, I think that’s why these memories stood out in my mind. I remember when President Kennedy got shot. I remember my mother talking to our neighbor over the quote unquote white picket fence. 

I also remember when Martin Luther King Jr. got shot. At that time, I remember watching a kids show, cartoons, I think, and I remember the TV screen became black, and a news coverage began about the assassination. I remember looking at my friends and not knowing who he was. We just didn’t know, which wasn’t uncommon for a kid my age. When the riots broke out in Chicago, I did remember looking east and trying to see the smoke clouds from the burning neighborhoods.