Lacy enjoys living in town of Harrison

by Mary Shields, News Editor

She's lived in Harrison all her life and can't imagine living any where else.

That's the way Barbara Lacy feels about the town she calls home. She's spent most of her life serving other people. She worked as a janitor for the Methodist Church in Harrison and at Mumby's Law Office.

"I did some janitor work when the Stuart's (Jim and Florence) worked at the courthouse. I'd work for them when they were gone," Lacy said.

Lacy moved into her present house in 1958. Prior to that she lived with her grandmother, Mrs. C. H. Emitt. Her grandparents had the hardware store where the VFW Hall is now. When her grandmother died, she moved in with her parents next to the Sioux County courthouse.

"I worked for the church for 20 plus years. I really miss it, but I got so I couldn't do it so I had to give it up," Lacy said.

Lacy, who says she has no formal training in any profession calls herself "an ace of all trades and deuce of none."

"Grandma told me even the president had to work for a living, so that helped," she said. She enjoyed her work through the years and she enjoys Harrison.

"It's a great place. The best place to live in my estimation," Lacy said.

Lacy had to give up working because of the affects of an injury sustained about 20 years ago. She had gone rollerskating and fell, breaking her hip. "Since then it's been something," she said. "There's no fool like an old fool, they say. I'm the guilty party. I fell and broke my hip," she said.

She was hospitalized in Fort Collins, Colo., and when she recovered, one leg was longer than the other, causing her to have difficulty walking.

A piece of equipment now used in rehabilitation of cases like her's was not in use at that time. She believes if it had been she would not have the trouble she has now.

Since that time, she fell and broke her right knee while visiting in Seattle, Wash. "I had a straight cane and it found a hold in an elevator and I fell," she said.

She has been using two canes or a cane and a broom to get around for the past several years. In October, her brother, Kenneth, brought her a Super Scout scooter to ride downtown to do her shopping and around town.

"He says it's for incapacitated people. Man that's a slick deal," Lacy said.

"What's nice is that everyone is so happy for me that I have it," she said.

"It gives you a good feeling inside to be able to go faster," she said. Her brother also built her a ramp for the scooter.

"He had me go to the kitchen and back up. He drove it and ran into things. I did a lot better than that."

Lacy said although she quit school, youth today have it harder and must stay in school.

"I hated school. That morning I didn't have to go any more I thought I had reached the end of the rainbow. School wasn't everything then. It's not for everyone," she said. "Any more (nowadays) if you don't have (school) you can't get anywhere. Years ago you could get by. Any more it's a must or you just can't get any jobs," Lacy said.

Lacy has always taken pride in her yard, but for the last couple of years she hasn't been able to mow it because the ground is so uneven she might lose her balance and fall.

"I've done one fool trick I don't need another one," she said. She still does some of her own weeding, but will not repeat her work from this summer when she went the length of her yard.

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