tim terry baba

Terry, Barb and Tim Collection of Articles and Misc. Photos

Terry Smith, fraternity photo proof, Dec. 1971. click to enlarge.

Alpha Tau Omega (ATO), 1974. Terry Smith, upper right. Click to enlarge.

1972 Dakota Days Committee. Terry Smith (bottom right). Click to Enlarge.

Terry Smith, 1974.

News Articles (Click to enlarge)

Terry, Barbara and Tim

By order of birth the oldest Smith siblings are Terry, Tim and Barb. Their names rarely appeared in the Aberdeen American Statesman. Not so true for other siblings as their names appeared many times in this newspaper. Our younger sisters were active in sports. Consequently, their names appeared many times in this newspaper, but none for Barb. I do not recall women’s sports while attending Eureka High School.

After Title IX Educational Amendments Act of 1972 female sports became more prominent in South Dakota.

Barb played Cornet in Band, but I do not believe she was in High School Chorus. She was a Football and Basketball cheerleader and these activities took up much of her time. In fact, I do not recall seeing her that much in high school. Barb was the only sibling with her own room. I am not saying she did it, but at night it was easy enough to crawl out her window and climb down the nearby pine tree.

Terry played Trombone in High School Band and may have participated in High School Chorus. I played Clarinet, which Ann inherited later. Many of you might not be familiar with reed musical instruments like the clarinet. If the reed goes ‘bad’ you either get squeaks or no sounds from the instrument. I was pretty goofy as a kid. One day my reed went ‘bad’ and I could not get any sounds out of the clarinet. So for the whole hour I just hummed my music while pretending to play the clarinet! At the end of class my neighbor, Karen Libis, asked me if I heard the humming too. In reality I actually had some talent.

Tim, Terry and Steve participated in High School Cross Country. This was no mean feat for Terry considering he only had half his muscles in each leg. I participated in JV Basketball only as a Freshman. However, I was never a good athlete being much too small and scrawny through most of my High School years. If you look at any of our class pictures, Terry and I were always one of the 4 smallest kids in our class. I never started growing until I got to college.

In my Freshman year Coach Anderson made me lift weights before basketball season. He was determined to put a little meat on my bones. I was 5 foot tall and 94 pounds at the most with minimal muscles. So I started lifting weights. One time Wesley Stoecker added 100 pounds to the barbell which I lifted over my head. How, I do not know. As I brought the weights down to my chest I fell over with the barbell at chest level. I hit the floor and the weighted bar bounced several times off the floor. Fortunately I was so skinny that the barbell never touched my chest. Now that is skinny!

Between the 7^th & 8^th grade Terry and I were asked to join the Senior Class Band. We practiced all Summer and traveled to the Minnesota State Fair where we performed with the EHS marching band. All summer long we marched wearing cutoffs and t-shirts. In Minnesota we wore EHS band

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uniforms, not suited for the high temperature that day. Before we marched our Bandmaster, Gerald Cutshaw, gave us all salt tablets. At the end of our march I passed out from heat and dehydration.

For our marching efforts we all got free tickets to see a concert. This was the first ‘rock concert’ I had ever seen and the group performing that night was ‘Dianna Ross &The Supremes’. None of the older Smith siblings stayed in Band all four High School Years. The reason will be discussed at a later time since it involves Dad too.

As a Band member you did not have to pay to see Basketball or Football games.

Since I knew sports would not be a good option for me, I looked at other pursuits. That is how Terry and I got actively involved with debate. Although I found several news articles about our debate team, none mention either of our names. There is no “I” in “Debate”. It is a team effort. In my Senior year, Eureka took third place at one of the Debate tournaments in Aberdeen. Later, Eureka took first place at the Regional Debate Tournament in Pierre, and we went to the State Debate Tournament in Sioux Falls. I remember the Sioux Falls trip because I came down with the mumps right before the tournament. Dad and Mom could see I was upset and allowed me to go. Mom gave me makeup which I put on my rash, and I traveled to Sioux Falls. We were lousy.

In my Senior Year I ran for ‘Mayor’ in the mock elections held at School. That meant I had to debate Carlotta Grueble in the assembly room. Terry ran for ‘Chief of Police‘. We swept the elections with our environmental slogans and platform. ‘Stink Lake’ was our rallying cry. For some reason I recall going to Lake Hiddenwood State Park near Selby for our Senior outing. In my Senior or Junior Year I was a reporter for the Trojanite, but I never considered myself a good writer. Terry and I were also in the Junior and Senior Class plays.

What I mostly remember about my 12 years of Eureka schooling was being completely bored. One of our grade school teachers, Mrs. Stoltz, told Mom she thought Terry and I were retarded. We kept staring out of the windows all day. To me Eureka education was all about ‘selective education’. I only learned what I wanted to learn. To be fair I actually did learn something in Mrs. Stoltz’s class. To his day I can still sing the French songs she taught us.

I did find news articles regarding Terry, Tim and Barb‘s college graduation. There is an article about Tim and Terry’s high school graduation. Also, I added two articles about Barb’s husband, Mike Kenton. Mike was the first person to marry into our family. Since he managed to stick it out this long in our family, I consider him an honorary Smith. I first met Mike in Brookings, South Dakota. Barb and Mike traveled up from Vermillion where they were attending USD. I only talked with him for a few minutes at my apartment. Later my friends and I went down to Horatio’s, a local 3/2 beer joint for college students. I was standing by the bar and got knocked forward. I turned around and saw several people fighting on the floor but could not make out any faces. As I got closer a head popped up and a voice yelled out ‘Hi Tim”, and then the fight continued. It was Mike.