De Smet is the beginning of my continuous memory. I have many memories from De Smet. I remember we were all sitting at the dinner table one evening in a small house that we rented from the Catholic church. It was really just a shack. We always heard the rats in the walls, but this night my dad looked up at the kitchen sink and saw a rat looking at him from behind the counter. Dad was so angry he went into the bedroom and got the shotgun. He stuck the barrel in the hole he had seen the rat through and fired. And I remember him hollering "Take that you filthy creature!" Of course the shot gun killed the rat, the wall, the counter, the sink and the water pipes. What a disaster! Water was spewing everywhere, there was a 12" hole in the wall that you could see the outside through. Dad had to work the whole next day getting everything repaired. I think that was the day Dad decided to build our own home. It was a long project but that is another story for another day.
