Autobiography

Who is Millie Carrée? Why the name Oshoto Arts for my web site?

In far northeastern Wyoming there was an old country store, Oshoto. For 80 years it was the gathering place for settlers of this still sparsely populated area. The name is Indian for "A storm is coming" and Oshoto is pronounced with all long O's. I was raised on an isolated homestead about 10 miles from there. It is after my childhood memories of this old general store that I named my web site. I started life as Mildred Terry and became Millie Carrée when I married a displaced Frenchman named Gilbert. Colorado state beckoned us away from Wyoming. Some 50 years later we are still in Colorado, but also still love Wyoming. Somewhere in that time I evolved into me; and the Frenchman is all American. Three children, seven grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren later I'm still myself and my long-suffering hubby is wondering what happened. Throughout my life art has been in the background. By the light of a coal oil lamp (aw come on, would I lie to you?), my mom, Dorothy Terry, would gently show me how the leg of a horse should bend, or the dark eyes gleam. And proud dad Ezra would exclaim over the pictures beauty. In later years, when my own children were "bored", they were given a piece of paper and pencil and urged to draw. Diana, our youngest, is an accomplished artist in her own right. David our oldest, and Steve, have both done works their parents are duly proud of. Before the joy of painting, I found my creative outlet in handwork such as crewel embroidery, crochet, and designing my own gifts. In the 1990's Gilbert bought a small oil painting set for me as a gift. It was the beginning of a realization of a hidden dream. If my long life has taught me nothing else, it's that it is never too late to learn and to enjoy fulfilling a lifelong yearning. Just an added note: Gilbert and I will have been married 50 years this year!  Millie

IN 1917 Charles and Mildred Lamb (Lambe in 1630) traveled by horse and wagon from Moorcroft, Wyoming to this land about 30 miles west of there. At left, abandoned, is the homestead they established and where my mother, Dorothy, grew up and lived when she married my father, Ezra Terry. Ezra also homesteaded in the area in 1920, as did his parents and brother separately. This in a place ten miles from Oshoto, Wyoming. In the early 1900's in this area (and others) you could own land of 320 acres by filing a homestead claim, building a residence and living on the property. And that's how I came to grow up in the wilderness prairie of far northeastern Wyoming.  Millie Carrée

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