Personal History #4 - Kathryn Birgithe Knight

I was born in Provo, UT as the 8th of 9 children to Larry and Jewel Knight. I had a lot of red hair as a baby and I was really cute – I still am actually. We lived in a house on Apple Avenue, which is at the top of a really steep hill, and at the bottom of the hill is Kiwanis Park. I don’t remember too much about that house. I do remember the game carpet and I remember fighting with my mom cause I thought I was too old for naps and so she conceded and let me simply have a quiet time.

I remember playing with Kathryn Hilliam, Carrie Warner and Jenny Oaks – I think they all lived on Locust Lane. I also remember the Hatch boys that lived on Old Willow – they were mean and one time they convinced me to eat dirt. Across the street to the north was an old man named Rhiney Liechty and he owned some horses. I remember that I loved to visit Rhiney and see his horses. When I was older and lived on Oak Lane, I would always take my nieces and nephews on a walk to see the horses on Old Willow Lane.

I remember going to Peter Pan Preschool with Miss Wendy. It was held in a home at the bottom of Apple Avenue. I don’t remember too much about preschool other than I met a lot of the kids I would end up going through school with and we eventually graduated together. Peter Van and Jon-Clair Lindsey. Their dad died after first grade and I thought that was so sad. BJ Chandler – I thought he was cute and was amazed at how tall he was. Melissa Carter, Carrie Warner, Lisa Zumbrennen, Nicole Francis, Marianne Densley, Courtney Clark and others that I’m forgetting.

It wasn’t long after I was born that my little sister was born – about 16 months. We did a lot together. Because there was a seven-year gap between me and my older brother, Dan, my parents thought they’d better have another kid to keep me company. I’m glad they did otherwise I’d be like Liz Collins.

I remember playing with Macy and Molly at the mortuary and I thought it was so strange how they lived on top of a place where dead bodies were kept. I always wanted to be like Macy – I thought she was so cool. I remember Memorial Day and the gathering at the PG cemetery and breakfast, races, and softball games later at the Lindon Park.

When I was four our family moved to Livermore, CA because my dad worked at the Lawrence Livermore Lab doing top secret work or something. I liked living there and I remember going to Sam and Dan’s baseball games. I remember that I had a friend named Arthur and I named a teddy bear after him. It was the kind of teddy bear you can wind up in the back and it plays music. It was in Livermore, CA that Dod Richen came to be. I was (and still am to some degree) a tomboy. I thought my older brothers were so cool and I wanted to be like them in every way so one day I put on a San Francisco Giants jersey and a baseball hat and announced to my family that my name was Dod Richen and my number was 14. I played for the Giants. I guess it was pretty funny because everyone remembers it and my family still calls me Dod on occasion.
I have a few other memories of Livermore. I remember once Sandy threw up at the dinner table. I remember playing with these rings that came off the bottom of our kitchen chairs and one got stuck on my finger and my mom couldn’t get it off. And this seems extreme but I think the firemen came to cut it off and rescue me. I’ll have to ask my mom if that really happened.

We moved back to Provo into the house on Oak Lane before I started kindergarten. Ann Dee and I shared the room in the southwest corner next to my parents. It was the cloud room and I remember staring at those clouds trying to discover recognizable images in them. I’m not sure when my neat freak/OCD kicked in but I remember cleaning that room and organizing it and then loving the feeling after. I love to know that all of my things have a place and that they are in their place. I would also on occasion organize our game closet and produce a list of all of the game pieces we were missing. That closet was located in the sewing room with pseudo mirrors in the wallpaper. I thought it was cool that in that house you could complete a full circle from the sewing room to the hall to the kitchen to the laundry room. I think I ran around that circle lots. You could also complete a full circle from the front hall to the orange carpeted living room and dining room to the kitchen with swinging chairs and a lazy Susan and back to the front hall. I remember when we first moved in I found a Star Wars figurine in the bushes in the front. I think it was Chuey. I remember thinking it was cool and I liked to play with him but I always felt a bit guilty because I knew he didn’t really belong to me.

I remember learning to ride a bike. No one held the back of the bike and then let me go. I remember Dan standing on top of Christine (our white Station Wagon) who was parked in the center of our driveway and I would try to ride this little bike without stopping to regain my balance. Dan would count how many times I could make it around the car.

I remember that a girl who was two years older than me lived across the street named Laura Beal. She was kinda weird and she would always have this dumb little dog with her named Soopy. This was not her dog, it was the Campbell’s dog and I was terrified of dogs and I still am actually. I hated Soopy and he would always bark at me. Laura thought it was funny and so she would say, “Sick her” all the time and I really thought that Soopy was going to sick me. Whenever we played with Laura, I’d make Ann Dee go over there first and then call me at 377-9083 and let me know if Soopy was there or not. Then I’d go over if it was safe. My mom used to make Ann Dee and I take some meat cutting to Susan Ream’s dog. She lived on Briar and that was seriously the scariest thing in the world to me because although she never let her dogs near us they would come to the door and bark when we rang the doorbell and they were BIG dogs. I HATED HATED HATED doing that but my mom was all about facing your fears.
Either that or she wanted to get rid of that extra meat and her two little babies for a bit.

We used to play with Olympics at the bar and the judge would sit at the bar and watch the performances in the large, spacious family room and then give a score to the participants. I was always the judge because I never did figure our how to do a cartwheel. I also remember playing with the intercoms. We’d all go to separate rooms and we could talk to each other through the walls. It was so cool. I liked to use the intercoms to try and wake up Sam and Dan in the mornings but sometimes their volume was down so it didn’t always work.