1 10 1 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/46614/archive/files/e22c927e4fb3fc381881bfeef68f17bc.mp3?Expires=1776902400&Signature=jw%7EHpsvDrXXFMWDrQyrJXi6wGmiULTyfM-BWvil%7E440f6AKK8%7EffDK1lbhWNDutoIRp1FwyAT40pn0zrGJNH7HyFkqKSrUiutVBc6hLne%7EmWFKg64bs6jZnTu1eovC91BENwc8o7sHqo7qcw4gfItRdxuVLhn00PuUnP8LdSwKdrtlqfavPS3Bn-LmOV5Mp114hbJdtB3CP82gruTravvtBIQucqVJYVMmscNiickXok-eGwC5b4rgPaVoIJb%7E8wzLfO%7EI37dDYEk-4PwY4i9DuoW3MTKbJCqD-%7EWjEeMXVUmTi6%7EjRjbkQo5YakxxsJByI-DrHJnPoWwjpJ8cOtXg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM a71bca0dd9a6a4adf40d7a87f4be1767 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/46614/archive/files/39c935bb1891753601dac9eff9ca5284.pdf?Expires=1776902400&Signature=UAizTgJE4nHyiEdge2SmMo8Yzm21H43pcGMUeml3snbxOwdSV1ILHcJQDQA-P%7E0LhpGAtNSoQMWnXPM5zwwrskxGQWR4OeyskLv8v5X6%7EFbHqUQZ9LH0R8i8wjv%7E1WMvJ-rUFNaqqg9OEKVMmBEHiChau0Gi4uEp1Uk8JmNgG0vSa-PuxS3sXtkP78XMZh8HbMszoCaJEibIw9DYJzEoQaMKOSr%7EhAHBfls57MFhvfEdSWEML42uE3jFtJehNoTR%7E8666qhXLGCO0kdz1XIJax9-nzuLFRBZRGv34IJEZ3GaBmtr025vpORGSIqsUDgRFas2xTxedHcwzlmVoCpCPw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 28a6d2ea7fc6772c48ac5ef53b130408 PDF Text Text KIM: I am Kim Morey, and I am recording an interview with Wes and Gladys Storm on March 6, 2015. Would you start for me, please? WES: Where would you like to start? I moved to Rapid City in 1950 from the eastern part of the state, and I finished 9th through 12th grade here at Rapid City High. I went on to Black Hills Teachers' College, got a teaching degree, and came back and came into the system in 1958. I started out in grade school P.E. at a couple of schools, Wilson and Tallent. I moved to South Middle School, or South Junior High then, in 1960 when it was built, opened that school and stayed there until 1969. In 1969 Stevens High School opened up, and I went to Central to teach P.E. at Central for, it must have been, four years. In 1974, girls' athletics came into being, and I was a junior high activities director for those schools. That lasted for a year, and then I went to Stevens High as the athletic director there from 1975 to 1980. I enjoyed it; it was a good school. In 1980 I moved to West and was principal at West until 1996. Then I got smart and retired. That's my career since I moved to Rapid City. I came here as a farm boy from a country school of about 90 students, K-12, to the high school here. We had 236 in our class, so it was quite a change for a while. It was a good change, but a different one, coming out west and just a different view. KIM: You mentioned that the girls' athletics started in 1974? WES: They were sanctioned by the state then. It was really Title IX that said you will have girls' sports, and you will have equivalent to what boys have or at least to start. So the first few years, we had girls' volleyball, basketball, and track, and they added gymnastics, or maybe they started gymnastics. They only had four, at least, and then they went with cross-country and just kept adding on there, but at least it was a start to where girls had a (inaudible). Before that they had girls' basketball and volleyball, but it was called GAA, Girls' Athletic Association. After Title IX came in, the feds said you will have girls' sports, girls' athletics, on an equal basis so that kind of started that. KIM: So there were athletics, but they were separate. WES: More of the intermural type. They might go out of town for a match or have a match in town, but not like we do now where you travel to different places and have competitions, leagues and standings. Before it was more of a play day, just a recreational deal, and all of a sudden the feds say you start having competitive teams, and you just go on from there. KIM: I'll have more questions for you, but, Gladys, you're a native of this town. GLADYS: I am a native of this area. I was born in a home on West Boulevard where there were midwives, never in a hospital. The Donner(?) Ranch, out north of Rapid City on Elk Creek near Black Hawk. I went to a country school and also came to Rapid City High School. I can't remember how many were in our class, but there were, I think, over 300, quite a switch coming from a country school to a high school. I had a great four years at Rapid City High School, and then I went on to Black Hills. At that time, you could actually teach on a one-year certificate, so I went to Black Hills, got my first year certificate, and then stayed and got my two-year certificate. Wes and I were married. We were both going to teach in the Rapid City Public Schools, except Rapid City Public Schools would not hire a husband and a wife. Wes was hired in the Rapid City Schools in 1958, and I taught at Black Hawk, which is the school I went to, because it was a county school. The other thing about the Rapid City Schools in 1958 was they paid men $500 more a year, just for being a male. That didn’t last too many years, and the women changed that. Then I went from Black Hawk to Cleghorn, which was also a county school. I stayed there for five years. Wes went back to �Brookings and got his master's. I taught there, and when I came back then Rapid City Public Schools would hire both a husband and a wife. And I think one thing that you need to mention is that, I can't remember what year it was, but you worked full-time for the Rapid City Schools and part-time for Rapid City. It was a wonderful joint job. KIM: Was it actually parks and recreation? GLADYS: Yes. WES: I ran parks and recreation from 1969 to 1974. I would teach until 1:00 and then go work at the rec office, which worked out pretty good, because you had control of the school gyms, and you could open it up to do the activity for the kids for playgrounds. Everything worked out quite well. If you live here, as you know, from October 30 until March 30, you have to play indoors. It's cold, and you have to find gyms which seemed to work out pretty good. KIM: How long did that last? When you left in 1974, was that the end of that relationship? WES: Yes, they hired a full-time recreation director who came in at 8:00 and stayed until 5:00. It kept on going, but it had never been quite as open as we had before. They all want gym space, and it's a tight thing to find and kind of control from there. KIM: I know South and West...I'm not sure about North. WES: Both have annexes; both have big gyms. KIM: That's intended to kind of fill that need? WES: The City built them, and the school maintains and runs them. The school has authority over those school gymnasiums from 6:00 in the morning until 6:00 at night. Then the City can take control, so the City runs women's volleyball, men's volleyball, and men’s basketball leagues in the gyms at night. Most of them now are run from 6:00 until midnight or 11:00. The gyms are a needed space, and it works out pretty well. GLADYS: And I can tell you how they came about. Wes had read about community gyms in California. WES: One would build them, and one would pay the bill for them. GLADYS: So we were in California on a trip, and we came to a sign that said "Such and such a town fifty miles away." Wes said, "We're going to drive over there." I said, "Why are we driving over there? That's fifty miles away." "Well, I read in the parks and recreation magazine that this town had built community gyms, and they were very successful. So I want to go see how they work." KIM: That was a part of your time on the school board? WES: Yes. KIM: Have you been involved in government other than the school board? �WES: No, not really. I had two terms from 1999 to 2002, and then we took a cruise in 2006 and, at that time, I didn't like what the school board was doing. I said on the cruise that I didn't like it, and I complained. We got home in the fall, or at Christmas time, and she said you either be quiet or run for the board. So I went back on the board from 2007 to 2010. That's my last run at it. It's good community involvement. I wish it would go back to a five-member board. Now it's a seven-member board, and they're elected by seven areas of the city. I don't perceive that as being good, because each person tried to work for their area for a new school, a new playground or more benefits. I think when you have five members elected across the city that didn't have or didn't own a part of the city, it was more give or take. I think with time it gets to be east versus west or north versus south, and I don't think that's the best for our school district. They've talked about going back to it, but nobody yet has called for a vote. I think it's something they should think about. I should go back and say that in 1961, 1962 and 1963, I coached legion ball here in town. I worked with city rec when I was in college, and I just kind of followed through that. It was good to have young kids when you're at a time in your life when you can spend the time and do it. When you work with different groups, whether it is legion ball or hockey or youth basketball, it does take time to do it. KIM: Did you precede Dave Ploof then? Was that Post 22? WES: It's BP. Before Ploof. There was one person in between us, Sam Collins. He took it in 1964. I went to graduate school, was gone, and Sam took it for a year. His son, Dave Collins, played for California, played for the Yankees. It was one of those deals. GLADYS: And Dave was your bat boy. WES: And Dave was my bat boy back in the time. So when I came back in 1965, I chose not to go back to it. GLADYS: But also, you took, or your team took, the first state championship in 1961 and 1962 and 1963, and it was a tough decision not to go back to coaching it. WES: It was also a good one. I mean, it's a good program, and Rapid has been very good at it. Ploof had a long run for 35 years and did a tremendous job. The new kid we have now, Mitch Messer, is young, he's ready to go, he traveled with the team, and he had the indoor play. If you like baseball, it's very, very good. GLADYS: Also in 1966 when we came back, we had our son, Shad, and you didn't want to spend all that time on baseball. WES: That's right. It kind of changes your perspective a little bit when you come back from grad school, if you wanted to go on and progress in the school; you kind of had to work toward a master's on that and work into administration. It was really kind of hard to do both of them, so I chose to go the other route, and it's been good ever since. KIM: Gladys, did you mention what you taught? GLADYS: No, I didn't. I have taught everything from preschool, all elementary grades, and I retired as a sixth-grade science teacher from Southwest Middle School. I was fortunate enough to open �Southwest when they opened the new school there and had the middle-school concept, which was very good. KIM: Did you have a favorite? GLADYS: No, I didn't. I think kids are great, whatever age they are. I always changed either grade level or schools every five years, because it made me a better teacher. So I've taught in several of the schools in town. KIM: I've been in town forty years or so, myself, but it didn't take me long to learn that there's eastern South Dakota and western South Dakota. It doesn't take too long in Rapid City, either, to learn that there are two sides to the gap. Is that something, in your perspective, that's been that way for... GLADYS: You know, I don't remember it in high school. I don't remember the city being split like north-south, east-west. I just remember it totally being Rapid City, and it was very well united. Now it could be because we only had one high school. That could be part of it, I don't know. WES: Now we have four with Christian, St. Thomas More, Stevens and Central. That does split up some of the city. We have five middle schools, and that splits up, too. You have kids from two schools going to Stevens and three going to Central. Then you have St. Thomas More which seems to gather kids from anyplace around and across the city. Rapid City Christian now has grown from a small school to maybe 200 kids. It's still small, but it grew from 40-50 kids 9-12 to 200, which is a big leap for them. GLADYS: I also probably have a different perspective on the high school than Wes, because I lived out in the country, and I would come to school in the morning, time to start, and I would leave and go home after school. I didn't participate in a lot of the extra things at all because of that, and I know Wes participated in a lot of the things, so he has a different perspective on it than I do. KIM: Did they have a bus service for you? GLADYS: No. We carpooled with neighbors around us out there. KIM: And how far did people come to come in to Rapid? GLADYS: It would have been north of what is Black Hawk now, north of Black Hawk. Of course, there weren't very many houses in Black Hawk at that time, because Piedmont had its own high school. My sister graduated from Piedmont High School. She's two years younger than I am. WES: And the base didn't have a high school, because the kids from the base came in. I think Ellsworth opened up a high school in 1965, 1966, maybe, which kind of changes. Their kids went out there. They went to their own school. The base was five times bigger then, so you had more kids that you could draw in from all across the states. That really made it different. KIM: How was St. Thomas More? Is that relatively a new school, I guess, then? Has it just grown a lot at some point? �WES: It used to be called Rapid City Cathedral, and they were on Fifth Street across from Central in that gymnasium there. They had the school behind there. In 1972, when Coolidge burned, we had some of our high school classes in back of the Catholic Church and used some of the spare rooms there for a year or two until they had Stevens High. Rapid City Cathedral were still going, let's see, Dutton played for Rapid City High School, or he went to St. Thomas More John Dutton did, or he went to Rapid City Cathedral, and he transferred to Rapid City Central High in about 1958 or 1959, because he was an all-state basketball and all-state football player. He went on to college at Nebraska and was an all-American. He signed with the Cowboys and played there for about eleven or twelve years. Dutton was the last big athlete to come from (inaudible), and it had to be about 1961 or 1962 that St. Thomas More became a school of their own across from the hospital now. KIM: They've definitely become quite the powerhouse in athletics in their division. WES: Yes, I think you're right on that. I think they have a chance to move around and see a lot of athletes in the city that could be enticed to come to their school. In fact, a couple of their starters this year…one came from Custer and one came from Vale. The St. Thomas More girls have been better as far as athletic teams. The St. Thomas More football team has been stronger in the last five or six years. Their basketball team has been very respectable. The girls have been very good the last few years. They look at a lot of our schools at the 7th, 8th and 9th grade levels. Sometimes it's more enticing for a student to go from East Middle School to a smaller school to play right away than go to Central where's there's 2000 kids instead of 400, as far as their chance to play. That's smart on their part, really. GLADYS: When did St. Martin's come into being? WES: The grade school? GLADYS: No, they also had a high school out there a long time ago. WES: That had to be right after Cathedral. GLADYS: That's what I thought. I don't know how long they had that. WES: Now their grade school is out there. I think 1-6, I believe, because middle school or junior high is across from the hospital now. GLADYS: You might want to talk a little bit about Central and Stevens when they split, because they had half-day school. WES: Stevens opened in September of 1970, and they had Central High students go to Central High from 7:00-12:00. At 12:30 Stevens’s kids came in and went from 12:30 to 5:30, until they had the school open. That lasted for almost a year, the transition time. That was a tough time, because they had the new school out west, and they didn't know how to split the schools up. They gave kids a choice the first few years to go. Skyline Drive is kind of the separation point for kids to go, but with the open enrollment, if you want to switch schools, you can. It's not supposed to be for athletics, but you can do it for any reason. If they have a class they want to go to, they can go there. It works out. It's a little different. Central is about 1900; Stevens is about 1500, as far as student body-wise. GLADYS: And now the third public high school is our old Rapid City High School. �WES: An alternative school with about 400 kids there, 9-12. GLADYS: And it has been redone, and I'm very thankful that they have kept as much of the originality of it as they have. WES: Right, the city and school went together and did that, the last three years. KIM: Was it Coolidge and Washington, or just Coolidge that burned? WES: Yes. Washington was a grade school right next to it, and that burned enough to where they had closed it down. KIM: And that's right behind where Rapid City High School is? WES: That fire started and burned that down. KIM: Were you in school then? WES: Yes, I was teaching at Central at the time. KIM: When did that happen? Was it in the evening or overnight, or was that during school hours? WES: It burned at night. I think it was in October. I think that's when it was. I know it was partly in the wintertime, because it was cold. They closed school for at least a week or so to kind of get things straightened out. Then Cathedral had room across the street, and they moved classes there. They had classes in the auditorium and in the gym. Then they built that extra gym on the east side of the school, so they could use the old gym for classes for a year or two. KIM: Do you recall the year? WES: 1972, I'm pretty sure. GLADYS: I don't think so. I thought it was earlier than that. Another thing. I wasn't teaching in the public schools then, because I couldn't. It was the teachers' strike. It was the first teachers' strike ever in South Dakota, probably the only one ever. WES: Right. They had that in 1972. GLADYS: I don't know the year. WES: I'll have to look at that. I don't know. 1969, maybe? GLADYS: Yes, it was in the sixties, I'm sure. WES: 1969. That was it. We went out on strike and had our meetings at the old City Auditorium. Chuck Lindley (?) was the superintendent then. He's still back in town now; he was here. I don't know if you know Chuck or not? �KIM: I served on the Salvation Army Board with him for a while. GLADYS: He was the superintendent, I remember, when that strike went on. That was really a hard time for everybody in Rapid City, for Rapid City itself, not only education. KIM: Was there a disruption of the schedule then? WES: Yeah, they didn't have school for, I really can't think, how long. GLADYS: It was a short time that they didn't have school. WES: I'd say seven to eight days. Then the court had a court order saying you go back to school, or you'll be placed in jail, so everyone went back to school. But that was kind of a long, that was a tough year for students, parents, teachers, everybody. GLADYS: And you mentioned the old City Auditorium. That is where you had your office. WES: For City recreation, and that's where the Dahl Fine Arts Center is now. It was a real prize building at the time, a very nice old, old building, but very usable. GLADYS: And played intermural basketball. WES: Played intermural basketball, city league basketball. Yeah, they had boxing tournaments, concerts. It was just a small auditorium. KIM: And then it was taken down for the... WES: Dahl the 9th edition? So it's the Journey, all of those. Then the Dahl bought the gas company's building right next door, so they have the whole block or half a block, I guess I'd say. GLADYS: And you remember downtown Rapid City much better than I because, like I said, I came to school and went home. KIM: When did you move into Rapid, Gladys? GLADYS: It was in 1959, because our first year I taught at Black Hawk, and we lived out there. So we moved into Rapid City in 1959. WES: On West Chicago and that was just where it stopped. There just wasn't much past West Chicago at the time. The city has probably grown more east with Rapid Valley and south. There hasn't been much north growth. There is some across from the mall now, way up there. Of course, west of town Red Rocks is kind of a place by itself. GLADYS: What I remember about downtown Rapid City is the Alex Johnson. To me the Alex Johnson has always been there, and it has, in my lifetime. And the Elks Theatre. WES: Yeah, the Elks Theatre. There were a couple more...the State Theatre and the Rex Theatre. GLADYS: And the restaurant I'm trying to think of that was downtown? �WES: Bright Spot? GLADYS: Yes, the Bright Spot Cafe. WES: Houk's (?) Sporting Goods used to be right uptown. GLADYS: And Penney's, of course, and Sear's. WES: All the major ones were uptown then. I think that when I moved here, in 1950, there were about 23 or 24 thousand in the city. Signal Heights wasn't there yet. It was a dream at the time. Bought that and built it up, all duplexes. This was new to the city. The hospital was built. It used to be Bennett Clarkson, and then they went to the new hospital. GLADYS: First it was just St. John's. St. John's Hospital, and then Clarkson was built. WES: St. John's Hospital was on Ninth Street, and then Clarkson was built out west. That was in the sixties, and then the new one. And you moved here, Kim, when? KIM: 1978. WES: 1978. Right after the flood, a couple of years. Yeah, the house next door is a flood house. GLADYS: There were no houses here. KIM: It was moved up here? When I bought the house that I live in...I'll just mention for the people who listen to this that we're conducting the interview in Les and Gladys' house on Morningview Drive, and I live across the street. My next-door neighbors, Marty and June, were owners of the house next to the one that I purchased. If I recall correctly, Marty told me that he was looking at the two foundations that were in the ground, just put in, and he was choosing which house he would live in. Then the flood came. WES: Right. And then it kind of took off around the corner. But that house was moved in, because we built in 1982. GLADYS: Of course, as we sit here, we can see Meadowbrook Golf Course which was covered with homes. We remember those well. One of your very good friends, the Stoltz (?) family? Their house that we could almost see from here was totally gone. WES: Yeah, it just moved down about a block. It just floated on down. That was a tough, tough night. There was an international band concert here. There were bands from foreign countries that had a parade and all that kind of stuff. They were supposed to have a concert at Stevens High. They did it that night, but they called it short, because it rained so much. They had flood warnings, and the mayor was out playing golf with us. They called him in about 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, and said there could be flooding, and then just kept going. GLADYS: We were at the Elks with the mayor and his family, swimming, and I will never forget as many people who have said this. If we looked toward the Hills, you have never seen such horrible �looking clouds, ever in your life, as we saw. It started to rain, so we decided to go to the Y to finish our swim. WES: Yeah, about 6:30 or 7:00. GLADYS: We were at the Y swimming, and a police officer came in and said words to Mayor Barnett that I’ll never forget. "It appears there's going to be minor flooding. You need to go to the office." We had four cars down there. His wife took their children and went home. You were going to stop at McDonald's and get supper for us. I took our two children and went home down Omaha. By the time I was on Omaha, the water was hitting the bottom of the car. The red light on the car came on. I pulled into the filling station, which the next morning was not there, and the guy said to me, "Just get out of here as fast as you can. Don't worry about the car." I will never forget. I often wondered what happened to him, because the next day the filling station was totally gone. And he always wondered, because I had two little children with us, and he said he always wondered what happened to you. That fall we saw each other out at the Central States Fair, and he was so relieved that we had made it home, and I was relieved, of course, that he had gotten out of there. WES: And the Red Cross made their headquarters at the City Auditorium. The rec office was there, so we opened that. KIM: You mentioned swimming at the Y. Was that located where it is now? GLADYS: Yes. KIM: That must have received some...it might have been high water or something? GLADYS: I don't think it received anything. WES: I think Omaha Street got the brunt of it. GLADYS: And, of course, the Boys' Club was across the street from that filling station that I stopped at. And it was totally damaged. WES: All the trailer houses and small homes on the north side of Omaha all went. GLADYS: And I'll never forget this. Wes got the phone call about 3:00 in the morning, because he was city recreation director from the mayor's office, saying we are calling in all city employees to work. Then you came home that morning about 8:00 and told us what the devastation was. We were on West Chicago Street...we were on Wentworth Drive and did not see it. We had a little water, but no damage. WES: You just come over the hill and see the golf course and houses out on it. I mean, the dam was gone. The dam's about built now. It's getting close. They got another two months to get it done, I think. GLADYS: And I had a brother that lived up at Nemo. Of course, we didn't have cell phones at that time. He said, "I could have called Rapid City and called you to tell you what was going to happen.” His rain gauge went over 19 inches of rain. �WES: And it all came down the canyon. That was quite a change for the city. It went from a ninehole golf course to an eighteen-hole golf course. The bike path, the trail ways, the whole good thing going down. It really changed physically for Rapid City. GLADYS: And the berms, many of the berms on the golf course that we can see from here, are the foundations of homes. They just covered them with dirt. WES: To save moving all the cement. KIM: So there was a nine-hole golf course. Did it kind of grow out all around it, or was the course mostly more to the west or the east? WES: More to the east. If you drive down there now, behind the grade school where their old clubhouse is right now? That's where the new golf course office is for their equipment and that. I would say the first six, seven holes are all on the old part of the course. The new is from about here west. Most of the homes there were all gone. GLADYS: And wasn't the clubhouse the Messenger house? And that was near the bridge. WES: Yeah, until they took it down and built the new clubhouse. KIM: Gladys mentioned that you were called in about 3:00 in the morning. Had the water pretty much been through town by then? WES: Yeah, in fact, it was starting to go by the time we got down. The first thing I saw was at about 4:30, going over the West Junior High Hill. You could see the flood there. You could see where it had gone through, and it was hard to believe. GLADYS: And then you saw the houses that were moved. WES: It just blew your mind. After the Rapid City flood, the national government started the Flood Recovery Act. Van Lindquist was head of it in Rapid City for a long time, and they started that. Then they came in and gave loans. They gave 1 percent loans to people to build again. GLADYS: That was a life saver. WES: Right. For city rec, for the clubhouse and shop, they gave us fifty kids. We put them in groups of ten. We hired an adult with them. They had to hand-rake the golf course to get stuff off. Then we went up Dark Canyon and started cleaning out homes, or what was left of homes. They would just take ten kids with an adult and say to clean this house, just rake it, and clean it. GLADYS: They did a lot of work on parks. WES: Right. They went up Dark Canyon and up Cleghorn Canyon. GLADYS: What I will never forget the morning after the flood was the eeriness. The fog or the clouds, whatever you wanted to call it, and the smell. I will never, ever forget that. You knew that it was the smell of death. It was awful. �WES: They didn't find some of the bodies until after five or six weeks, at least, that had gone down Rapid Creek. That was tough. GLADYS: We lost a renter and a little baby. That was such a sad thing. WES: He was military. GLADYS: Yes. And the day before, we had lots of military people that would rent from us, because they would pass the word. We always, if they got a renter for us, we would give them a little monetary gift. The day of the flood, we were over, because these kids were leaving. Our rentals were not hurt at all, but they heard about this flood coming. They got in their car, tried to drive down Baken Park. WES: Where McDonald's is now and the bridge. GLADYS: The water hit as they were there and washed the lady and the baby away. WES: He spent the night on top of a garage. GLADYS: The old Cadillac garage. WES: Yeah, Black Hills Cadillac garage where the bank is now, where Pioneer Bank is. There was a big old garage there, and he spent the night there. GLADYS: With many other people on the roof of the garage that night, as that happened to many people. KIM: A lot of tragedies. One of the things that strikes me as I talk to more people about this is there are a number of people that I've talked to that live just a couple block away from where the severe damage happened and didn't know anything had happened until they woke up the next morning. WES: It was really west Rapid and Omaha Street. GLADYS: And then east where it hit down there because of all the trailers. I will say that Rapid City really pulled together after that. It came together just unbelievable. KIM: How long after the flood was Meadowbrook reopened as it is now, as the eighteen-hole course? WES: I think it was spring of 1974. It took about two years. KIM: Just about the time that you were just finishing your furnace (?). WES: Right, because the house where the clubhouse is now was Brocklesby's house, the guy that owned Reptile Gardens. The city had bought that house from him, and that was my rec office at the time. They had moved from the City Auditorium to the rec office. They had that, and they didn't �build a new clubhouse here until ten years ago. It was a big home, a very big home, and the city just took it over. They have a restaurant down below and the pro shop, a little eating place up on top. That served from 1975 to 2000, until whenever they built the clubhouse here. KIM: Do you have any particular recollections of the start of the school year of 1972-1973? That would have been the fall after... GLADYS: Yes, the fall after the flood, right. KIM: I guess the real question is: was there enough time between June and September... WES: There wasn't a school that was damaged that badly. GLADYS: Meadowbrook had some water damage, but it was repaired in time. We were at Pinedale, and that had no damage. I remember that one night during the summer, we were at the Playhouse with the Barnett's, and Dr. Lindley was there, too. I remember Barnett and Lindley were talking, saying, "Boy, you have a tough job." The discussion was who was going to have the toughest job, really, when fall came, the mayor or the superintendent of schools. For both of them, that was a huge task. I will say that I think Mayor Barnett was in the right place at the right time, because he was young, and he had that energy that you needed. He had the wonderful Leonard Swanson, the public works director, who was also an amazing... WES: Leonard Swanson. He got the city back going. He was a tough taskmaster, but a good one and a smart one. He was very good, and I know I was working city rec. KIM: When you had that shared position, the part-time parks and rec. I know parks and recreation is responsible for the city cemeteries, too. WES: Cemeteries was one of the divisions under the parks and rec department. It was Lon Von Dusen. That's when they went across the road and started the new cemetery. GLADYS: That was another area. The morticians in Rapid City came together, and they brought in, they had to bring in so many, but there was no competition. I mean, they just came in and worked for the betterment of Rapid City and for the people. WES: Behrens’, Osheim's, the whole crew. I was trying to think of major changes in the city. The cement plant is still there; it was going well then. It's different now, because it was sold. It's a Mexican firm that owns it. That kind of changed a lot of things there. The two malls are sure different. They built the one north of Rapid, you know, and now they're going north and east. Baken Park has really gone down from what it used to be when you were here. The Hagerty's store and all those. There are six stores that are vacant. We kind of feel that they should just level it and build a new mall. It's the perfect spot for it. Before that mall was built, it was a park that had campsites and little cabins to stay in. There was a dance pavilion there. It was quite the mecca in the city, really. It was really a neat place. They they took that all out. GLADYS: The biggest change for downtown was when the mall was built. �WES: The major stores moved out there. KIM: I arrived here with a new baby in 1978, and we got baby furniture in the Sears downtown. Then we needed to get some more. We got here in the last few months of Sears being downtown. I think Penney's had moved already. GLADYS: And then Donaldson's was on the corner. Donaldson's Department Store. WES: That was a big department store on the corner. GLADYS: I can't remember when that closed. WES: That was the hub... KIM: Which corner was it that Donaldson's was on? WES: Seventh and St. Joe. GLADYS: It's the Presidents' Pawn Shop now. WES: It took in about four buildings, and it was two or three stories. That was THE store when we moved here in 1950. The bus used to stop right next to it. That was the biggest change for downtown when that mall opened. It was such a big place than what you had downtown. KIM: I think there's been a wonderful renaissance in the time I've been here. I do recall going downtown on a Friday evening and feeling like I'd gone into an abandoned city or something. WES: Yes, the city has done a very good job. They really have. As you know, all the bigger eating places are out toward the mall, that area. GLADYS: Part of it is because of the base. KIM: How much influence was there of the base being there in the 50's and 60's? `` WES: Huge. It's still big, but not like it was in the 50's, 60's and 70's. The base was the big stabilizer. It was all the military people. I can still recall all the car dealers really welcomed them, because there were so many young, single guys. It was car city for them. GLADYS: And when the base first opened up, and I can't tell you what year it was. WES: 1949. GLADYS: I do remember my father was out there, and they needed people to come to work out there. So my father and another man that lived not too far from us worked in the fire department for a couple years, because they needed people. Everybody went to work for the war or after the war. �WES: Yeah, the base was still a huge factor, but not like it was. It's smaller and more efficient; there are a lot fewer people. Bigger planes, all that. KIM: I was told that at the time I arrived here, Ellsworth Air Force Base was the third largest city in South Dakota. GLADYS: I think that is correct. WES: Yeah, it probably was because you'd go to Sioux Falls, you'd go to Rapid, and even then, Aberdeen or Huron or Watertown or Mitchell was 12,000, 10,000. You know, somewhere in there. Yeah, that was true. GLADYS: There was very good repoire between Ellsworth and Rapid City at that time. I remember at holidays that they would broadcast on the radio. Would you have room at your dinner table to take several? And Rapid City did. I remember we did. WES: But there are many more... GLADYS: Yeah, but they were young then. There weren't so many families. There were single people then. WES: Trying to think of what else in Rapid City. Skyline Drive has always been a big point in the city. Now it's both good and bad. It kind of split the city to a certain degree. I think the two schools have split the city, but there is friendly competition between the schools. Tonight the Central-Stevens playoff game is at 7:00, and I would guess they'll draw 4,000 there tonight. They've both won one. It'll be a big game. The team who wins goes to state automatically, so it's been good for the city there. GLADYS: And we remember well when the present Civic Center that we have was proposed, and the fight that we had to pass that. WES: They actually went to Boise, Idaho, and looked at the football stadium that they built in Boise. If you recall now, they have an indoor football field with the orange and blue carpet. They flew people from our Civic Center board out there to look at it, because they proposed putting that in to start with which would be a bigger arena. This was built for a basketball arena to get the state basketball tournament out here from Sioux Falls, because we didn't have any place at all. (Inaudible) always had the "B" tournament and the "A" tournament. We had nothing out here. One of the main objectives was that we were going to build a basketball arena which really seats about 9,000 when you put them in. I think at the first basketball tournament we hosted, I was the AD at Stevens that year. GLADYS: And Howard Naasz... WES: Howard Naasz was at Central, and I think we put in about 10,000 people. They were on the floor; they just put them in to see them. The basketball tournaments don't draw like they used to, because now they've gone to three classes, the "AA", the "A", and the "B". It used to be an "A" and a "B", and that really filled the houses. I mean, that was a big draw. Now, the "AA" schools have just enough to have a tournament. It's just the big twelve. �GLADYS: And you can't get the number of people. WES: The "A's" draw fair; the "B's" are pretty small to draw now, because it's like Faith and those smaller schools. You could take the whole school, and you wouldn't have more than 100 kids. It's like Mount Vernon or Parkston or those. They're good teams, I don't mean that, but it's just the size of their contingent. The whole school could go. The "B" State Wrestling Tournament was here, but there were 44 schools in it, so there were about 3,000 people. You could bring, like I say, the whole school to cheer for the four or five guys who wrestled, so that has been a change across the state. GLADYS: And I don't know what Rapid City would have done, honestly, without the Civic Center. The Civic Center has been a driving force for Rapid City. I was president of Central States Fair and Black Hills Stock Show in the mid-80's. They put on the new addition for the stock show, which the stock show has now outgrown. WES: And they put on the theater since then and the ice rink. I mean, everything they've done to it has been positive for the city, we feel. It's generated income. I know we don't draw the big shows, but the big shows aren't like they used to be. GLADYS: When you just stop and think what, truly, the Civic Center has done for Rapid City. WES: Between the base and the Civic Center, it's been the biggest. KIM: Was Central in its current location? Was it under construction at the same time as the Civic Center? They were both relatively new when I got here, but they were here, as I recall. GLADYS: Yeah, they had to be close to overlapping if they weren't. KIM: I think when Stevens opened, Central High School was in the Rapid City High School. WES: Yeah, that's right. And then they built on that. They must have built that in 1974 or 1975, and I think the Civic Center went up in 1977. GLADYS: It was after the flood. WES: They had the same energy plant to heat both of them, and that was a big bone of contention for a while, too. But that's worked out well. They heat the arena for that; they heat the school for that. The parking lot has been good for both, because if they have a big game at night they go across, or if they have a big event at the Civic Center, and school's not in session. In fact, they used to close, or they had shortened the school day during the Stock Show, so they could have more parking. They had the kids go from 7:00 to 1:00, and then they could have the parking lot. The new addition at Central has really been major. GLADYS: It's really positive. �WES: They need to redo Stevens. Actually, Stevens was older than Central, and they built the new science down there before they built science at Stevens, which seemed to be a bone of contention to some. That's 45 years old. They weren't 35 yet, and they got new science, and they're still waiting. It's tough. You're in education. For history and math, that's not a problem. A gym is a gym; a history room is a history room. Science is the big room. Art and music are the ones that need special...yeah, they were big. GLADYS: I guess another thing when I just think about Rapid City...of course, I love Rapid City and the Black Hills, is that we have wonderful non-profit organizations that really take care of Rapid City. KIM: A very generous town. WES: Youth and Family Services, Boys' Club, Girls' Club... GLADYS: You just can't start naming them, because there are so many. WES: There are too many to name, and they are very good. GLADYS: Very well run. WES: In fact, I'd say, for the most part, we've had good leadership in the city, both city and school. I think we’re pretty progressive. You may have some that are stronger in one area than the other, but, in total, I think it's been a pretty good run for the city. With the new one coming up, we'll see what goes there. We feel that a lot of the future of Rapid depends on this. If we don't, we're going to have an old basketball arena that would be updated with signs and bathrooms, but you won't be able to do the things you're going to need to do 20 years from now for Rapid City. Our kids are for it; our grand kids are on some committees for that, because they'll see the need in their lifetime. We won't see it built, probably, in our lifetime, whether they start this July. It will still take them a few years to get it done and get it going. They say that in three years it will be up and going, but we'll see what comes. The vote will determine it, and we'll see how it goes. Can you think of anything else? KIM: Well... WES: The schools have stayed pretty close to the same. I think in the late 80's, they were at about 14,000 students for the city, and I think we're at about 14,000 now. We have so many retired that live in the Hills which are all good for Rapid City, but they don't have kids in school. I think that the year I was on the board about 27 percent of people in the city had kids in school. That's really hard to communicate things about the school, if we don't have kids in school. You don't know what's going on, whether it be good or bad or whatever. It's tough to sell bond issues for a school or an opt-out or anything else. It's not that they're against it, but they certainly don't know. I'm just thinking that they don't have kids in school. Theirs is a senior; their boys are all gone; the next door neighbors don't have anybody. They have one young son there, and we don't have anybody. They don't have anybody across the street now. At Dell's house, they have two kids in school. GLADYS: And that's why when people say, well, how can Rapid City have grown so, but �the student population has really stayed very close to the same for a long time. That is the reason. We have so many people moving into Rapid City for retirement, so your school population is not changing. WES: I think this year we're 13,800, and there were 14,200 in the 80's. They are right around that 14,000 mark, give or take a few, too. The base kids came in until 1967, 1968, and then they built their own. In the early 70's and 80's, the base was so large, and it drew so many people from the 48 states that a lot of good athletes would come in with their families. A family from New Jersey or California or Kansas or wherever would come in. The military people were there. Their kids were good athletes. GLADYS: They had good teams. WES: They had very good teams. They were very competitive. They're okay now. They were a powerhouse for a while because of the size of the school and the population. They're okay in their class now. The school is good; I'm talking about athletics. With Piedmont and Sturgis schools, we don't draw anything from that. That would be Black Hawk and on in. We feel the schools have been good. With all education, you have some great ones and some great rooms and some rooms that aren't so great. The school district as a whole has been pretty stable. GLADYS: And I can truthfully say, and I know you can, too, all the years that I taught, yes, there were some tough days, but I always wanted to get up in the morning and go to school. I loved my job, and I loved working with kids. We had wonderful kids and wonderful parents. WES: It was hard to retire, but we both enjoyed what we were doing. She was working with a good faculty, and I had a good faculty. You're only as good as your staff. If you have a good staff, you have a good school. The schools I was always at were good people. They were tough to leave, because they were good. You see a lot of them now that you hired 20 years ago that are now getting to the end of their careers. They're thinking they've got another four or five years to go. It just seems kind of odd. GLADYS: Wonderful educators. WES: I hired more kids to teach for me in the Rapid City Schools when I was a principal that were Rapid City kids. They went to college and came back to Rapid. I don't see that many kids going into education, number one, and I don't see that many kids from Rapid City wanting to come back to Rapid to teach. I think it's a shame, because... GLADYS: But we know what the problem is. It's the salaries. WES: The values that kids had here were always good. You know, something else, for a small town of 50,000 to 75,000, you've had Mark Ellis play pro ball for 12 years, Collins for 17. You had Becky Hammond who is now the first woman assistant men's basketball coach for San Antonio. GLADYS: And had a wonderful basketball career. �WES: She holds all kinds of records. You had Adam Vinatieri who graduated from Central. He's still kicking in the pro football league. You had Piatkowski who played pro basketball. . We had Collins. We've had six or seven from Rapid City that have been major...Will Collins on the PGA golf. GLADYS: And Van Boening. WES: Van Boening, the top pool player in the world. It's really quite something when you think of Rapid City, a town of about 60,000 at that time. That's really quite an accomplishment. GLADYS: But the best thing about every single one of them is that they were solid, midwestern kids that have kept their mid-western roots and values, even though they've gone on to the pros. WES: They're all doing very good. When they get out of athletics like Piatkowski and Dutton and those people, they're all solid people. GLADYS: Solid citizens. WES: They've done very well. I hated to see Ellis leave. He was student council president at West when I was there. He played Legion ball here. He was just an all-American kid. Will Collins, the golfer, was a very smart and sharp kid. For a town our size, I think if you look at the rest of the state, I would say we're ahead of all of them, Sioux Falls or whatever. There's always that comparison. Sioux Falls did it, or we did it. Sioux Falls is a great city of 170,000. They really draw, because it's more cosmopolitan where we are western. They have more industry because of their location. GLADYS: Totally different. WES: I think at times in West River, we've won more championships at the high schools in individual sports than we have in team sports. Our football for the last ten or twelve years has not been very strong compared to East River. Our basketball has been marginal, but you look at track or cross country or wrestling or gymnastics or volleyball, and they've really held their own. It's kind of ironic. I don't really know the answer to that. I think in Sioux Falls that Sanford has built so many things for Sioux Falls that the kids have had more exposure to things. They have South Dakota State and South Dakota U. close by. They've got Sioux Falls College and Augustana. They have a better background for kids. We have the Mines, and we have Black Hills. Comparison-wise, it just doesn't have it. They've built exercise facilities that are so far ahead of us for the city. Their facilities for those things will be way ahead. GLADYS: It's East-West. WES: They've produced those kids coming out. It's funny, because the families of Hammond and Ellis and Dutton are all different families. There was nothing special about the families. They're all good parents, I don't mean that. Piatkowski's dad was a former pro basketball player. Mark Ellis' mom and dad were a car salesman and schoolteacher's aide. They were just good people. �KIM: Mark Ellis' dad was stationed out at the base with me. WES: Just nice... GLADYS: Ordinary people. WES: Hammond's mother sells real estate. KIM: Adam Vinatieri's mom was the lunch lady. WES: Dave Collins' dad sold insurance. I'm not sure if his mom worked or not. GLADYS: I don't think Jean did. WES: There again, just a good city. When I was in ninth grade and moved out here, I really didn't like it, coming out with the cowboys and everybody. I ended up marrying a cowgirl, but it was just a different world for us in the East River. But thinking back, that was the best move my parents ever made. Thinking back, at the time, I thought, why would anyone want to come to the Black Hills? KIM: What did bring your folks here? GLADYS: Your dad was a mortician. WES: He was a mortician, and then he went to the farm for about 10-12 years. He always wanted to get back into being a mortician. Behrens’ Mortuary was out here. Harry Behrens was the state president. He was on the board when my father got his license back in 1928 or 1930, and he knew George and Harry, the Behrens brothers out here. He came out here to work with them, and that was kind of the draw. We just moved out here, and that was about it. GLADYS: He had to get off the farm, because he'd hurt his back. So he sold the farm. WES: As far as Gladys and I went to the same high school, I didn't know her in high school at all. I graduated and went to Black Hills. I was going to be a junior. She had finished school and worked for a year. Then she came up to the Black Hills. She was a year behind me, and she worked a year and came up there. She was a good student, and I kind of latched onto that. We got to know each other, and that was it. We've enjoyed Rapid. We lived in Black Hawk the first year and then on West Chicago and then on Windsor Drive and then over here. So it's kind of been a transition. It's kind of funny, as I look back now, for our first house I think we paid $10,200, and that was big. That was big. GLADYS: It was on West Chicago Street. WES: It was a one slab floor, and then we went to a bigger house out on Windsor for $16,000. We thought, boy, will we be able to make it? GLADYS: Will we be able to make those payments? �WES: It's the same way with you when you moved here to there to there. It's like everything else in Rapid. Everything has just moved with it. It's funny, the little house. When we bought our first one for $10,200, I think that was for a sale for $5,600, really a small one. We could have bought that, I think. GLADYS: Oh, the house next door? WES: Yeah, it'd probably be $175,000. It was just a little itty bitty house. They've added on. They've changed it and all that. As you know, the city. And then the new house we have above Canyon Lake is kind of adding a new dimension to west Rapid, isn't it? KIM: It's a big one. It's a big, shiny house. WES: It is. And you can probably shut that off. KIM: Okay. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interviews Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rapid City Public Library Description An account of the resource Oral Histories recorded for the Rapid City Oral History Project by Rapid City Public Library Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Wes and Gladys Storm Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kim Morey Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 1:05:24 Location The location of the interview Rapid City Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview: Wes and Gladys Storm Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-03-11 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Yes Description An account of the resource Wes and Gladys were longtime educators in the Rapid City area. During this interview they share information about not only the education system but Ellsworth Air Force Base and the 1972 Flood in Rapid City. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 290184 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rapid City Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rapid City Public Library 1972 Flood Black Hills Black Hills State University Education Ellsworth Air Force Base Historic Buildings Local History Rapid City Rapid City Teacher’s Strike Rapid City Teachers' Strike South Dakota Sports