Oral History Interview with Laura Miller, October 30, 2014 Page: 1 of 25
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Laura Miller-Oral History
Chase: I guess we will start from the beginning. You were born in Baltimore, right?
Laura: Yes, born in Baltimore.
Chase: You didn't grow up there though. For most of your childhood, you moved around
a lot of states in the northeast. Correct?
Laura: Right. My dad was in retailing, and he started out in Baltimore where he grew up,
and he worked at a store called Hamburgers, which was a clothing store. Then he moved
to Filene's in Boston, which was a well-known department store until 2005 when it
became Macy's. That's why we moved up to the Boston area. So we lived just outside of
Boston in a suburb called Stoneham for a short time; then we got a house in Concord,
Massachusetts. Technically West Concord, Massachusetts, which is the more middle-
class part of Concord, Massachusetts. So we got a house there, and I lived in Concord,
Mass. until 8th grade, and then in the middle of 8th grade we moved to Stamford,
Connecticut. That's where I went to high school.
Chase: Moving around, was that difficult for you? You have younger siblings, right?
Laura: I have a younger brother and a younger sister. It was only difficult because I left
in the middle of 8th grade, and my parents had gone through a divorce. So my safety net,
my psychological safety net was a group of girlfriends of mine from middle school. One
of them especially, who I played guitar with. We played James Taylor songs, and I wore
blue suede boots, and I thought I was very cool. So when we moved to Stamford, it was
very painful. What was funny is, fast forward when I became mayor, I had been
fantasizing for years about having a reunion with my middle school girlfriends. There
was a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston, and so I used it as my excuse. So in
2004 I reassembled all of my best girlfriends from middle school. What was ironic was
that one of them -- of course, my best friend who I played guitar with -- remembered me
perfectly, and it was wonderful and so did her parents, but the other girls were like, "Why
were we so important in your life?" (laughs)
Chase: So they had all moved on? (laughs)
Laura: (laughs) Oh, yeah they had all moved on. Most of the parents didn't even know
me anymore. They were like, "Who called you from Dallas and wants to have a
reunion?" So it was very funny. In my kitchen though, as a gift, they gave me a platter
from a hand-made pottering company in Concord and it has "Middle School Reunion
2004" and all of the names of the girls are on the edge of the plate.
Chase: So it's official. That's an artifact.
Laura: Oh, big time. I have a picture upstairs of me and the girls that I keep on my desk.
So, middle school had a profound effect on me, establishing these friendships. In fact, the
girl, this is so off topic, but the girl who was a guitar player who ordered that gift with all
of our names on it, her mom recently died, and because I have great memories of being in
their house when I was in middle school, all of the pottery her mom had - which came
from that same pottery company - my friend sent me as a gift to remember her mother
by. She knew that her mother would be happy that I had it. So in my window over there, I
have a vase now that I just got in the mail, and I have some other pieces. I'm a very
sentimental person.
Chase: Do you think it was because you moved around so much, that you enjoy having
these memories of these places?
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Carter, Chase & Miller, Laura. Oral History Interview with Laura Miller, October 30, 2014, text, October 30, 2014; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586995/m1/1/: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism.