Show: On The Town Station: KNCO File: 9:28.mp3 Air date: 2026-09-28 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 26.1 MB to 5.2 MB --- transcript --- I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. It is 68 degrees, 1137, and on the final Monday of the month, or the fourth Monday, just happened to be the final one of the month, we get a chance to talk with Carol Schofield and her program, What a Wonderful World. Welcome, Carol. Thank you. It's such a pleasure to be here and what a wonderful day it is outside too. So it all kind of comes together. If you're joining us for the first time, this show is really about looking at who we are and what's out there for all of us to actually recognize that it is a wonderful world. I mean, it can't always be perfect, can't always get what you want, but you have an opportunity to decide. And so the radio station has been great fun and said, well, let's see how many people you can find who feel that way. And so it's been so much fun doing the show. And I think for everyone who has heard it, that they realize that it does make sense that we get to decide how it looks. So I have today, my guest is Terry Ferguson, and I hear all the screaming and yelling, yeah, in the background. But the reality is, she's a rock star of living life to the fullest. Trust me. And we've been friends a very, very long time, but not back when she was the little girl and running around and all that stuff. And the question I always ask Terry when someone comes on the show, are you a lifer? I am a lifer. You are. I was born and raised here. And so you have any memories about what that was or what was it like back in the day to live in Grass Valley? In Grass Valley. In Grass Valley. Okay. So what was that like? Well, the one thing is, everything, everybody knew everybody. So even if your parents didn't know what you were doing, somebody else's parents did or saw you somewhere. So there weren't really any secrets around here. But it didn't mean we didn't have fun. We had lots of fun. Okay. When you use the word fun, because I do know her a bit, what does that translate into? It means there wasn't anything to do here. I mean, we had a roller skating ring in the movie theater and the rivers and that was it. So we found things and we would, what is it called? The wheel. The wheel where? That's over by the, by the, into Mill Street in front of the museum, the water wheel. And it's big if you go look at it. We used to climb up there and ride it down and we would ride it up and we'd ride it down. Now, and it's really pretty dangerous. We did a lot of dangerous things because we didn't know they were dangerous. And there was only one police officer and a sheriff, maybe a deputy and maybe two police officers. So you could pretty much do stuff that you weren't supposed to do and not get caught. And now they don't let anybody near that because they knew we used to ride it around. Oh, great. You've changed the world. A whole bunch of us did. So when you think about your time here and growing up here, because I, like you said, lots of people want to go away, but lots of people come back. And so when you look at Grass Valley now, as opposed to Grass Valley then, what are some of the things that are important to you or really made a difference to you that's still here or things that you miss? I don't know that I miss anything because everything's still here. You can't get to it like I did before. When I was growing up, when I left here, I left for four years and the freeway was just being built. And it wasn't paved. It wasn't finished. We would take our cars and drive on it and let the police chase us down the rough road. Because there was nothing else to do. And it was just fun. We weren't hurting anybody. But the freeway's finished. That's made a big difference. And I think it's been a really good thing because when I left here, I felt like the town was dying. I first moved to Sacramento and told people I was from Grass Valley and nobody had even heard of Grass Valley. It was that small. Wow, that's amazing. So it needed to grow or it was going to die is the way I felt about it. So I'm glad it grew. And it's grown in some very special ways. I was thinking about that because you and I were at an event together and talking about the good old days at the party on Mill. And it was amazing. So how does that feel to know that you were here before all this stuff we have now? And how would you rank us? Let's try that one. As a city or as a town? Not just kids, but all the adults would come. Everybody always came to everything. And I think it's still like that. It still pulls people together just in different ways. So where was the big fun when you brought people together? Where did you bring them to? Well, a lot of times we just sit on the old Union stairs and watch people because that's when the hippies were coming in. And Grass Valley didn't want the hippies and they wouldn't serve them and we would just entertain ourselves by watching what was going on. What a friendly community, huh? It was besides that. But then you just go to the river. Usually you just go to the river because there wasn't anything else to do. Or, you know, you might go roller skating if it was at night, but there really wasn't. You just went to the river and partied with your friends and that was it. So during that time, where were you growing up? How old were you or were you in school or were you working when it seemed like not enough? Oh, I was in school. I was in high school. And in high school, I don't know of anybody that stayed here because you couldn't. There were no jobs. You had to go away. So everybody moved out. Five or six later, some people could stay. They never had to leave. But, you know, at the time, the late 60s, you had to move out. And when you came back, you had to make your own job. You came back and both my husband and I made our own jobs. I was going to say, so what did you do when you went away? You got married, evidently. Well, I got married. I went, moved to Sacramento. Then I moved down to the Bay Area. And I worked for the telephone company. So that's what I did with them. And then when I got tired, I was down there. And what made me move back was I went to the Senate. I grew up here with our fairgrounds, living at the fairgrounds when it was open. And I loved it. We were there every day from open to close. And I went to the Santa Clara County Fairground. And it was all cement. There were no trees. There were no, they were all carny vendors. It was so foreign to me. And I hated it. And right then, I told my husband, we're leaving. And we moved back. And when you got back here, what did you all do besides go to the fair? Because it sounds like it was still slim on what you could do. Yeah, he was a cement mason in San Francisco. So he brought that work down here with him and ended up becoming a contractor. And I worked for the county for about, for a number of years. And then I opened my own dance school. Ooh, dance school. Yay. And who came to dance? I mean, what kind of dancing? I taught tap ballet, jazz. We competed all over. We competed out of state. And it was really fun. It was just a really fun time. All ages. All ages. Wow. For how long? I taught that for 14 years until I got hurt. Wow. 14 years. Too bad it's not TV. We could have you do a little dance in here. I actually danced on the Ray, what was it? The Ray something show when we were, when I was a teenager. We did a tap dance. Really? Wow. This woman has many, many talents. And so what happened after dancing? Or are you still dancing? No, I'm not dancing. I started, went into real estate and I now own Mitchell Real Estate. But it's still people. It's all about the people. It's still people. It's still about people. Both of them are. And when you look around at our community, which has obviously grown a bit since back in the day, what is it, well you came back. So why did you come back? Let's do that one first. Why did you make a plan to come back up here? Because I wanted the small town feeling. I was used to everybody knowing everybody and being kind and smiling and not flipping somebody off when they make a stop at a stop sign they don't like. You know, I was just, I wanted the friendliness again. And I got it. And you got it. So when, when you had kids, you had kids. I have three daughters. And so, so what was raising, because still then there wasn't a whole lot here when you came back, was there? No, there wasn't a whole lot. So we, doing here locally, we went to the river a lot with the, with the girls and then they were in my dance school every day after school. A few of them did, tried a couple sports and we skied and they skied on the high school ski team. Cool. Yeah. So we, we skied. I started them skiing when they were three, four and five. So we had stuff to do. You had stuff to do. So what kind of stuff are you doing today? I've heard some thoughts about what's out there and the ways that you, you personally make a difference. Well. This is good stuff. This is good stuff. I have my grandson, he's been with me for five years and he's a senior now in high school and he's involved in every sport. So basically I'm running from sport, from game to game to game. And when my granddaughters, my youngest grand, or not my youngest, one granddaughter just graduated high school, the fourth out of one who had, my daughter who had four girls. And so for the last like 10 years, I've been going to water polo games, ski meets, basketball games, baseball games. It's just been constant. So I spend a lot of time going and watching my grandkids. That's wonderful. Well, we're going to find more about this family and we're going to take a quick break and find out what's going out in the world as we speak. And if you've just joining us, Terry Ferguson is my guest for today. And for those of you who know her, you know that she is one dynamic, outrageous woman. Those of you don't know her, I would tell you, if you want to have joy in your heart, you need to connect with her. For any plumbing emergency, and electric, with professional quality, for friendly service and reliability, it's as easy as ABT. Hi, it's Andrew Twidwell, owner of ABT Plumbing, Electric, Heat and Air. You know, we've been fixing things around Nevada County since 2001. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that home repairs never happen at a good time. 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If you've been delaying an MRI because of cost convenience, now is the perfect time to get the answers you need. Ask your health care provider to refer you to Clayton Imaging, or visit claytonimaging.com to learn more. Clayton Imaging, comfortable, affordable, and local. It is 1154-69 degrees, and let's return to Carol Schofield and important guest. Thank you so much. Welcome back. My guest this afternoon or this morning, well, I guess we're moving into the afternoon, is Terry Ferguson. I know lots of people in this community know her as she is today, but we've been having some fun talking about how she got to be the lady she is today. So, Terry, you want to talk about some of the places you've gone or things you've gone or how you got yourself to that place that makes this your place? Oh, gosh, I, it's just, it's my place, because it's the place I love. And I love being around the people. And I love helping people. And there's, and people are so kind, no, no matter what you do. And they're just kind to you. And I couldn't imagine, I thought of moving at different times, and then there's no way I could move from here. I figured that out. It's, it's where my friends are. There you go. And, and you had some experiences in that moving along, and people you touched, and they touched you. Talk a little bit about that and the work you were in. And I know there was some incident with some babysitting going on or something like that. I, I did really two different jobs in high school. And one was babysitting, and I babysat a whole lot. And my favorite babysitting was when Ed Schofield had his first baby. She was my baby. I claimed her as mine. And I babysat her all the time and didn't want anybody else babysitting her. And just recently, I had a person call me and had me go look at the house. And it was the house, it was, it looked exactly the same to me that I babysat Ed's first baby. Maybe Wendy's listening. That would have been nice. She would have loved that. Because I think she thought you were a good babysitter, too. I think there was some rumors she wouldn't let anybody else babysit her, except you. I didn't want anybody else babysitting her but me. So when you look out into our community now, what makes it positive for you? I mean, obviously, you said, just as you said, the kindness of people, people stepping up, that makes a difference. But I was thinking with the new Mill Street, and there's some sense of pride there for me. And magic with the kiddos on the street. It's so much fun. Well, there is. And just with the people, I love what they did to Mill Street. I absolutely love it. And I think it's the best thing that the city's done forever. And it's a great place for people to bring their kids. People walk their dogs there. There's just people there all the time. And they're happy and they're kind and they talk to you. I had a friend that moved here years ago when my kids were little and both of them. And we'd go places. And she said, Terry, do you have to talk to everybody? Do you have to smile at everybody? And we went to New Orleans. And she thought, okay, I wouldn't stop and talk. I still stop and talk to everybody. And we now laugh about it. Because it's just what you do here. You say hi, you don't pass people and frown. You pass people and smile and enjoy the day. So all of this is all squished up. So where are you going? Or what is your like, best memory of being here? Or where do you want to go? Or do? What do I want to do? Well, I will travel more. But you know, but being here, put my best memory of here. My best memory of here is a fun time that I had with some girlfriends. And we did it numerous times. At the Bourne Mansion, there are hidden rooms, and there's hidden hallways. And we used to have the caretaker come try to find us, and we'd hide inside the walls, and he couldn't find us. All right, lady, before they come and arrest you. We have to say goodbye for now. Terry, thank you so much. It's so nice to be around people who have energy that is so, so amazing. And she makes such a difference in our community. And thank you for being my guest today. Thank you for asking. Yeah. I think to myself. What a wonderful. --- end of transcript ---