It's my story

Editor’s note: Sundance FCCLA members have been spending time with the elderly within the community, including at the Crook County Long Term Care facility. As part of their time together, FCCLA members have interviewed residents and created biographies to honor them and their lives. These are their stories.

Terry

By Bailey Hofland

Sundance FCCLA

Terry was born on Wednesday April 30, 1947, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was the first child born, and has three brothers. His first memory was sitting in the kitchen and opening a toy box and looking inside. His first childhood house had four or five bedrooms and was in a nice neighborhood in Sioux Falls. At this time, he was the only child.

He then moved to a ranch near Sundance and into an older house where the rest of his siblings were born. He remembers his bedroom was in the back and it was always cold. Waking up in the mornings he could scrape ice off of the walls until his parents finally got a heater.

Terry told us that as a kid he remembers getting in trouble a lot, although he was a pretty good kid and didn’t rob a bank or anything crazy like that. Another memory he has is one time his parents had a can of change in the bedroom, and he took some to get a candy bar, and then his dad found out and he got in big trouble.

As a kid he never really had any pets, just horses and cattle, because they couldn’t get too attached to the animals.

One thing Terry remembers that he enjoyed was his first summer up here riding horses in the hills. However, he didn’t like the rest after that because all that happened was work.

One big world event he remembers is getting up in the middle of the night to see the first rockets take off. One thing he saved up money in his younger years to get was a 1957 Chevy Plymouth four door that cost fifty dollars.

He also played football and basketball and later had two boys that also played football. In high school his best friend was a guy named Bill Mathews. Terry’s favorite subject in school was history. He told us he was lazy as a student in school because he didn’t have a great teacher and it wasn’t very challenging for him.

However, after he graduated from Sundance High School he then went to college in Laramie for civil engineering and did pretty well there until Vietnam broke out and he was drafted. He served in the armed forces for a year in the Marine Corps before going to Washington for a year and working for the President of the United States.

In Washington D.C., he did things like the 21 guns salute, being a pallbearer and standing outside of doors for the President. After he was done with his service he went back to school for a bit before getting married. Later, he opened a few businesses here in the town of Sundance.

Terry’s advice for future generations is to do everything in moderation. You’re going to want to go out and have fun but don’t do it too much. Also, go to as much school as you can, because from then on it is work and things get tough.