Dave Hansen

Dave Hansen was born and raised in Custer, South Dakota. His family owned a house that was by Pageant Hill. He was embarrassed because his family was the last household in the neighborhood without running water and utilities. He remembers having to share his sister’s bath water AFTER she used it. Ugh. He also said that his family had an outhouse by the alley. Nobody in his family would eat or drink anything at night because nobody wanted to have to use it.

Pageant Hill and the surrounding area provided most of Dave’s entertainment growing up. Whether it was sledding in the winter, climbing Big Rock, or using stilts in the creek, Dave was always outside. His love of the outdoors carried over into his schooling. He said he was always caught staring out the window.

Even though he wanted to be outside, Dave still enjoyed school. When he was naughty, he would get sent to Home Economics class to wash dishes. He said he didn’t mind this because they always had goodies to eat. His favorite subject was math, although he called it “arithmetic.” He played all the sports the high school had to offer and said athletes had to have a short haircut and couldn’t wear sunglasses if they wanted to play.

Mr. Hansen has worked many jobs in his life. His first was at his Uncles’ gas station right here in Custer, where he would wash windows and check oil. He really wanted to get a tip, but he also said that he learned early on, “A thank you is as good as a dollar.” During much of his life, Dave worked with heavy equipment. His dad taught him to try to enjoy what he was doing every day. Because of that lesson, he would do things like keep a water pistol in the cab of his truck to spray co-workers as he went by. This positive attitude wasn’t so easy when he was doing his least favorite job ever–cleaning out a sewer with a shovel in Rapid City.

Mr. Hansen married his wife, Sharon, 45 years ago. Their first date was going to a basketball game together. He now was two daughters and four grandchildren. His wife makes all his food from scratch, which he sometimes takes for granted, but knows he shouldn’t.

We loved Mr. Hansen’s sense of humor. He seemed to have a joke or saying for almost any situation. He did share a story with us where his sense of humor got him into some trouble with his daughter. He was playing around with a drill and pretending to drill his grandson’s head. Well, he slipped and the drill actually caught his grandson’s hair and pulled out a big chunk. We hope his daughter has forgiven him by now. We also hope his grandson’s hair has grown back.

The biggest lesson we learned from Mr. Hansen was to help others. He said, “If you’re not helping somebody, you’re not getting nothing done.” We really appreciated this lesson and think it’s good advice. We can all help others; it just takes some effort and thoughtfulness. We loved getting to know Mr. Hansen and feel he is someone we can all look up to, not just because he’s so tall.

Thank you Mr. Hansen, and we hope you enjoy your song.