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Growing Our Future
Growing Our Future
We Just Need a Chance
Winston Chandler's 27 years as a dorm parent at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch transformed countless lives through his wisdom, faith, and commitment to helping troubled youth find their path. His simple yet profound wisdom—"you're never going to learn anything unless something depends on you"—became the foundation for developing responsibility, work ethic, and character in the boys under his care.
• Boys Ranch provided structure, responsibility, and purpose for troubled youth
• Winston's philosophy centered on hard work, faith, and caring for something beyond yourself
• Accountability in agriculture teaches valuable life lessons—"if we don't do our job, something dies"
• Giving young people meaningful work helps them discover their abilities and purpose
• Successful mentorship requires maintaining high expectations while showing genuine care
• A strong work ethic, competitive spirit, and faith create foundation for personal growth
• Winston's humility in acknowledging his own mistakes taught the importance of accountability
• The impact of good mentorship extends across generations through those who were mentored
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast. In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a journey of exploration into agricultural science, education, leadership development and insights from subject matter experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come true. Here's your host, Aaron Alejandro.
Speaker 2:Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or whenever you may be tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast. We appreciate you stopping by and taking a little time out of your day to spend a little time with us. It's an honor to have this platform and this technology where we can invite guests on and we can share their experiences, their insights and maybe, along the way, we pick up on something that we can put in place in our lives and make our lives better. That's the reason why it's called Grow in the Future. I've always said if you want to know what the future is, grow it. Well, how do you start that? You got to find something to plant, you got to take care of it, you got to harvest it and you got to share it.
Speaker 2:And today we have a very, very special guest. Excited for y'all to meet this man and I'm excited to share his story with you. And you're about to find out why. So, ladies and gentlemen, we have Mr Winston Chandler. Winston, you're retired, you were at Boys Ranch for years, you drove trucks, but you're just an all-around good guy. Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, we're going to dive in here and we're going to have a good time talking about some things. Mr Chandler, before we start, I always ask guests. Every guest on this show gets the same question, and the first question that every guest gets is what are you grateful for today?
Speaker 3:What are you grateful for today? What are you grateful for today? Well, one thing is I'm glad I live in the united states and I love america and I love texas. And the other thing is, uh, my beautiful wife that I lost. That's, that was the most important thing to me, because if it wasn't for her I'd have, I'd have never made it myself, and everything. She is the wise one of the bunch and so she was always calm and cool and everything, and I was always going 90 miles an hour and everything, and so so I'm grateful for that and everything. And then the other thing is the Lord's been with me and helped me and blessed me my whole life and everything. And that's the main thing for me is you know you can't do nothing without the Lord, and when you think there's nobody else around, you know he's the one that comes and helps.
Speaker 2:I agree Everything you said. He's the one that comes and helps. I agree Everything you said. We could stop right there. So I'm like you.
Speaker 2:I love my country. I love the liberties that I have, the freedom that I have, that I get to choose what I want to eat. I get to choose if I want to play a sport, what sport I get to choose. If I want to play a sport, what sport I get to choose. What job I want, I get to choose what I listen to on the radio or what news I want to watch or what entertainment. I mean we are so blessed to live where we live and have all the opportunities that we have and then also to be blessed with a beautiful family. So I agree with you, and that beautiful woman that Winston was referring to was Ollie. We called her Ollie Pearl and that was Mr Chandler's, like he just said. That was his balance, and Ollie was a great, great, great woman and I know she was proud of you and proud of all that y'all have accomplished for both your family and for so many others. So thank you for sharing what you were grateful for today.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's start talking about some things. So for the folks that don't know, let me tee up why this is a very unique podcast interview. For those that do not know, that may not be familiar with my background, I'm going to give you just a very brief synopsis to tee up this man's role in my life. I grew up in a broken home in Dallas. My mom and dad divorced when I was six. My father passed away when I was 10. This was in the 70s. I began to rebel. You can't tell now, but I used to have really long, bushy hair and I got into a lot of trouble. And my mom tried everything. She tried the church, she tried big brothers and big sisters. She tried several things and nothing was working. And finally, september 3rd 1980, she said that's it. She said I've tried to help you, I've tried to get you straight. You don't want to get straight. I'm going to get some help. And so we flew from Dallas to Amarillo. At Amarillo they put me in a van and they drove me 36 miles into the country to a place called Cal Farley's Boys Ranch. And when I got to Boys Ranch, the first thing they did was they took me down and they introduced me to this woman and her nickname was Abdul the Butcher and she was the barber and she cut all my hair off. And then I remember they said we got to go to the dining hall to say goodbye to your mom. And here are 400 boys in this dining hall and I remember they said you know, say goodbye to your mom. I was real i's still the real tough guy and I just remember saying see you. I meant that's how I said goodbye to my mom is I'll see you. Uh, the rest of the story for that, paul harvey rest.
Speaker 2:The story is two weeks later I'm on the phone crying going mom, please get me out. I swear, swear, I'll straighten up. But I remember I left the dining room and they took me over to the counselor's office and I was sitting in the counselor's office and at this point I got to tell y'all I was getting a little nervous. I'm sitting there by myself and this boy sticks his head around the corner and he says hey, are you the new kid? And I said yeah, I'm the new kid. He goes what dorm are you going to be in? And I said I'm going to be in Bridwell dorm. And the guy goes ooh, bridwell. And I said what's so ooh about Bridwell? He goes, have you not met your dorm parent yet? And I said, no, who is it? And they said his name is Winston Chandler. I said, well, tell me about Mr Chandler. They said Mr Chandler. He's about five foot nine, he weighs about 185 pounds, he bench presses over 400 pounds and he's the hairiest man you've ever seen.
Speaker 2:At about that time it's like that kid sees a ghost, he takes off and this big old cowboy turned the corner and he took his cowboy hat off and he said hello goes, my name is Winston Chandler, I'm gonna be your daddy for the next four years. And I remember my jaw hit the ground and he said darling, out here at boys ranch you're gonna take math, science, history, english, but out here at the boys ranch you got to take a vocational program. Well, I had never heard of a vocational program. It sounded a lot like vacation. So I was like see, I signed me up for that vacational program and I remember I asked Mr Chandler, I said what do they have here? And you said well, they had like building trades, skillsusa, and they build houses and work on cars. And then they said we have this other program called Future Farmers of America, and I said Future Farmers of America? I said I can't be no farmer, I'm from Dallas. And then I remember Mr Chandler looking at me and he said said, darling, you're never going to learn anything unless something depends on you. And I never forgot that he said you're never going to learn anything unless something depends on you. So Mr Chandler told me he said I'm going to put you in ag because you're never going to learn anything unless something depends on you.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, that day set in path the reason why we're even on this podcast today, because mr chandler, this man right here, is the one that put me in agricultural education. This guy's one that put me in the ffa. Now, I had a rough start in the ffa but I finally found my. I went on to become the state FFA president. I went to Texas Tech University on five scholarships. I've been so blessed. I've been to coast to coast. I've been in every state in the United States except for Alaska. I've been able to take my family with me. We've traveled all over, all over the United States, even did a mission trip in Mexico. So many of you that may be listening to this know that we started a national organization for foundation officers called LEAD. I don't know that any of the things that have happened within the Texas FFA that I've been privileged to be a part of, or anything nationally, could have ever happened if this man right here had not, on that day in September of 1980, put me in agriculture, put me in ag education in the FFA.
Speaker 2:Now y'all understand why I said this is a very special guest, because the fact that we're all talking and the fact that you're here today is because of Winston Chandler. So, mr Chandler, I've given everybody a little bit of background of how we came together. But let's go back in time. Tell us a little bit about you. Where did you grow up? Tell us a little bit about your family. Give us a little bit about your background about your family.
Speaker 3:Give us a little bit about your background. Well, I was raised on a farm in a ranch and, uh, I had two older brothers we were seven years apart and I never get I never did get to be a little bitty kid, my thing. I was driving a tractor when I was six years old and I could shoot a shotgun and ride a horse and do stuff like that. I didn't play with toys, I had to be a big boy like my brothers and stuff. And you know, you know it's just I started out and we worked hard and we played hard and I think that's what you have to do and that's you know. And I had a, you know, had a good family and stuff like that. And after, you know, after I got up, pretty good size and everything, then my folks split up. So I know what it is to come from a broken home and so the best thing that happened to me is when I met Ollie Pearl and everything and she went through the same thing I did. She is when I met ollie pearl and everything and she went through the same thing I did. She come from from a broken home and stuff, and a lot of my folks they were. They were alcoholics and stuff like that and everything. And so we decided, well, we're gonna, we're gonna do something different. My kids ain't gonna do that, we're gonna do something nice.
Speaker 3:And we were real young when we got married and everything. I didn't think I'd ever live to be 21. Everybody treated me like a kid, but I had to work like a man and everything. And I finally got to be 21 so they got to treat me like a man and everything. But uh, you know the thing of it is, you know we got away from her folks and my folks and we depended on one another and everything. And so we made it work.
Speaker 3:And so we come to Amarillo and I had all kinds of jobs. I worked in the oil field, on our cowboy-owned ranches and done this and that and all that. I always had two jobs and everything and uh, but most important thing to me was, you know, my kids and everything, because I wanted my kids to. I didn't want them to go through what I did. You know it's just like the kids I raised at boys ranch. You know them kids, they come from all walks of life and stuff and everything and uh. But uh, I was the youngest dorm parent ever hardly boys ranch. I was five, 25 years old, 25 years old and I wasn't too much older than the seniors and everything.
Speaker 3:But you know, uh, you know boys ranch was a working ranch and everything then and everything, and. But you know, boys Ranch was a working ranch and everything then and everything, and we took a lot of kids right off the streets and right out of jail. If they didn't make it at Boys Ranch they went to Gatesville. Then none of my kids go to Gatesville. I kept all of mine and everything. And the most important thing to me was you know them kids just needed a chance. You know, somebody had a gill crap about them and everything. And so me and Ollie worked hard at it and everything.
Speaker 3:And so I know you and Jerry Grooms, you know you all recognize us at rodeo one time back and I think it was 95, and you give us a plaque and everything and I was working at the rodeo grounds doing getting ready for rodeo and ollie was selling tickets at uh, the barbecue place and everything. They said they need y'all at the dining hall. I said, well, I got two months to do to go to the dining hall. So anyway, they said, no, you need to get there. So anyway, I got out and we went there. Well, you and jerry, you know, gives that and all the exes there and all that kind of stuff. It was a that was a big day for us and everything and so uh, uh, but you know, it wasn't I don't think it was really the things that me and ollie did. You know, I just had a lot of help with the lord helped us, you know, to try to do the right thing with the kids and and stuff and uh.
Speaker 3:But you know you know your kids, just like you you're, you're one of my kids. You know, you're no different than you know my own kids and stuff, y'all are all the same to me and everything. And so you know, now I'm an old guy now and so you know all the kids I raised at Boy's Ranch. They're all grandparents now, just like kids are and everything. But you know my immediate family. I got 12 great-grandbabies. I'll soon have 12. Wow, well, that's just part of the family. The rest of the family is the Boyer's Ranch, kids are got and everything. I have a whole bunch of grandkids, great grandkids, and everything. They're family too, you know. And so you know I probably got more kids and grandkids than anybody in the country and everything. And I'm proud of that and everything because you know it makes you feel good when you.
Speaker 3:You know you help kids and you see how they turn out. And you know they're good family men, they're good fathers, they're good husbands. They work hard and they play hard and that's what I tried to teach at Boys' Range. You know we play to win. You know you never quit. You know don't ever give up and there's always a better. You know it's better tomorrow be a lot better, you know, than today and everything. And so you have to work hard and you have to play hard.
Speaker 3:And so you know at my age I'm nearly 82 and everything I still cowboy on the ranch, help feed cows, I detail cars, I make pens and rings, I do woodworking stuff. I stay busy all the time doing something you can't quit. You got to keep your mind working in your body, working all time and everything. And so you know whether you're good at sports or whatever you're good at and everything. You know your handshake and when you tell somebody something it's got to mean something. You got to mean what you say and say what you mean, and I always said about raising kids, you know you can give out but you can't never give up because you never know what you're going to say or do. That will change that kid. You know he may be a bad kid one day, but tomorrow he'll be a better kid or he'll be a different kid and everything.
Speaker 3:And so and I took all kinds of kids and it's hard to raise somebody else's kids and fill shoes for somebody else and everything, but you know it's, that's just, that's part of it and everything, and so I just always felt like I needed to. You know, do that and my kids was the first ones to. You know they ever have a vehicle, ever have a job or a place to live. When they graduated, they went to college or they went to the military. Or they give them their suitcase and talk call them to the town office. Well, I told the board one day. I was in there on the grocery run on Friday, on the grocery run on friday. I said you know, if a kid had a job and a place to live and a way to get there, his chances is making it is a whole lot better than the kids. You haul the town with his suitcase and say there it is. And so, anyway, I got that changed and everything.
Speaker 3:So my kids the first ones to do that, and then the kids that stayed there and didn't have nowhere to go at christmas I took the you know, I took them bird hunting and everything it's. Oh no, you can't give them kids, a gun, you'll kill somebody. I said the most dangerous thing they'll ever do is drive automobile. It won't be shooting a gun. And we had game wardens there and everything where they could take the safety course and all of that and everything. And I was proud of that because my kids got to do a lot more than other kids, you know, and everything. And so, uh, you know, it's all a learning process, everything's a learning process so, mr chandler, let's real quick.
Speaker 2:So where, where was? Where were you originally from? Where was home for you?
Speaker 3:Plains, texas Plains.
Speaker 2:Texas.
Speaker 3:We lived about three miles from the New Mexico line, a little place called Bronco, and my dad farmed and ranched there and everything. And when I went to school I was the first to know and the last to know and in the wintertime it was dark when I went to school and it was dark when I got off and I still had to milk and I still had to gather eggs and feed the stock and all that stuff in the dark with a lantern.
Speaker 2:We're going to come back to that. So you and Ollie, you said y'all, what year did you move to Amarillo?
Speaker 3:you said oh, I moved here in 1964. 64. And then, when did you go to Amarillo? You said oh, I moved here in 1964, 64.
Speaker 2:And then, when did you go to work for the ranch?
Speaker 3:1968 when I first came back.
Speaker 2:Well, I worked for cookbook bread and so you and Ollie were at the y'all were dorm parents, what we used to call dorm parents, and how many years were y'all dorm parents? 27 27 years yeah was yeah.
Speaker 3:We lived in the dorm longer than anybody's ever been there and I've raised more kids than anybody's ever been there so let's talk about that real quick because we've got a lot of viewers, a lot of folks that'll be listening.
Speaker 2:So when we say a dormitory, when I was out at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch there were 16 dorms. There were eight dorms in what we called the valley, down in the valley, and then there were eight dorms up on top we called Hilltop, or up on the hill. There were 16 dorms. There were 24 boys to a dorm. So think about this. You would walk into the front of the dorm and we had what we called the big room, so you had a big room, and then on each side of the big room there was staff housing, so there were staff apartments on the sides. And then as you went into the back of the dorm, there was a long hallway and back there in the back there were six rooms, six rooms, and every two rooms were connected by a bathroom. So you had six rooms connected by the bathroom. Every room had four boys. So every room you went in there were four beds, a study desk and then each of us had our own individual closets that we were allowed to keep our stuff in. So imagine this dormitory setting and the big room and the staff, housing and then each individual room. A normal day for us would look like this we would get up in the morning and everybody in the dorm we would clean the dorm. So everybody in the dorm would work on some type of job clean dorm unless you had after-school activities. If you were an athlete or you had after-school activities, you would normally get up and you would go to your job on the ranch. You would have to go take a job on the ranch If you stayed at the dorm. You'd finish cleaning the dorm, get ready for school and then we would walk to school. The boys that were out working they would do their jobs and then they would walk to school. We'd go to school all day long. At the end of the school day, if you were an athlete or involved in school activities, you would go to the school and you would do your practices or whatever that may be. If you didn't, then you had an afternoon job. So then we're either at school or we're working and then from there we would go from there to the dining room for dinner that evening. After the dining room we would come back to the dorms and study or hang out.
Speaker 2:Now times have changed, but back in our day we didn't watch TV during the week. The only time we watched TV was on the weekends. Everything in the middle of the week was about studying and being productive and being brothers to one another. And then on the weekends, the weekends were good because sometimes we got to go to town. You got to go to town once every three weeks. If you're good, you have to earn your privileges. At Boys Ranch everything is earned. It's based on incentive. So we would earn our privileges and if our privileges were good, we got to go get a Coke or an ice cream or something sweet, and then we would go to church, we'd go to chapel and we would dress up, we'd have chapel dress, we'd go to chapel and then, like I said, we'd get to go. On occasion We'd get to go to town and in town we could go to a movie or roller skating or go to the mall and just do the normal things that teenagers would do.
Speaker 2:But Mr Chandler I hope everybody caught that he operated in that facility, in that dormitory setting, for 27 years. That means 27 years. He raised his family in that little apartment right there next to the boys. That means for 27 years. He saw kids coming in and out of his dorm. And I remember when I went there I went to I was in Bridwell dorm and you know there were kids that had been out there.
Speaker 2:There would have been some kids that had been there for a long time They'd been there since they were little kids and there were some kids that weren't there maybe a year before me and they came from all over the country. So it's kind of like going to college. You know, one of the benefits, I think, of going to college is you get to meet people from all over and so you get to learn different perspectives. Well, the dorm was the same way. We had people from all over the state, all over the United States, that came from different backgrounds, and so we got to learn from one another about life. And this is the guy that led us. This is Mr Chandler. He led us, he led me for four years of my life, my high school years. Mr Chandler made that possible, and so I wanted to make sure everybody kind of had a reference point of what that looked like to be in the dorm, to understand what he just shared.
Speaker 2:So, mr Chandler, one of the things that I like about this show is. I tell people, if you'll just listen, if you'll just listen to somebody's testimony, you're liable to learn something that you can put in place in your life. And I've already heard you say a few things loud and clear. Number one you better work hard. Number two it's okay to relax and play hard. Number three you better compete. You're going to have to compete. Number four you better have faith. You better have something that you're grounded in. And then, number five life's not a solo project. You better have somebody or some things around you to help you get through life. And, mr chandler, you've already shared all of those in a very short period of time, and that's, that's powerful stuff well to.
Speaker 3:You know, when I first started boys range, we had 36 kids in the dorm, not 24. Oh, wow, wow when I started and everything and everything and so, uh, but you know, the first part of the kids was, you know, they were off the streets and out of jail and stuff like that. Well, then later on we went to taking kids from broken homes and stuff like that. Mama can't raise the kids and work and all of that. That's the reason I wound up with a lot of brothers. I raised a lot of brothers and everything, big families and stuff like that and everything. And so you know it's one of them things where you know you have to adapt to whatever's coming, you know, and everything. But you know it's just, it's one of them things. You know you got to have faith in what you're doing and you know you got to have help from other people and everything. And you know that's the reason my thing was is you know me, when we played sports, we played to win. We didn't play to lose, we played to win, and it's the same way in life. You got to play to win and everything, and you got to count for something. You know your words got to mean something. You know you got to mean what you say and say what you mean and everything. And so you know it's. You know that's just part of life and that's what you have to do and everything. And so I tried to teach, you know, all of my kids that and stuff like that and but you know, look at all the kids, Look at what they've done. You know they've done better than anybody. You know a kid that don't have nothing, Stop it out with flat nothing and everything, and then look at what to do. Look at you for a little day. You know you were a troubled kid, stuff like that and all that and everything. But you know you had to depend on somebody. You know you had to believe in something. You know you have to. You had to depend on somebody. You know you had to believe in something. You know you had to believe things that I told you and stuff and what you had to do. And you know, uh, you know you could learn. You know I think it was 13 or 15 vocations at boys ranch and I was a big ag guy because I was in ag when I was in school and stuff and everything. And if you taking care of an animal, you know you're taking care of something other than yourself. You know it's. You know it's like playing sports. You learn to play with other kids and stuff. That's how you, you know, get friendships and stuff like that. You know's a lifetime thing.
Speaker 3:It's not something that's just hit or miss. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. It does work. It works over time. You've got to have faith in what you're doing. It's not going to be easy. Every day is not going to be easy. At night, when you go to bed, you thank the Lord for having a good day, whether it was a good day or not, Because tomorrow will be a lot better day and everything, and so you just have to keep plugging along and so, uh, something mr chandler just said.
Speaker 2:I want everybody that to know this, and I know a lot of people. Again, mr chandler, there are people from coast to coast that have heard me talk about. You have heard me talk about growing up at Boys Ranch and one of the things that I've never forgotten, by the way, you know, I'm very again, I'm blessed and I've been able to pass, you know, I've been able to be in a leadership role to help pass things along for others Millions of dollars, millions of dollars. We've raised for the Texas FFA and those dollars started with the story of what you taught me. And I've talked to executives of major companies Ford Motor Company, Justin Boot Company, McCoy's, all these major major brands and I love it when they ask me they say, Aaron, what all these major major brands? And and I love it when they asked me, they say, Aaron, what separates these FFA kids? He said, these ag kids, you act like nobody else does what they do. They said, what separates these kids? Doesn't athletics teach teamwork, Doesn't speech debate and UIL teach all of those things. And and doesn't band teach ensemble? And, Aaron, what is it that you think you guys do in ag that nobody else does.
Speaker 2:And I remember one time, Mr Chandler, you gave me a sledgehammer and we used to drive those old yellow power wagons. And I remember you gave me a sledgehammer and you told me to drive to the other side of the ranch and bust the water trough for the horses. And I pitched a fit and I said, Mr Chandler, I don't want to go. It's a blizzard out there that the wind and the snow. I said it's five miles to the other side. I could get lost and I'm trying to think of every excuse I could think of. And I'll never forget Mr Chandler and his old country wisdom. He just looked at me and he said, Darling, do you get thirsty when it's cold? I said, yes, sir. He said Don't you think those horses get thirsty too? I said, yes, sir, I drove five miles that day and I busted the water trough for those horses.
Speaker 2:And because of that lesson, to this day I can look at any executive in the United States and I said I'll tell you what separates our kids from everybody else. Because in the world of agriculture, if we don't do our job, something dies. In the world of agriculture, if we don't feed it and we don't water it and we don't take care of it, it dies, and when it dies, an economy dies, and when an economy dies, a people die. And so I'm so grateful that early on, you had us all in your dorm.
Speaker 2:We all had ag jobs, because you told us it was important to learn that something depended on us. That means we had to get up and take care of it. We had to take care of it. At the end of the day, that means we had to get up and take care of it. We had to take care of it at the end of the day. But, Mr Chandler, I want you to know that, not just that lesson of doing that and taking care of it. Look at what it's produced. It's produced millions of dollars that translate into opportunities for kids because of the way that you raised us at Boys Ranch. I just want you to know. I appreciate what you taught me.
Speaker 3:Well, you're sure welcome.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I understood it at the time, but I look back on it. You said something else a while ago. I look back the other day I guess I was 56 when I looked back on it and I said my gosh. I said for four years of my life I was doing adult jobs. But I didn't know any better.
Speaker 2:We all just tried to get the job done. We all whether it was at the dairy barn or at the hog farm or at the feedlot or bucking hay or just it didn't matter what the job was, we just knew we had to get the job done. We never looked at it as that was an adult job or that was a kid job. It was just a job and we all had to pitch in to get it done. And you kind of taught us about that too. You said we're going to get these jobs done, and not only are we going to get them done. Now I'll tell you one more thing about Mr Channer. You heard him say a second ago you're playing to win. Well, the other thing that he taught me is you don't do it halfway. You always taught us if you're going to do a job, you do it right. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:That's right. Whether you're playing or whether you're working, you got to do the best job you can Because somewhere down the line somebody's depending on you. You know it's not just you. You know there's always somebody depending on you for something, whether it's something you said, something you've done or you know, or something you showed them or something like that and everything. And so you, you know that's part of life.
Speaker 3:You know you gotta, everybody needs somebody and and a lot of times you need somebody, a lot of the times and everything. And you need somebody you got you can depend on and stuff like that and everything. And that's the reason you got to keep your faith in the lord and everything, because he's the one that made you and everything. And so you want to make him proud of you, just like everybody else. And so you know you gotta.
Speaker 3:You know you gotta mean what you say and say what you mean. You know you want to be a good person. You know, and you know if you can help somebody, you know that does you more good. Then it's better to give a present than to receive a present. And so you know a lot of stuff I make, you know I give it away. And my son wes. He said, dad, you give away too much stuff. And I said well, for me, for me it's just advertisement, you know, somebody want to know. Well, where do you get that? He said well, I know the guy that makes it, you know, and so that's just part of life, you know, you just have to keep plugging along and everything.
Speaker 2:One of my good friends I shouldn't say he's a good friend, he's become a friend but he's an incredible speaker. By the way, he's going to be up in Canadian next week. His name is Dan Owellabi and Dan is from Worcester, ohio and he's just got an incredible story. But Dan was talking to a group and he he said a lot of times people ask the question what is my legacy? What is my legacy? And Dan Oulabi says you're asking the wrong question. He said the question shouldn't be what is my legacy? He said the question ought to be who is my legacy? Who is my legacy? And I just want you to know, because you said something a while ago. You said 27 years in the dorm. That's a lot of young people that know the name of Winston Chandler and Ollie Chandler and the Chandler kids.
Speaker 2:One more thing, real quick. I'm going to derail us here just for a second, but I just want to share because I want to brag on Mr Chandler and Ollie and his family. Every year we used to have this thing called the Boys Ranch Rodeo on Labor Day weekend. It was a big deal, big rodeo. I mean, hundreds of thousands of spectators would come to Cal Farley's Boys Ranch and it was a time for all the alumni. We always came back at rodeo time and of all the dorms, of all the staff houses, there were more people at Breadwell Dorm to see Winston and Ollie Chandler than any dorm at the ranch. Even when they moved out of the dorm, everybody gathered at their house because we all wanted to hang out with Winston and Ollie just one more time. I got to share a personal story here in just a second, but I want to cover a couple more things here before we wrap up.
Speaker 2:You know, mr Chandler, I ask people all the time the kids in Texas. I said, how many high schools are in the state of Texas? And they always say a lot and I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of high schools. All right, in the state of Texas there's over 3,000 high schools. Now, think about that. Every one of those high schools is going to have a graduating class this year. They're going to have kids that are going to get out. They're going to be looking for a scholarship, a job or an opportunity.
Speaker 2:And I always ask the kids I said tell me what's your competitive edge, what separates you from everybody else? Because if you're going to go after that scholarship, you're going to go after that job, you're going to go after that opportunity. You better have something that separates you from everybody else. A lot of times it can be what you shared earlier, mr Chandler. It could be a positive attitude, it could be a professional network, it could be that handshake that you talked about, that firm handshake where you look somebody in the eye, say your first and last name. The bottom line is you got to have a competitive edge, and it sounds like to me that when you were raising kids, that's one of the things that you tried to give us was a competitive edge you got to have that.
Speaker 2:You got to have that and you, you taught us that, and so I hope that people that get a chance to watch this podcast anybody that's ever heard me speak my kids will tell you that a lot of times they say you sound like Mr Chandler, and I said, well, I probably do. There's probably a reason I do Because he taught me to be fair. He taught me to listen, he taught me to play by the rules. He taught me to be competitive. He taught me to play by the rules. He taught me to be competitive. Um, he taught me to care for others. But, uh, you, you, I hope you understand why. I now said this was a special guest to bring on the show and uh, so y'all got to hear it from him, not me. You got to hear it from him of why I'm the way I am today. So, um, mr chandler, I appreciate you so much. Um, if I may close, can I close with one more little story?
Speaker 2:no great so it was years, years ago. I was back at the ranch and mr and miss ch Chandler lived in a little apartment there on the ranch and there was a guest bedroom in the back. And I go back there and I'm sitting in the guest bedroom and I remember you came back there and we sat across from one another and we were talking and I just remember I said, Mr Chandler, I said, do you remember this? And I told you about something that happened at Boy's Ranch. And the reason why this story is so important is because I want you all to see the heart of this man right here.
Speaker 2:I remember sharing with you something that happened at Boy's Ranch and I remember you, Mr Chandler. You teared up and you looked at me, me and you said, darling, I'm sorry. You said I had to make a lot of decisions at Boys Ranch and sometimes I think I made the right ones, but on occasion I probably made one that might not be right and I just want to tell you that I'm sorry. Do you know how big a man somebody's got to be to say that they're sorry To be able to look at another human being and say you know what? I try my best, but sometimes I may not get it right. I just want you all to know that this guy right here was already way up in my book.
Speaker 2:But the day that this man looked at me and said, hey, I'm sorry and it wasn't anything major, it's not like the world was going to come to an end but the fact that I was sitting here having a conversation with the man that took my dad's place and he told me it's OK to say I'm sorry as a big day. Mr Chandler, I just want you to know that you're a big man, Not just physically. You're a big man not just physically. You're a big man because you've invested in so many kids. You've made us all better and you showed us what it's like to have a heart of humbleness, forgiveness, reconciliation, and I just want you to know that you are appreciated by many, many that you probably have never met.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much. You know, I'm just, I'm humbled and everything, and you know just, I did the best I could and the Lord has had most of the work done. I didn't do that much, the lord done most of it yeah, you did something all right.
Speaker 2:So we always wrap up the show with a fun question.
Speaker 3:You ready I'll try to you get a fun question.
Speaker 2:So if we ever made a movie about winston chandler, the life and times of winston chandler who would play winston chandler? What actor would play winston chandler?
Speaker 3:oh, oh, boy, I don't know if there's anybody maybe could do that. That'd be a hard question to answer, so it'd have to be somebody you know, maybe like you.
Speaker 2:No, I couldn't play you. Let me tell you who I think of. When I think of Winston Chandler, I think of John Wayne. I think John Wayne could play Winston. I think Robert Duvall from Lonesome Dove could play Winston.
Speaker 3:Well, maybe so, I don't know I could put a hat on you and everything and you could do the same thing.
Speaker 2:No, I don't bench 450 pounds and I wasn't a very good bull rider. But you made me right. I rode bulls for four years. I rode bronx before mr chanter. I was on a call the other day with all the pbr groups from texas get it, you're gonna get this professional bull riders. I'm on a call with all the pbr people and I just ask them I mean all these people on this call and I said has anybody on this call ever ridden a bull before? I was the only person on the call that had ever ridden a bull and it's because you kind of wanted us to do that. You said you'll never know if you like it unless you try it. So I got to try it for four years. I was never any good at it, but I did it for four years.
Speaker 3:I was never any good at it, but I did it for four years. Well, that's part of it. You never know. Kids don't know what they like until they try it. So I don't like that, I don't like this. When you come to Boyle's Ranch, you didn't like anything. That's the reason I signed you up for everything.
Speaker 2:Well, it worked.
Speaker 3:So kids don't know what they like or what they need or what they want and everything. You know. They get in a rut and everything. And then you know I feel like if you try sports or if you try this or you know look what you did with ag you know you could have done the same thing if you was a sports guy. That's right. You know you could have been good in sports. You could have been good this, you could be good. You can do whatever you want to do. You know, sure, and if you got to have opportunity and somebody gives it to you, you know, and you know you can do anything you want to do. You know you got. You know you're blessed with the like you say you're in the best country in the world and everything, and you don't have no excuse for not to be good and do good things. You don't have an excuse. Well, how do you feel about a foreign country where they don't have nothing or anything, they don't have a chance to do what you do and stuff and everything? A?
Speaker 2:lot of our listeners don't remember the Berlin Wall, but I do and I remember looking at that wall and there was a wall that separated communism from freedom and I remember pictures of 16-year-old kids caught in the fence trying to get to freedom, being shot to death. We have a lot to be thankful, by the way. Something else here I got to tell everybody you need to surround your people, like my good friend Cleo Franklin says. He says get yourself your own personal board of directors. Get people that you surround yourself with that make you better. And I hope everybody understands that I'm a little bit the way that I am today because Mr Channer was one of my board of directors. He made me better personally. But I got to tell you you got to be coachable. If you're not coachable, you can have all the Winston Chandlers in the world around you, but if you're not going to listen, you're not going to get any better. So you got to be coachable. But if you're coachable and you got good people around you, the sky's the limit. Sky is the limit.
Speaker 2:Mr Chandler, thank you so much for joining me today on the Growing Our Future podcast. I tell people all the time if you want to know what the future is, grow it. Well, how do you grow the future, ladies and gentlemen? You're looking at it right here. You're looking at a man that took time to pour ideas and philosophies and strategies into me. I planted those and, by gosh, they started to grow, and with that growth came opportunities that became blessings for me, and not just me, but my family and for others. If you want to know what the future is, grow it. Mr Chandler, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you for sharing some seeds of greatness. Well, you're sure welcome and thanks for having me and everything, and so I hope somebody got a little bit of something out of this and everything, and so I hope it's, I hope it's good and you know people won't get bored, but listen.
Speaker 2:So let me tell you something. There's a there's a great speaker called Tony Robbins. His name is Tony Robbins and I love his quote. You know what his quote is Success leaves clues. Yeah, Success leaves clues. Somebody watches this podcast. You've left some clues, Thank you. Thank you so much. Everybody else. Until we meet again. Thank you for stopping by the Growing Our Future podcast. We appreciate you sharing some of your time with us. Everybody, be safe and until we meet again, go out and do something for somebody else. You'll feel good about it. You'll feel good about it. You'll change their world and guess what? You might even just change the whole world. Until we see each other again, thank you so much.
Speaker 3:See ya, bye.
Speaker 1:We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast. This show is sponsored by the Texas FFA Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen agricultural science education so students can develop their potential for personal growth, career success and leadership in a global marketplace. Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
