Great Uncle Terry
My 11 year old great niece interviewed me and wrote this essay for a school assignment. We had a lot of fun with the interview. Seems like a perfect addition to the Pulltight Blog.
My Great Uncle Terry
By: Charlotta M
I chose to write this assignment about my Great Uncle Terry because his generation is a lot different than ours and I thought he would be a great person to talk to learn more about his generation.
Uncle Terry grew up on a farm in Paluxy, Texas, with all sorts of animals. It had chickens, pigs, sheep, cows, horses, and even angora goats! Uncle Terry especially liked the baby goats! He says they were adorable! He and his family even fed the baby goats in a little baby bottle full of milk! Living on a farm was a big responsibility though, so Uncle Terry did have to help around the farm too. He helped by gathering the eggs from the chickens (he had to be careful though, because sometimes there was a snake near, and he did not want to be bit!) Once Uncle Terry got older he milked the cows, fed them and harvested the hay in the summer. He sometimes got a allowance but not regularly, only if he did a really tough job, like building a fence.
Uncle Terry wasn’t alone with the chores he had his family too. Uncle Terry is the oldest of three, he has his younger sister Sheila, and his even younger sister Sharon, and they all grew up on their family farm. Uncle Terry was born in The Harris Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas on August 30th, 1950. His mom really loved the name Terry Dean so she decided to name Uncle Terry that and lots of people just call him Terry (his nickname) for short. If Uncle Terry would have to have a different name he might choose his fathers name Clinton, but he really likes his name Terry Dean.
speaking of names Uncle Terry also had a favorite horse he really found wonderful, so he and his family named the horse Tumbleweed!
Some of the other things about Uncle Terry are, when he was a kid his favorite things to do were fishing in a creek near their house by himself, because it was peaceful and quiet (and afterwards sometimes his family and him would cook the fish and eat them.) He also loved riding horses (he was even on a riding team in highschool, and they did parades and even rodeos). Uncle Terry also liked playing in natural spring water from a well and even swimming in the river nearby, (the first day he and his family swam in the river was always Easter.) Lastly, he enjoyed swimming in a blue hole in the river with his family and friends (the blue hole even had a rope swing.) My Great Uncle Terry still just loves fishing, and he even rides horses once in awhile, just like he did as a child!
My Uncle Terry also listened to music as a child. As a kid growing up My Great Uncle Terry’s favorite song was The Ballad of Davy Crockett, “King of the Wild Frontier.” When he was a teenager he listened to 1960 Rock & Roll and Country Western music! Uncle Terry didn’t play any instruments as a kid, but some of his family did. His Uncle played guitar and the fiddle (the fiddle was popular when Uncle Terry was growing up and so was the banjo.) Even Uncle Terry’s grandma played the piano and guitar and they liked it too.
My Great Uncle Terry started driving very very young. When he was just five or six he was steering their truck in the hayfield while his dad and uncle ran behind loading up the truck with hay, and when he was only twelve or thirteen he even drove himself to school without a permit or a licence (he got his licence when he was sixteen!)
Uncle Terry loves living in Texas but a lot has changed since he was little. There is a lot more people from other places living in Texas and even the place where he grew up (Paluxy, Texas) is a lot more influenced by gasoline. Some things didn’t change though, like Texas still has lots of state pride and glory! Also, there is still lots of small family farms (like where Uncle Terry grew up.) Clearly the attitude is still the same too the “mind your own business!”, attitude! So even though Texas has changed lots over the years it is still a wonderful place to live!
From living in Texas to Philadelphia really what is the difference?! Once Uncle Terry got older he moved to Philadelphia from Texas and really enjoyed it, but there are a lot of differences. Philly is more conservative than Uncle Terry expected and he never had a cheesesteak before living in Philly. Don't forget, Texas has more fried food and mexican than Philly. Also, there is not many Catholics in Texas but there is a bunch in Philly, and in Texas so many people walk around in cowboy boots but almost nobody does in Philadelphia!
My Great Uncle Terry had a lot of dreams for when he grows up! Did they come true? When Uncle Terry was younger, when he grew up, he wanted to be a Teacher, Rancher, and he especially liked science (so he wanted to do that at some point too.) Excitingly Uncle Terry did get to do some science, he was a teacher for a while, but he never chose to be a rancher. So happily his childhood dreams came true!!! (For the most part anyway!)
The world is like a dream, it changes often. The World has changed quite a bit since Great Uncle Terry was a kid in many ways. Some are good and some not so much. For starters, here is the not so great things. Kids don’t play as much outside anymore they’d rather watch TV instead! Things have changed a lot too though in good ways. For example, When Uncle Terry was very young he remembers lots of discrimination! He remembers seeing different water fountains and stalls for different races! Also, Back in the day cars used to always break down and you'd have to take them in for a tune up every year or even more often! Now they last for quite a while.
Well Uncle Terry has a lot more he could tell about his cool and awesome childhood and life, so if you want to learn more, he has a blog @http://pulltight.blogspot.com
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