SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to The Simple Lives We Live, where we capture the extraordinary stories hidden inside ordinary lives. I'm your host, Kylie Simiano, and each week we sit down to share memories of love, family, hardship, joy, and the moments that shaped us. If these stories mean something to you, you can help support the podcast by subscribing, leaving a review, sharing episodes with family and friends, or donating through the links in our website and social media bios. Your support helps keep these stories alive. Now, let's settle in and listen back together. Welcome back to another episode of our podcast. The quote today is the beauty of small towns was never the buildings. It was the people who poured themselves into them. Now I always pick a quote based on what I think is kind of fitting for the person. And I felt like that was you because we were just talking beforehand about how many houses you've sold and kind of helped build this community a little bit. So my guest today, I have the lovely Sally Abernathy. So welcome. Are you excited to be here? So what I want you to start with, I always ask everybody the same question, and that's how old are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

I'm 88. You're 88.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Okay. So where were you born?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

You were a South Dakota girl. Okay. Did you did you move around a lot?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

No. No. My home was in Ellendale, North Dakota. That's where that was my home.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

Okay. So how long were you guys in South Dakota before you came to North Dakota?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

We were never in South Dakota. That was just where you were born there. Okay. And Ellendale is just on the North Dakota-South Dakota line. That's the reason. That's the reason. Okay. How long did you live in in Ellendale, you said? I lived in Ellendale. Our family lived in Ellendale for until I was about 12 or 14 years old. Okay, and then where did you move? Then my father died at the age of 32. There were five of us, and her parents lived at Grassy Butte. Your mom's parents? Your mom's parents were from okay, okay.

unknown 2:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

And so because of mom being sick and my father dying so young, we were moved out here. Okay. And her relatives who were the Techincos north of Bellfield did their doctoring here with Dr. Bush. And that is how we ended up here. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

So you saying you have there's there was five kids in your family, a total of five kids. Can you list everybody, you included, list them in order?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

My brother, Leroy Quest. Okay, myself, my sister, Lou, and my uh younger sister. Oh, then Bonnie and Bunny Underwood. Okay, and uh Barb Austin. So one boy one boy, he was the oldest.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

Four girls. And you mentioned your parents a little bit. What were their names? Leon and Emil Quast. Okay. And your dad passed away, obviously, when he was very young. How did he pass away? He had a massive heart attack at 32. So super unexpected. He hadn't been through totally unexpected.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I'm assuming your mom was a stay-at-home mom. My mother was a stay-home mother. She was expecting a baby when he died and lost the child.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

And then became very sick. When you say she became very sick, mentally, physically? Both. Both. She had a nervous breakdown. Yeah. And physically she was very sick.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

And so did she pass away younger too? Or did she end up? She okay. No. She was able you guys were able to come out here and get she came, she lived with her her siblings and mother in Grassy Butte, um, just for about a year.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

And they were doctoring here. And so they brought mother here, and they Dr. Bush said, well, there wasn't a lot that he could do for her mentally or or medically, but work would be the best thing. And so he put her to work in the kitchen in the old hospital. And so that's why we moved to Beach, lived in the old nursing home there, uh, and my mother cooked for many, many, many years for Dr. Bush and family. Did she did that really help her then? She did she absolutely, absolutely. She she became very well and had five of us to contend with.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

And we we all had to work to to sustain, you know, to keep up. Uh my brother was the oldest, and he wanted to join the service. So my mother signed him in at 15 or 16. I think he had to be 16, and he went to the Air Force and was out of our lives for many, many years. Um, mom, like I said, cooked. Um, I went away to, well, I went away to a Seventh-day Adventist Academy in Harvey, North Dakota, where I graduated. And my sister was there, both of my sisters, they all went there eventually, and it was an expensive place. So we had to work our way through. And working for Dr. Bush in those days, I think we painted and cleaned every apartment or whatever, but we we all worked for a little bit of nothing for all those years. Uh Leroy was off to the Air Force, the other kids were still young. Uh my sister was married, then I left that summer and went to college in the nursing program in uh Walla Walla, Washington, where I took two years in one to get my Bachelor of Science, and then transferred to Portland, Oregon, to San, Portland, Oregon, San and Hospital. There. I was there for a year and then came back to Beach to get more money to go back and finish, but I didn't get it finished. I stayed here to make more money and did not had to help the family and did not go back. Didn't go back.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

But you still had your two-year degree.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Okay. So that was how we got here.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

So we're gonna totally backtrack a little bit if that's okay. Yeah, because I heard, okay, you'll have to explain the story. I heard you were kidnapped by gypsies when you were little. That's the only story I got.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

So I'm like, I'm gonna have to ask you to explain a little bit more. That is an absolute story, truth. In in the older days, uh, Saturday night was a big deal in those little towns. This would have happened in Ellendale. And there was always dances and women and men coming in and selling their cream and their eggs and their whatever. That was a big night. So that particular night was the carnival was in town. And it wasn't, it wasn't so unusual to uh to leave kids in a car and just go down the street or whatever and be gone for a little. You know, you'd see you can't see it now, but you wouldn't then. And so my cousin, Darlene Quast, and I were only two days apart in birth. So we were approximately three months old, two to three months old. We were in the back seat, both asleep. The tavern or whatever was just a few, maybe half a block from the house or whatever, but the carnival was right by us, right by the car. And so evidently, evidently, I opened my mouth and started to scream and bawl. And one of the people from the carnival, which was gypsy, came and got me. Took me to the tent, and that's where I was. When they came out and discovered me gone, the policeman and whatever came went through the tents, and there I was. And why did you take me? Because she was balling.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

So but they didn't take your cousin.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

No, no, just you. No, they just took me because I was a loudmouth. So that is true, story. They did get me back, but I always tell my family, I'm not really sure I belong to you guys.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Now you say you after you guys moved to this area, you lived in the old nursing home?

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yes, there was an old nursing home that was right next, was exactly where the city hall is at.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

It was a uh two-story or three-story nursing home. And Dr. Bush had it was there were eight or ten or twelve people uh that he had downstairs, and there were a few that lived upstairs where we were at. Um they were they were people that were elderly and probably with dementia and whatever.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

They had uh a lady by the name of Mrs. Thomas was the cook back there for them, and they pretty much stayed in their area downstairs, though. Like I said, there were a couple of them that lived upstairs. Um, we could tell stories about that and our experience with those people all day long. In fact, we have been asked to write a book about our lives working for Dr. Bush, working in the hospital, and living in the old nursing home.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

You probably could fill fill a good one.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

I would we could really, we could really.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

So tell me, pick a couple that really stand out to you that you find that most people maybe, maybe that most people find entertaining, or I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Well, there was there were so many things and some lot of things I don't dare talk about. They might they would know exactly who they are. Um one of the things, like with the the the the people that lived downstairs, um they they were mentally they were they were not they were not good. Well, the lady one of the ladies that lived upstairs never took her overshoes off. And she was continually mopping, mopping in with a big mop. So we painted our bathroom, I remember a bright pink, and she went in there with a big mop that had hilex in the water and washed the walls. That took care of the paint. And so we we dealt with that about every other day. You know, they were, they just, you know, and Dr. Bush's dad lived downstairs in that in that complex. He lived there. He was, I don't know how old he was, but he his mentally he was not good. And so many times he would cross over the street. There was an empty car lot there with several cars, and he'd go over there and sit over there in the evening with a shotgun. And he never bothered anybody. The gun may not have even been loaded, but he'd sit over there. And so eventually, and he had an old jeep that he drove a little bit, and then eventually he he died. Uh, but we knew them all very well.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Who were was anybody taking care of the people in there? Yes. So you would have like nurses coming up.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

She lived down there and she she was in charge of them. Yeah, they didn't, there was no problems as far as uh no danger. No, there was never any danger of anything, I don't think.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Uh so growing up, you living in town, were did your mom have a car? Or did you walk everywhere or ride bike to school, things like that?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

To begin with, no, we did not have a car. Mother, later on, I don't know what grades as kids were in, because during the summer I would come home and and and go. We I was nursing going up, I worked upstairs. Mom bought a car. It was an old, old Studebaker, which people won't even know what that is, most people. And she gave $100 for it. Um, it was the ugliest green you have ever seen in your entire life. And we absolutely adored that car. And we would take it up to the top of Peck's Hill, which is towards Sentinel Butte, which was a lot higher than it is now because it was cut down. And we'd run off of it, we'd take it off the top there and come just as fast as we could into the beach. And we would pull up to a gas station and say, fill the oil and check the gas, because it took so much oil that there'd be a smoke ring all the way from the top to the bottom. Um, those were fun days. Well, that was one of our first cars. And we we thought we we thought we had died and gone to heaven because we weren't used to any of that. The cop at that time was um by the name of Deets. And he knew us very well, and he would see us coming down the street with that car, and he would just look over and wave at me and say, slow her down, Sally, slow it down. But they never picked us up or anything. We were, you know, but that was our first car.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

How about what what chores did you have then growing up? Because your mom was probably working. Were you all, like all five of you when you were younger, in charge of certain things? Or well, how about let's go back to when you were still in Ellendale? Were you at a farm? Were you in town?

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Okay. In in Ellendale, right before my father died, we had moved to Leola, South Dakota, which was just across the line. And we were we got like an FHA loan or whatever, and we were dad was going to start farming. We had chickens, we had cows that we milked and did a little bit of farming. And that is where he died. I can tell you that mom helped out in the country, out in the field somewhat. And my brother, if you were to talk to him, which I just did again the other night, he's in he's in excellent condition. He's a little over 90. He and I did the basic work. We milked the cows, we butchered the chickens, we helped in the garden, we did the cooking, we did the cleaning, and mother did what she had to do to help dad. And at the time, at the time, I was but 10 years old, nine or ten. And Leroy said to me, my brother, the other day, he said, you know, Sally, the majority of work was left to you as far as housework and and the cow. He took care of the outside. Like Leroy did all the milking. Well, he and I did the milking together. And that was always quite funny, too, because I'm not sure that we got as much milk in the pails as the cats got to eat to drink. And that was always or either one of us being totally soaked with milk. Um that was that was our that was our growing up. Uh we went to school about three or four miles from home, and we went either, and we went by horse, um, usually uh a team of horses in in some type of a trailer. I was terrified of horses. Um, but in a team I could handle it, though Leroy was older and he would take care of that. Um sometimes we took the stone boat in the spring. Well, most people wouldn't know where the stone boat is, but it is just a piece of wood that's like a sled, only bigger, and only one horse, and there were no sides on it. So Leroy would have the reins, and then all of us would stand in back of him. Many times we were thrown off. Oh, it's gonna be many times, but we learned to to roll over and get back on again and just go. Those were things that we didn't just do, the neighbors and such did. Now, was it uh like a one-room schoolhouse that you were in, or was it a it was a one-room schoolhouse, um first grade, you know, to kindergarten uh to eighth grade.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

And there were, I don't know, there were probably 16, 15, 16 of us there.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

So when your dad passed away, I'm assuming you had to just sell all of that. So your mom was able to take care of doing that, or did Leroy help a lot with that, or how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Because well, there wasn't there was an uncle that came in and arranged it and got it sold, and it was we didn't get anything out of it. It was, and then with mom being sick, we moved to into Allendale again, where we had originally come from.

SPEAKER_03 21:59

Did you miss? Did you miss that life that um out in the boonies, in a sense, right? Out in the country, did you miss that when you then had to go back into Ellendale?

SPEAKER_01 22:09

No, I don't think so. Because our grandparents were in the country when we lived in Ellendale. We lived just outside of town sometimes. Um, no, we you know, we were really country kids, but mostly it was because we spent a lot of time with the with the relatives and the and the friends and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

Yeah. When you once you moved to this area and you were in that that like old nursing home or whatever, what were your chores then?

SPEAKER_01 22:44

When we lived here.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

Yeah, when you lived in that nursing home. Like what were your chores if your mom was working at the hospital? Yeah. Um did you because you went from doing a lot out when you were in Ellendale out in the country and whatnot, like you said, with chickens and milking cows, and you come here, your mom's now working. Was your job more, say, taking care of the younger ones a little bit? Or did you have a job really young to help?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Um, well, I went to the academy, so I'd be gone nine months out of the year.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Oh, that's right. So all of you eventually went, you said.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Eventually, eventually as their age, you know. Okay. So my h my brother went into the service, so he was gone.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

And and so that left, I was the old next oldest, so then I went to the academy.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

And how old were you when you went to the academy? Like what grade were you?

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Freshman. Oh, okay. So once freshman, okay. I went there the four years.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

And remind me again, where did you say that that was at?

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Shy, and what is in Harvey, North Dakota.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Harvey, okay. It's such an odd place to have it, I feel like, in my in my mind, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Okay. And so when I came home in the summertime, I went right to work at the hospital.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

And in the meantime, during that time, mom would be in the kitchen, the kids would be helping her somewhat, and and I would when I could too. Uh that's what I did during the summer is work in the hospital and help mom in the kitchen and also, and my sisters were always the younger uh ones who were always with mom.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

So now you graduated from that school.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

Did all of them graduate from Harvey? I'm gonna say from Harvey. I know it was no.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Um Bonnie went to school here her freshman year. Okay, and then then transferred in, graduated from from uh uh Shine River Academy. Okay, and uh Lou was a rebel and probably could do stand-up comedian any place on the face of the earth, but she was a rebel, and she was at the academy then for about three years, and then decided to run away, and she ended up in Maplewood Academy in Minnesota and went to school there and finished out there. Okay, and Barb went to the academy in Colorado and finished there. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Were you closest to one of your siblings growing up? Were you and Leroy closest? Like uh yes, very close. Bond did more.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Oh, didn't go. Well, well, no. Lou and I were close, Bonnie and Barb were very close. Um, Leroy didn't come back into the picture until he was, I suppose, 18, 19, 20. Okay. And then he was married. And so it's been the last years that he that we are have become very close. There's hardly a day, and I mean that sincerely, does he does he texts Bonnie and I every day? He's in Edinburgh, Texas right now, in really good health at 91. And so it was in the last years that we became very close. He was always, he always came back several times a summer to help mom uh and do whatever he could, you know. But as far as living here, he he he we didn't. He lived here, not here. He lived over in Glendive for a while when he got out of service, worked for the railroad, and then was transferred to Nebraska when the railroad went, went out in Glendive. And from there, he's he retired in Edinburgh, Texas. What were Christmases like growing up? Um, you know, the holidays for us. We always had our holiday with just our family because my mother did always have to cook for the bushes. They were they were the ones that she took care of for all the holidays they had to. So that didn't leave time for us a whole lot. But we had uh we we had our our own holidays as far as our family was concerned, up in our little bad apartment. Yeah, and I mean it was not anything to write home about, but uh no, that it for holidays we stayed close. But the holidays had to start first with mother taking care of the bushes, getting them all situated and fixing their meals, doing their you know, their work first, and then when that was done, then we could have yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

Okay. Any traditions? Like certain meals that we have. Yes, more.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah, I guess. I mean, mom always cooked big meals for us, and um it was just it was just like any other holiday as far as Christmas and stuff. Lots of presents if we could afford them, which we that was always a struggle. And big meals. Mom, mom was an excellent cook. And so I guess it was no different than any other, outside of the fact that it didn't start out every day, every holiday started out with taking care of someone else before we we had, you know.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

Any particular gifts that you remember that you really loved?

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Or maybe didn't like, but when I was when we were really young, we were we were very poor. And I don't remember having much we we certainly didn't have a lot of presents or anything, but my dad bought me a rubber doll one time, which I literally cherished, and I don't know how old I would have been in about third grade, and that is really the only doll or only present that I can remember uh from from those days.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

How about birthdays? Did were birthdays a big thing, or did you have just everybody have a cake, or did you have family that would in later years?

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Now I don't remember that there was anything when we were younger. Maybe it was just another day, I don't know. As we got older, birthdays were very, very much celebrated with our cakes, gifts, and not just by my family, but along with Bob's Bob's family. We birthdays have always been special to us.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

Yeah, and everybody's so different, you know. Some are like nothing. Yeah. So growing up, then did your mom make you birthday cakes?

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Did she yes? My mom made me my favorite, which is an angel food cake with convectors frosting in it. That's my very favorite, and she'd make sure I had that every year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

What are some of your favorite childhood memories that you have from growing up?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

A lot of what?

SPEAKER_03 30:55

What are your favorite childhood memories? Do you have any?

SPEAKER_01 31:00

Um I have, I mean, I guess we were always we were always happy and and and the playing together, we you know, there were games like at the schools that we played, like Andy I over and uh you know, different things. I have very fond memories of going to the country schools, and very fond memories of going to the academy. I I enjoyed that as much as anything. Um I don't think anything stands out.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

Was that hard to go to the academy in Harvey and to leave the family for that long at such a young age? Was that hard for you, or was it hard for your mom?

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Well, it might have been more hard for mom. I I it was it was a tradition that my father, when he before he died, he wanted us all to have a Christian education. And that's that was one of the reasons. And I did I worked my way through as a cook as in the kitchen at the academy, and I worked my sister's way through because she was the rebel. She didn't want to work. Lou, she was she had too much fun doing other things.

SPEAKER_03 32:33

Well, what did you do for fun then as kids? What were you said anti-over at you know at school and stuff? Were there other things that you did?

SPEAKER_01 32:44

I did a lot of reading. I um I loved to bicycle, ice skate. Bicycling stayed with me right up to a couple of years ago when I couldn't do it. Walking, I did walk every day two miles, whether it was 20 above or 20 below. Uh so I would think that, and the only thing I did not enjoy and needed to do it at times was riding a horse. So that was very interesting, marrying somebody who had a rodeo business.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Um the reason I didn't is because years and years ago, there was a there was a man by the name of Buster Boyle in South Dakota who had hundreds of head of horses. And my dad knew him, and so he would just let other people take the horses and use them, because it helped him with the feeding, whatever. So dad would pick out a team and some riding horses, and that's what we would use. Got bucked off every day I got on them. I was terrified of them, just terrified to this day I won't ride.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Understandably, though. Understandably.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Everybody else, they all rode, and I either walked or or took the team myself. I didn't, I didn't I didn't enjoy. And you know, a horse can sense whether you are the fear or and I I definitely feared them.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

Yeah, yeah. You mentioned ice skating, and I feel like even when I was younger, um, ice skating was more of a big thing around here. How was it a really big thing when you were growing up for us people to get together and go ice skating?

SPEAKER_01 34:39

It was a big thing, it really was a big thing, and beach had a big thing, you know. That skating rink and everything, they had the warming house and we all went during that time, you know. All of us did.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

If I close my eyes, I can smell that warming house.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

And another thing that was really big, which I enjoyed as much as anything, was roller skating. We had a lot of roller skating, and they used to up above the the Legion. Yes. Uh they had roller skating parties and stuff like that. They had roller skating. So roller skating and ice skating and biking, those were all things that uh scooters, road, uh electric scooters and all that kind of thing, those things have always interested me. And old, old cars. I always had an old car to drive. And Bob would say, Why do you why do you drive that old car when you have? Because I suppose that I liked old cars and I was brought up with old cars, and and so I always had an old car to drive around.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

It just brought back memories.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

And comfort sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Yeah, and it was comfort. But I can tell you about one old car that I bought. I was so proud of it. It was a it was an old Ford from uh Northrop's, from Randy Northrop. And I think that I paid, I didn't tell Bob I was buying it because we had a new car at home. It was, I think I paid him $200. That was with the motor and the and the radio in it. And that was the only thing I cared about. And so I was so proud of that, and I said to Jim Bob, my oldest son, Jim, um, I'll let you drive it to school. And he looked at me with this disgusted look and said, I wouldn't be caught dead in it, mother.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

So funny.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

But my younger son, he he was so proud too of the car, and you would see him come down the street, kids hanging out of every window. So that was the difference in in transportation.

SPEAKER_03 37:05

That's so funny. When you were growing up, any favorite subjects that you had in school?

SPEAKER_01 37:11

I was always into uh home economics because that baking and cooking has always been a passion for me.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

And um and nursing was definitely a passion for me. The caring of people um about them and and for them. I would I would say that was all that was always a passion for me. Um, I have always tried to put other people first. And in a nursing, um, that was something you could do. You had to do it, you know. Uh so those are things that I really had passions for.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

Any teachers that stand out that you had that you really enjoyed?

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Any what?

SPEAKER_03 38:08

Any teachers?

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Teachers?

SPEAKER_03 38:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Yes, I had, well, going to the academy, I had I had wonderful teachers. Um I can't tell you any one of them, except I can tell you a story about living in the dorm with the dorm mother. Okay. When you live in the dorm with a with 80 or 90 children, girls, we did pull tricks and we did have fun. And I loved every single minute of it. So the day that my girlfriend and I graduated, the house mother said, sent a note down and said, You two don't graduate today until you come down and see me. So we went down, not knowing what was going to happen. And she said, You two were the worst I have ever had in an academy, but I never enjoyed any two more than I did you two. So, like I said, we had a lot of fun, but it was not destructive.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

It was not destructive, and it was it was fun.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

You said during the summers you would come back and do a lot of working and whatnot to pay for the academy. Did you ever, did your family take any vacations?

SPEAKER_01 39:40

No. Only one that I can remember. Uh and that was as we were older. No, there were no vacations. Uh, there were no vacations when I was uh growing up, and there were no vacations when I was when I was in the academy those years. Um one year after I graduated and was going to college and I came home that summer, mother and Lou and Bonnie and I did drive out to Walla Walla, Washington, where I went to college and were there for a few days. That's that was all. There were no vacations.

SPEAKER_03 40:26

Yeah. But see, do you look back and that's not something that you like you say, you you sound like you enjoyed your childhood.

SPEAKER_01 40:36

I did.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

Yeah. Even though you didn't have vacations. You know, like it was that was okay. You don't look, it doesn't sound like you No, that's you're not bitter about it. That's the word I was looking for.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

The thing that I that most is most hard for me, and it has always been, is that we didn't have a father. He died so young. We didn't have either one of the grandfathers, they both died. And so we never had and Leroy was gone, so we never really had any men figures in our life. That was hard. That losing my father and my grandfathers were really hard. Uh really hard. Yeah. And that that I was I was the only one that was with my father when he died. And he was he was he had such a personality, and he he was so good to us kids.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

And it was that was the hardest thing for me, losing both grandparents' fathers, and and you just said you were the one that was with your dad when he passed away. Yes, yes, I was with my dad.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

So very sad how did it's not like you have a phone to call. I was working. What happened is that particular day, dad was moving something. Mother had gone out to the field to pick up something. I was in the house sweeping the floor, and my father came through and he said, I said, What's wrong, Dad? I don't feel good. And he went in and laid on the Davenport. So I ran in to see how he was, and he was gasping for air, and he's I said, Dad, what can I do? And he said, Sally, it's too late. And that was it. It was gone. Wow. So and you were twelve. I was nine or ten.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

So that that that was the that's the hardest thing. Seeing my mother struggle. Right after my father died, her brothers who live at Grassy Butte, the day of the funeral in Ellendale, they said they came to the house, as I remember, and they said, We're taking the kids with us. So-and-so's taking this one and that one, and this one and that one. And my mother looked at them and she said, You're not taking any of them. These are my kids and we will make it. And we did, and it was not easy. But we were together.

SPEAKER_03 43:37

And that is what most of or I should not say most, a lot of families did when one, when especially one of the parents died. It was, I'll take, you know, separating. I hear that a lot. So you did mention though that you went to college, you graduated high school, you went to college, you went for nursing, you got two years done in a year. Correct? You had your bachelor's, like your two-year degree.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

No, I was, I was, I was, I had to take the two years to get my bachelor to get my bachelor's and then went on into nursing.

SPEAKER_03 44:12

And then went on into nursing. Okay. And didn't finish. Correct? Okay. Looking back, who in your family influenced you the most while you were growing up?

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Oh, mom. And in what way? My mother just cared so much about us kids. And she gave so much and she had so little. She was she was just a wonderful human being. And I being the oldest girl, everything had to come through me. And so she leaned on me hard. And sometimes it was tough. And financially, I I I helped her all the years with all the kids. Um I worked in the beach as a nurse's aide for many years. I mean, for a couple of summers anyway. And then one day I one day I just walked out of there for a very for a reason that I'm not going to talk about. He said, Sally, I'll get you a job at Montana Dakota Utilities in Glendive. So I went immediately to Glendive and went to work for Montana Dakota Utilities as a biller. And that's where I was until I until I got married. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 46:24

So now one question before we talk about your husband. Do you remember what your ambitions were when you were younger? What you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_01 46:40

I I always wanted to to nurse. That or teach. Okay. One or the other.

SPEAKER_03 46:49

Now let's talk about your husband. Is that okay?

SPEAKER_01 46:51

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

Okay. Who did you end up marrying? I ended up marrying Bob Abernathy. And well, first, how did you how did you guys meet?

SPEAKER_01 47:04

At the hospital. Um, I was working in the hospital that summer, and Dr. Bush said, Sally, there's a patient that's got a back problem in some unit. Will you go down and put a hot heathermic job blankets on him and help him? So I went down, it was Bob. So, and he was there a couple of days, I suppose. I don't know. So I got to know him a little bit, you know. And the next thing I knew, he was at the door of the old apartment, the old apartment house, and asked me to go out. And I I I didn't. I had a date that night, and I said no. So that was fine. I went to the movie with my date. And he was at the movie with his friends too. And and then later on, then I had a date with him, and I I started to date him, you know. And uh eventually we were we were married.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

How long did you date before you got married? Um, we were together about two years. About two years. And how old were you when you got married?

SPEAKER_01 48:16

22.

SPEAKER_03 48:18

22. Okay. Um, anything, I don't want to say anything special about the wedding because the wedding itself is special. But anything in particular that you remember about the wedding? Did you have the big dance, the big reception?

SPEAKER_01 48:32

No. Um we decided to get married, just kind of out of the blue, I guess. No, we had dated a long time, and we had, and you know, the expense of getting of having a wedding was something that mom certainly couldn't afford. And and it wasn't at that time, it didn't seem so important to us. And so we got married in Wolf Point, Montana, and our friends had a small reception for us in the Sherman Hotel. And that was it. Then there were some receptions here in Beach when I when I finally came home. And I guess I was pretty simple. Very yeah, but it's very simple.

SPEAKER_03 49:21

Yeah. Did you have a wedding dress? Yes. You did. Did you make it? Did you buy it?

SPEAKER_01 49:26

No, no, it was just a short white wedding dress and wallah, trims, stuff.

SPEAKER_03 49:32

Nice. Okay, tell me about your husband. Tell me whatever you would like to share about your husband.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Well, um, to begin with, um, Bob was Bob was a rodeo rider. He he rode bareback horses and saddle bronks in the North long before I met him. Uh he won North Dakota championship two or three years in a row. And then we were we'd been married about two years, and he went to a rodeo in Denver, Colorado, and with the Teshers, and a horse bucked him off and he broke his neck there. Or or at least he injured his neck. And then they went right straight to California, Red Bluff, California, and there he did get his neck broke. He was in the hospital there with um ice tongs in his neck and 25 pounds of weight on his leg on his legs for six weeks. And um I I flew down, and Bob's dad flew down, and I was there then for six weeks with him, expecting a baby.

SPEAKER_03 51:13

Was that your first that you were expecting?

SPEAKER_01 51:14

My first child. And um one day when I came in, he moved his head up and the tongue flew out, and the doctor said, I'm sending you home. X-ray man came in and said, Sally, he could be dead just walking because it's out as bad as it was the night you brought him in here. But we can't do anything, we're sending you home. So we got a little puddle jumper and went. I got in LA or San Francisco and flew home. We were supposed to see a doctor there, but in Dick Bismarck, but he was not there. So eventually we ended up in um in Fargo, North Dakota, where where uh he ended up having surgery and whatever. So and that was about two years. It was it was pretty bad for about two years. Um he wasn't here when I when I had the baby, he was in the in the hospital. I left the baby in the beach hospital with the nurses for two weeks and went to to to Farrow just to be with Bob because he had surgery. Um and anyway, after that, it was it was about two years of neck braces and and casts and surgery and I don't know what all, but he healed up. He healed up pretty good. So one day he said uh that he was going with his friends to a rodeo to visit. To visit, I mean not to visit, but to to to watch. Okay, that was fine. He needed to get out. And so that night, before he got home, I was at the Old Dairy Queen, and a friend of ours by the name of Gene Peterson came from Glendive and he had been at the rodeo and he said to me, Sally, I cannot believe it, but he's writing better than he ever has. I said, Well, that's interesting. Because if he had a broken neck when he left, he's gonna have another one when he gets older. Because I was just dumbfound. Well, he won the world or won the state that year again, and then he won it another time. And then, because of Bob's surgery, neck surgery, we met Dr. Lee Christofferson, who at that time was an extremely wonderful neurologist. And so he had us start a ranch, work on a ranch in by Valley City. And so we were there, and that we were there for about three years or four years. And that is where Bob got involved in buying stock. But prior to that, he started Bob and his friends built the the arena that's in beach at the Golden Valley. He built, they built it, and he started the one of the very first in the United States rodeo schools. And so we had he had he and Dwayne Howard. Dwayne was also a champion, and so they had and where was he from, Duane? Minnewakan.

SPEAKER_03 54:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

Devil's Lake or Minnewaken. Anyway, they had saddle, bronck, and bareback riding. And I don't remember if they had the bulls or not, but anyway, we there were like 30 some kids from all over the United States that came here. And it helped all the businesses, and there was lots of write-ups about it. And one day the Minneapolis Tribune came out, and they wrote a big article. And I have the article at home that they wrote about this school and their pictures and whatever. They sent us to New York to be on To Tell the Truth. So Bob and I flew to New York and was on to tell the truth. Uh that there were that was all in the Beach paper, and um That's so cool. Yeah, it was cool. People don't know about any of this here on Beach, except the older people, you know. Um, so it was it, and we we got so many letters from the senators and the governors and whatever, having put Beach and North Dakota on the map.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

So after that, our business, I mean, Bob just started gaining more horses and more horses and whatever until we got into the business where we had maybe 200 head of horses and all the bulls and whatever. So we went the first time the national finals was was um on they had it in Oklahoma City. It was not in Las Vegas. And so we made maybe five or six years drive to Oklahoma City with horses and bulls. And it was there that Bob won all three events: two horses and one bull. Nobody has ever done that. The plaques are down in Madora in the Hall of Fame. And uh then we went to the national finals, which is the same, Oklahoma, but then they changed it to Las Vegas, and we went there 28 years and took stock every year, and they won many events, uh, our bareback horses. So the two one one was a bareback horse called Double Jeopardy, and one horse was Old Shep, was a saddlebronk, and then our bull was top hand that won, and they were were very, very famous. And then Bob himself was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

SPEAKER_03 57:29

Wow. I think I've actually heard Double Jeopardy.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

Yeah, so that's and so there's a big kiosk and uh a glass uh where all his trophies and whatever, and they're only they are only a very smidging of the of the trophies that we have had over the years. Um, we've been to about every state there is in the United States, and I was fortunate because Bob always felt he the we should be with him, and um, so we had like Baker and Terry and Sydney and Glendive and Forsyth and went to Cheyenne and Lewistown and Billings, and there wasn't any hardly place that we didn't take stock to.

SPEAKER_03 58:19

And so how many through all of this, you had had your first. How many kids did you end up having? Three, three, yeah. So what are their names? You said Jim Bob.

SPEAKER_01 58:31

Jim Bob is the oldest, okay. Jeffrey Scott is the second one, okay, and Jody Jean is the last one.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

So two boys and a girl. With you all going as a family to all these places with this business. Did they get into that too? Were they really into it, the kids?

SPEAKER_01 58:55

Jeff, uh well, and and and as we got into it, of course, these kids were getting older. They were older. So so they were in school, they were, they had jobs and and so they had to stay back eventually once they were. But Jeff got into the bulldogging.

SPEAKER_03 59:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:12

And he still holds a record in Valley City for three seconds and something, I think. And he bulldogged all over from Canada to wherever for oh, I think two or three years. And then he quit. He had they all both all both of the boys went to the un uh to uh Grant Forks to the university there. Okay. And Jim Bob is in investment centers uh of America, that's what he's an investor. And Jeff taught Bismarck High School, taught industrial arts for the Bismarck High School for um three or four years, and also was the football coach part-time for uh Century in Bismarck. And Jody has an education in education and lives in Williston, and her husband is uh they own several real estate companies.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:13

Okay. So as you guys are doing all how many years did you do that?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Well, we went to the national finals for 28 years. Yeah, that's what so you were doing all of that, or you both were, while you were then doing real estate, or I um yes, we had we had a lot of rodeos from the time I started real estate, but it was gradually getting, I mean, we were still going every year to the national finals. That was a that was and and we had we had the Valley City winner show for almost uh I don't know, 25, 30 years almost. And then we and we had all of these other ones, and then gradually Bob got to where he was he was not feeling well, and so gradually we let them they they went down, you know. We he started selling his stock. And um frequency wasn't as much then, you weren't going out and everything. Yeah, I mean you get older and you know, you know, and it was getting time to retire and and no, I did real estate, but were you when the kids were little and all of this was going on the rodeo and whatnot, did you work or did you stay at home with the kids during that time? Or were you always our busy our busy season was in the summer? So I worked at the school as a cook for about nine years, and I was an aide for both the high school and the grade school, and I and I also taught when I first came back from Valley City, I taught private kindergarten for several years.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Uh, but the summer was uh was you know, but there wasn't a there was not a sports event that the kids were not in. They were in basketball and softball and baseball and you name it, they were, but and we never missed Jim and Jeff got scholarships to go to the university on football. We did not miss one game in seven years. They were both on on uh the same team at the same time, and so we went to Grand Forks or Minnesota or South Dakota or Montana or wherever they went every for every game. Wow. And but but again, it was during the summertime, so the school was out, I didn't have to. Yeah, I wasn't there at cooking, yeah. And so the summers were left to us, and so then I could concentrate on, you know, and those were always on weekends. The rodeos basically were all weekends, so we had all the other time too, and we we never missed anything that the kids had.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:19

Um when they were really so did your kids ever go to daycare, or did you have like even before they were you were at home with them doing all that? And then once they were in school, you were kind of working after school, had the same schedule.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:31

Well, and when I had kindergarten, they were they were in kindergarten with me. Gotcha. I mean at least two of them were for a minute, you know, because then they were getting older. But no, I I never so at what point did you start doing real estate? I was asked to to join the real estate firm, Kakuski Land Company, in um nine or ten, I think, something like that. Ten or eleven or something, and then I sold for twenty-two years. And I was started out with uh Kakuski Land Company, and then they they closed, they quit, and uh the people that were working for uh Kakuski Land Company, we decided to start their own company, and so that's how uh that's how Home and Land got started. It was a brand new company. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:41

So what made you do real estate?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:45

I didn't ever, ever even think of real estate until Don Kakuski, who was a very close friend of Bob's and mine and his wife, he called me. He was in real estate himself, and he called me one day and he said, Sally, I want you to sell real estate for me. I said, What do I do? Well, just take the test. Uh that's not exactly how that works. I think Bruce could tell you that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:14

Yeah, yeah. But it seems to have been a good fit for you. You seem to have enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:22

I were doing it. I have got friends to this day from California to Florida to Oregon to every state and people who have stayed. When I say friends, I truly mean friends. When I was in the hospital a few weeks ago, one of those friends, who is a nurse, when I got sick that day, she got in her car and drove straight through to be here with me for a week. So amazing friends. I have amazing friends, but I also have amazing friends here in Beach, North Dakota. I love my friends. And a lot of them you are related to.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:15

Yeah. Which is super funny because even when I interviewed, say, um, like Buster or I interviewed Rella, and like, you know, we're related. I go all back, and I'm like, I had no idea. You know, I knew there may be some connection in a sense, but it's actually a little bit closer than I well, than I knew.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:37

The stockwells were very close to Bob to Bob on his side. Yeah. So I think it would make it uh Bob would be a second cousin, I think, to like Howard and Perry and Lenny.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:52

I think that I think, and I don't know, Rella knows more about that relationship, but that's how that's where it's at, you know. But they have become such very close friends because of the coffee times. Right up. I mean, and I just cherish their friendship because they are true friends. Yeah. And I feel that way about Beach. I love Beach and I love all the the I know a lot of people, of course, a lot of new people are moving in that I don't know. But Beach to me is a special place. It is. Yeah. It is.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:33

I mean, every town has its flaws for sure. Exactly. You're never gonna get burned. But it is, it is a special place. And I think there's some some of the most amazing people that I've ever met are from here. And so yeah. Um sorry, we'll get back after so other than real estate, once you started doing real estate, you didn't do any other, you didn't have any other careers, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:00

There was nothing outside of canning, cooking, cleaning, entertaining. And I probably did more entertaining than anybody in town. Uh, that was a passion for Bob and I both and gardening, and we did Bob was an excellent garden gardener, and had uh we had a tremendous gardening, and I did all we did all the canning and canning and we did everything like that. Yeah, we kept we kept busy.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:27

What I love hearing is you and him did a lot together.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:30

We did we did a great deal together. Yes, we did.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:35

When did he pass away? In 13. So he's been gone for 13 years. Yeah, he's been gone for 13 years. How has that been for you?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:45

It's been very, very hard. Yeah, very, very hard. I I I can't. That's something I can't.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:55

Yeah. Do you still live in the same place that you live together?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:58

That you know, Bob and I built the place that Craig and Oh, that's right. Okay, okay. And I and it's so big, I finally had to give that up. And that was extremely hard for me to give that up because it was a very special place. So then I have the house. We owned, I owned the lot, or Bob and I owned the lot next to it. And so then I I uh sold part of that to Craig. And uh I I had that house brought in. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:32

Yeah, quiet though. Very quiet.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:34

I'm sure when you're used to it's it's it's nice, it's nice. And our neighbors are wonderful that are down there.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:43

And now, where are all of your kids at? You said is Jeffrey still in Bismarck or Jeff lives here.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:49

Oh, he lives here, okay. And he's my to-go man, he helps me with everything, and uh he's getting to retire. He's been out in California a long time, uh, working for a big uh brick company that builds walls and things like that. He was a computer uh person for them. Jim Bob is in Denver, Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:19

He and his family, and um he's still working for an investment company. Uh and Jody lives in Welliston. Oh, yeah, that's right. She's married to Tate Simlock. And uh grandkids? Uh five grandkids? Yeah. So do you get to No, I have, yeah, five.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:48

Do you get to see them very often? Just last weekend. Just last weekend. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So that kind of helps, right? With like being able to not quite as lonely, not quite as quiet when they're all around.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:02

Yeah, no, I I my friends take such good care of me. The people around take such good care of me. I I feel totally and completely blessed because I am so fortunate.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:17

And there is you're really not alone.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:20

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:21

You really can't be alone in peace.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:22

And you know, you know, bringing up maybe wasn't the easiest thing to do, though a lot of families went through terrible times. It wasn't, it I wasn't the lone person on that. And I do not regret it outside of my father dying. I don't regret being brought up that way at all for the simple reason that I have compassion for other people who who are in the same position, who do not have as much. Um I am glad because I can understand it. And I want to understand it.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:08

And you having been through that, you realize those are not they're not lazy people. Many are just super hardworking. They're trying to make ends meet, doing the best that they can with what they've been given.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:20

Exactly. Exactly. No, I I have I I have a large feeling for people that of lesser. You know, I don't care whether they're white, black, or green. I don't care.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:33

It doesn't matter to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:34

Or how much money you make, or how much money they have or where they live or anything less. I'm not impressed with it.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:41

I do care about them though.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:43

Yeah. How did motherhood change you at all? Do you feel like motherhood changed you at all?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:53

I I don't know that it did. Of course, I did loved my kids with all my heart, you know, and the only thing I probably have ever done is probably done too more. I've probably I've been told that you did you have done too much for them. And maybe, and maybe that's the truth. But it I guess it's because you just care that much about your kids.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:23

How is being a grandma different than being a mom? Oh, it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:28

The littlest one is just uh six months old, and he's an absolute doll. Uh, but I there wasn't anything that I couldn't do with the kids. From trampoline to scooters to whatever. But that's the thing I most miss is the fact that I can't, I can't jump on the trampoline and I can't do drive the scooters with them, and I can't roller skate, do all that stuff that I did all the time they were growing up.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:02

Yeah. Is that do you feel like that's one of the hardest parts of getting older? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:08

Absolutely. Absolutely it is. And one of the other most that one of the toughest things for me is I loved entertaining, and we entertained a lot, whether it was big meals, whether it was just coffee and whatever. And any of the neighbors or my friends will tell you that. Is not having the room and not being able to entertain the people that I would like to at this age.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:53

That that's something that is and and getting out, I I do all right with that. Outside, I don't, I just am not able to do the gardening and anything. And and at my age now, I don't want to because I don't need it. But gardening in my yard was one of the biggest things as well, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:13

Yeah. Do you feel like that is part of the reason I don't have these questions on here? But is that you're 88, you said? Right? You're 88? Okay. You get around great. You seem to get around pretty good. Um, you still look great, you still have um mentally, you have all your memories, you're very sharp, sharp as attack. What do you feel like you did throughout your life to help that be the case? Was it always being social? Was it always just being active? Like what somebody my age, what advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:54

Sally? You know what? I I really do believe being social. I have in it, and it's so different in my family. Um, because Bonnie is wonderful as far as insurance. But as far as being social is concerned, she she doesn't care about getting out, though she has friends and whatever. Lou was here and there, and like I said, she she was a character. Uh Leroy hasn't been around so much, and then so they call me the social person. Yes, I really enjoy. I enjoy, I've always just enjoy your friends and enjoy your family and do whatever you can with them. And just enjoy people, no matter who they are. I think and and and remember, remember all the good times and take note of different things that down the road it won't be as easy to remember. I guess that's why it's fun to get together with people that are elderly like I am. And I and you know, I can't say the word, I really can't. I I've been terrible about that. I've been terrible about that, my age. But it's it's not easy to get old. Um, because with it becomes there there comes a lot of a lot of medical and a lot of hurt, and you see your your friends pass away a little bit going down, going down, and you're losing them. That's the hard part for of getting old. Again, I am so grateful, so grateful for, and I owe it all to God. I owe every bit of it to God. There isn't anybody else that has kept me this. He is my creator, and he is my physician. Yep, and he has taken care of me.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:19

Uh but I feel like the people, people who I've interviewed truly believe that. I think it is a special community. I think you are around a lot of people who believe the same thing, too. You know, like being around that God is their priority, that God, you know, it's they have so much to be thankful for, even if they don't have a lot. Um, and and the friendships and the community that there is around here, like you said, even just the coffee.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:48

I I could not live one day without God in my life. Not one day. He has he's been there through extremely tough times. He's been there in the good times, but he's been there when things have been mighty tough. And I've had some really tough things happen in my life since Bob's gone. Yeah. So that I would say that's one of the best things enjoy your friends and your family and put your faith and trust in God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:30

I'm gonna ask a couple questions here. I know you um you kind of answered that. What's an important life lesson that you've learned? I feel like this is you've answered that really well. Is there anything else that you would want to add to to that?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:45

No, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:48

I love that you said to really make sure the people around you, because that is super important. I think we think, you know, everybody says, well, exercise, eat right, you know, like we always hear that, but the connections that you make, the friendships, the is really important.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:04

They're really important to me. My friends and my friend, my friends, they're really important to me. They are very important to me. And and I I have such a big variety of friends, and I feel blessed about it. I really do. There isn't any one of them that that's any less to me than than the other one. I just I'm just blessed.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:34

What's a memory from childhood that you didn't realize was important until later in life?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:44

That was important.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:46

You know, something that you maybe took for granted, and now looking back, you're like, wow, if I could go back and like be in that moment, or you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:58

I probably wished that I could have spent more time with my dad and with my grandparents, the two grandpas that died. Um maybe I spent a lot of time with my mom and stuff, but I don't know. I guess I guess that's uh those are things that I wish that I could have. I guess it isn't much, but that's that's what I think of as there anything you wished you had done like in life that you never got around to doing.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:54

Oh god, there's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:59

I wished my family was extremely um talented in music. My dad played every instrument that was ever built with never a lesson. My sister Lou played the piano so it rocked off the floor. No lessons. So when I went to the academy, didn't have money for lessons for anything, but they asked me to sing in a girl's trio, and I did that for a while, traveled with that. I wished I'd have played the piano, like I should have taken the lessons, because Bonnie is very accomplished.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:50

Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:51

And Lou was outstanding, and Barb was all in piano. I didn't take it because I it was going to cost too much to take lessons. And I wished I'd have played uh um the guitar. I wished I'd taken lessons in the in the piano and and in the guitar, and I wished I'd have bought a motorcycle.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:19

Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:21

Now, why do you say that? Because I'm okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:23

I I I rode, I loved riding bike. I loved riding bike, and I had such good balance I could just ride without even touching the, and I would throw Jody on the bike in the front to the back or whatever, and I was on the bike as much as I could be. But I was also on scooters, but I wanted to graduate and get to a bigger one. And my brother rode the world on on motorcycles. He was everywhere, and he'd stop, and then every time he'd stop and bring a new one home, I knew I wanted one even worse. So, but the biggest thing is is uh is is the music end of it. I wished I'd I wished I would have done that the most. Did you get to do sports growing up when you were younger? Yes. I did I do sports? Yeah. Oh yes. Uh played basketball, roller skated, and then Beach had. We had five, four or five uh softball teams, women's teams, Golva, Sentinel Butte, Weeble, we all had, they all had girls. We played every summer softball.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:36

See, I remember being young, and when I was in, well, probably junior high and high school, we would form a softball team and we played against everybody, like young and old. Yeah, we had. And why did they not do that?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:47

We had tournaments. We had big tournaments, and we played well, they had tournaments for men too.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:53

I was just gonna say, and for men too. And for men too.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:55

So Bob played for men and I played for women. Okay, and you know, the kids, the Legion was ahead of uh the baseball for young guys, and Jim and Jeff both played, and we'd go out there every Tuesday or Thursday night, they'd have that place was full out there. Yeah, it none of that things none of those things happen anymore. No, and and it's too bad because those were fun things.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:22

For the whole community, yeah, for they were very fun. Well, do you have any unique talents that people would be surprised to hear about?

unknown 1:25:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:34

Do what? Do you have any unique talents? Well, I mean, you can. That's a you know, the canning and making, that's all a pretty cool talent. Anything else that you no, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:48

I I I think I um I think that I can I I I love to laugh. And I like they terrorize me at coffee, and I love every minute of it. But believe me, I can come back on it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:13

So you're very good at putting other people at ease. That's a very unique talent. Not a lot of people can do that. I think you know, you're very easy to talk to and to be relaxed around, which is probably why you were so successful with real estate and why those people became such good friends, too, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:35

They it it was I did that. It was a very, very good experience. A very good experience. And and you know, I'm so glad that your dad, he's he's such a nice human being. Your dad is, I think he's pretty good. He's so kind, he's so kind and everything, and I like him so, and he is doing so well with that. And it was an honor for me, even for him, to say, Sally, why don't you why don't you get your two your license back and come back into business with us? That would be great. And I wished it had been a lot sooner. We could have had our own business right here, right? Instead of, you know, having to drive. I drove to Biz Dickinson so much that it was but I like people.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:17

You're very that is, I know you probably don't think that in your mind that that's unique, but it is, it is real you know, and another thing, I mean, and I want to I want that to be clarified too, that if I have any talent with people it didn't come for me, but I still feel it was a higher up.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:46

And I I just want to live a good life for for God. Yeah. I I and and so trying to be to being kind and caring. about other people that's part of the beatitudes that's part of the part of everything if you could go back and give yourself a piece of advice what would it be I mean you've already dropped a lot of can we just my advice would be to tell your and this is so big for me to tell the people that you are with your family how much you love them tell them that often do not because there comes a time when you can't and there is a song that eventually I've only heard it once I got the tape and it hit home so hard the song says in essence love your family with all your heart let them know you love them because God only borrowed them to you and someday he will take them away and that is my thought and so true and we never know when that's gonna be but I don't but some but you don't want to wait until it's too late.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:48

You don't want to you don't ever be too busy or too involved that you can't just walk by somebody and say I love you I care about you whatever just let them know let them know and stand up for what's right yeah don't let anybody you know what's right do you have a favorite song of all time oh what do you have a favorite song of all time uh from old times doesn't matter any any time there can be well sometimes it's just a song that reminds you of something that takes you back to like a time when you were super happy or I just love music so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:35

It's hard to pick just one let's be honest it's hard to pick one right I I but if there is one I tell you what I I can't I don't think but um maybe one of the songs that will be sung for me and that I think about is is what have I ever done to deserve Chris Christopher or one of them something like that what have I ever done to deserve the life that you've given me or or the loving you that was it yeah what have I ever done to deserve loving you I guess that would have to be my favorite what's one thing you want people to remember about you what what's one thing that you would want people to remember about you what do you hope people remember you for caring about others I guess I guess that's basically caring caring about those about me or with others being truly interested in in others and their feelings and the hurts they go through and whatever I guess I I think so I think that's yeah Sally are there any other memories that you want to share things that are super important that maybe you would want your if somebody in your family listens back to this maybe it's a funny story maybe it's one that you told all the time but one of the things that um that is kind of unusual for me and maybe maybe they they just weren't around enough but my children and and and when I die that you will and if they have a memory night you will you will hear them give me a bad time about whatever and I can give it back and I love the laughing and the camaraderie that's and the thing that saddens me is that my kids unless they hear this or hear it from other people have no idea that I can be fun and Vera and them say when you're not here it's not the same you've got to be here because then we get some laughing and have some fun you know and that's that starts my day to be with those people but I honestly sometimes when I am with my kids well I Jeff is better.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:45

I can get giggles with him but sometimes when I see something which and they look at me like mom have you lost it but anyway I do enjoy I do enjoy the fun of the laughter I don't think we do enough of that I think we should see more humor yeah more humor in life you know my sister-in-law Ralla she and I are we are joined at the hip we are very very close now that's one that can laugh and so can I we can laugh at nothing or a lot and we will laugh till we're almost sick but we see we see the we see the humor in lots of things isn't she amazing her isn't she just amazing uh she and I are so close oh we are so we talk every day at least twice a day we go every place together yeah I I there is another blessing for me she is a blessing for me I think she's a blessing for a lot of people yeah she is a tremendously wonderful person yeah yes I'm learning that about a lot of people here even that I didn't know you know when I was living here and going to school you're in your own world you know when you're in high school and to be able to come back it's it's a really special community even more probably than when I was living here I appreciate it so much more maybe you know yeah so yeah yeah and I I think as you get older you are well you're so busy when you're young you're so busy with your families and with doing everything that these times scenes just sort of slide by as time goes on they become more uh important and you have more time to to to to take take note of it you know yes yep anything else that you want to share no I've you gotta write your book I oh so many people have well and you know what the truth of the matter is that I I did have other people because bringing up there were so many things that we could tell about but I did start a book and I've I don't know I've got I started from what I could remember and I've gotten to where I was 10 or 11 already start written in that book I don't know that I'll ever get it finished and but I I have been writing down but Bonnie and I because she has a good memory on it too we could write a book about the old nursing home Dr.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:44

Bush and the things that we experienced she was a receptionist for him for several years you know and so we could tell a lot of stories about about that that like I said we wouldn't dare mention a lot of names because there'd be too many people that and then one thing you probably don't know and that doesn't have to be in the in it your um your dad's um let's see no what was she she'd be she would have been an aunt oh yes that's Barbara Ann Barbara Ann so my great aunt you that's right you told me that you guys went to she worked for she worked for Dr. Bush yes and he wanted her to go to Walla Walla where I went and she was wanted to go into nursing because she worked at the hospital and she and I got to be very good friends and your her mother and father which would have been your great grandparents yeah took us out to Walla Wall and they treated me as though they were the grandparents I never had they were so so good to me and so and Barbara Ann and I were very close friends uh until we came back and then she she married that she got married you know and then we kind of lost track of and then I did see her down here for something you had down here one time at the City Hall.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:28

That was the last time I saw her and she's gone now isn't she yeah I think so yeah but I never knew my great grandparents so it's fun to hear some stories about Florence Florence and Hugh Hugh yeah yeah yeah they were wonderful for me I didn't they were so good to me and when it came to not not make gifts or anything like that but if Barbara Ann got it I got it and they took me on that was one of the vacations I had taken us out to Walla Walla Washington they took us all a long trip and I remember we going out and picking cherries out getting cherries and eating getting half sick she and I getting sick on cherries and then we room together uh and they would come out to see her but I was always in the group with them you know and we would go different places yeah those were good years people that make you feel like home like you're one of the family yeah yeah they were awfully good to me awesome well thank you Sally thanks for spending a little time with us today on the simple lives we live if these stories mean something to you one of the best ways to support the podcast is to follow share an episode with someone you love or leave a review. You can also support the show through the links in our website or social media bios. Until next time don't forget ordinary lives often hold the most extraordinary stories