Page 16 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Summer 2021 - Online Magazine

CELEBRATING A
CENTURY

No Regrets

at 104

Dorothy Thompson

by Jelaine Workman

Dorothy and her daughter, Gloria
hen you sit down with her friends had to walk through the going to school together, but he grew
Dorothy Thompson, she windy weather, wearing bandanas on her.
Wcan share her life story over their faces to keep the dust from
– easily – which is pretty amazing overwhelming them. In 1940, Tom was drafted into the
at the young age of 104 years old. Navy and headed to the Pacific.
Dorothy was born March 31, 1917, She learned to save her pennies She returned home to live with her
in Potter County, during the World so she could have a treat from the parents, bringing with her their
War I era. She was the only child of a general store, located in the post first baby boy. When Tom returned
farming couple. Her parents married office. When she had 10 cents, she from the war, they moved into his
in 1915, about the time the drought could get a Baby Ruth candy bar grandparent’s home, where they
started. and a Coke; each cost a nickel. This farmed and raised cattle.
was quite a treat because it took
She attended Washburn schools until them weeks to save the 10 cents they Tom passed away in 1985, and
her junior year. She then attended needed. Dorothy continued to live on the
Amarillo High School. She and five family farm until two years ago,
of her friends carpooled to Amarillo. Growing up, they grew their own when she moved into an assisted
She played basketball in high school, food; because of the shortage of feed, living facility. Today, their youngest
but their courts were outside on hard they had to kill cattle. But her family son and grandson work the family
dirt. She explained that, when it stayed in Washburn and made the farm and have a feed lot for the
rained, they had to go out afterwards best of those days. cattle.
and repair the court. She graduated In 1939, she and Thomas Jefferson Dorothy and Tom had three
in 1937. Thompson got married in Polk Street children, two boys and a girl. Their

Dorothy remembers well living Methodist Church. She told me that oldest son, who fought in Vietnam,
through the Dust Bowl. She told me he was one of the students she had passed away from the side effects
that her mother hung wet sheets in carpooled with to Amarillo; he was of Agent Orange. She has seven
the windows to decrease the amount the son of a railroad man. She didn’t grandchildren and seven great-
of dirt in the house. Dorothy and like Tom for years while they were grandchildren.

16 Amarillo Senior Link