Marion Life Story: Pam Hyberger

Pam Hyberger is a mother, Marion resident, uptown Marion employee Happenstance on Seventh and belly dance instructor. 

I grew up in Paralta, IA. It’s like seven houses and a cemetery surrounded by cow fields and corn pastures. It was bliss.

My mother taught me how to sew and allowed all us kids to make messes and be creative. 

My brother and sister and I built a tree fort. We decided it was too big of an ordeal to go back inside to use the bathroom. There was this old ruined house on our property and we were always finding treasures there, we found a toilet seat and dug a hole in our lawn and put a Folger’s coffee can and toilet paper in the hole .  

It was a very old fashioned way of growing up and I wish I could give that to my children.

They play video games. I have to make them stop to eat supper.

When we go out my dad’s place the kids go out and act like they have never been outside. They’ll go out and skin their knee and I’ll be happy — good for you, be a real boy.

I’ve told people before that my two sons are the greatest creations ever. They are artworks that are always evolving. 

For 20 years I had a steady full-time job as a graphic designer at The Gazette.

I had a great time at The Gazette. The creative services area has always had an emphasis on quality over quantity. But in the last five years they were dumbing us down, making us go faster. I never fit into that new mold so I was the first one that got (laid off).

I don’t do well in jobs that are extremely monotonous. I have a hard time staying on task. 

One summer I worked for a factory. I made silly mistakes because I was so bored. I blew a 10 pound bucket of chocolate frosting 20 feet in the air. It was like a volcano of chocolate frosting. 

I don't ever want to do a monotonous job because I will kill myself and someone else.  

But if it is something exciting to me I can sit for six hours and work.

I feel just like a machine, I am a creative machine, because a machine you can just turn it on and will go as long as it can run.