Interview: House One Guys


by Steve King

David’s House opened its first home in the summer of 1987. Four of the original ten residents are still living here nearly 30 years later. I sat down to have a conversation with the four of them to talk about their time here.


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Left to Right: Dale, Terry, Joel and Fred


When did you move into David’s House?

Dale: Uh…long time ago.

Terry: June of 1987!

 

Which one of you moved in first?

Terry: Me. Then Dale.

 

Where did you live before moving in?

Joel: at my school in Chicago.

Terry: at the Lansing School for the Blind, and then with my parents in Big Rapids for a short time.

Fred: Gladiola Home.

Dale: Pine Rest, I think.

 

What has changed since you’ve lived here?

Joel: I’m going to school again now with Terry and Jeff.

Terry: We have a recreation therapist named Lisa who does workshops and stuff. We’ve lots of different staff work with us too.

Fred: It’s hard to remember—it was a long time ago!

Dale: The atmosphere. It keeps getting better and better.

 

What hasn’t changed?

Dale: We still get on each other’s nerves. We still play practical jokes.

 

Oh? What kind of practical jokes?

Dale: Hiding each other’s clothes…cracking eggs on each other’s heads [laughter]…

 

What kind of stuff did you do for fun back in ‘87 versus what you do now?

Joel: We all worked more then. We do exercise and stuff at the house now a lot more than we used to.

 

I’ve seen you guys doing yoga here with the staff—probably not a lot of yoga back in 1987, huh?

Terry: Yeah, I don’t think we really thought of that back then. We’ve got lots of different things that we didn’t think of back then, like workshops with Lisa, too.

Fred: I have better headphones now too [thumbs up].

 

Do you remember who the staff were when you first moved in?

Joel: Oh boy, that’s a good question.

Terry: Bill and Joyce Hall.

 

What’s the best part about living at David’s House?

Dale: Humor…people to joke around with.

Terry: Good Christian environment and education.

Joel: I really liked it when Bob would come with his therapy dog.

Fred: I like that I have my own room. Before I lived here, I had to share a room. Now I just have a roommate that I have to share my bathroom with.

 

And how’s your bathroom roommate?

Fred: [thumbs up]

 

Who has changed the most since you’ve all met?

Terry: I think I’ve become more compassionate.

Dale: My personality hasn’t changed.

 

We’ve got a smart TV and iPads and wi-fi now. What was the cool technology back when you guys moved in?

Terry: CDs were brand new back then. They were invented in 1983! I’m the group historian.

Dale: Now we need scratch resistant CDs.

Terry: We also have digital talking books.

 

We’re building new homes now. What do you think might change?

Dale: Coed homes?

Terry: Maybe some new activities!

 

Has change been difficult?

Fred: Yes.

Terry: It’s hard to be receptive to change.

 

Have there been some good changes, too?

Joel: We have good new staff.

Terry: Yeah, lots of new staff and some new residents too!

Dale: Hopefully get people with a sense of humor and some new vehicles.

Terry: Maybe some more blind people can move in too.

 


Steve King is the Manager of Houses 1 and 4 at David’s House Ministries.

Read more about Steve here.


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