Glider Spotlight: Meet Terry Nord, Career Musician!

In this monthly series, we put the spotlight on our Gliders community to celebrate individuals who inspire us. This month, we’re highlighting Glider and career musician Terry Nord. We met Terry at our recent demo day at the St. Louis Society For The Blind And Visually Impaired in St. Louis, Missouri. Afterwards, he invited us to join him at his gig playing the theatre organ at St. Louis' City Museum!

Terry showing off some of his mind-blowing moves on a 100-year old theatre organ!

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Tell us a bit about your work! What's a typical day like for you, Terry!

My work, my career and my hobby is all music. I have been a musician for over 50 years and continue to do so. My music has gotten me in more places and gotten me to meet more people then you could ever believe. I love it!

I really don’t have a typical day. I get up and some days I have nothing to do but hang around the house and be lazy. Other days I’m as busy as could ever be working in my recording studio, playing for some event, playing theater organ at the City Museum here in town, or doing volunteer work which would include playing for places like the Fox Theater here in town or the Lincoln Theater in Belleville, Illinois.

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If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

I would like to have the power to magically transport myself and my stuff to whatever venue I needed to play. Transportation is a pain in the butt, to put it bluntly. Sometimes you hire a driver they show up late or not at all and that can be a real problem. If I can get there myself, I can do the gig.

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What is your favorite podcast?

I listen to a pretty wide variety of podcast. If they talk about music, politics, electronics or new inventions I’m there.

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What's one accomplishment or thing in life that you are most proud of?

Before I moved to St. Louis in 2016, I lived in Minnesota. I ran a country music show, called The East Central Minnesota Opry for 14 years and got to work with several of my musician heroes. That was some of the most exciting time of my life.

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What's one lesson you've learned in life that you'd like to share?

One of the things that I’ve learned in life is if you have a good sense of humor, it will get you through a lot! I try to look at everything with humor and try to laugh at things that might trip you up or cause you problems and that seems to get me through a lot. if you can say something funny or at least keep a smile on your face people react differently to you than they would otherwise.

What's got you most interested in Glidance?

I am not one to have a guy dog or have any interest in having a guy dog. The cane is a great tool, but it sometimes gets you in trouble because you go through areas and run into things a lot - and that kind of thing always drove me nuts. I was banging my cane into things that I didn’t mean to.

I always wished that there was something like Glide. When I heard about Glide, I was there - even the idea was awesome! So when the opportunity came about to be involved in some way, I was going to be involved no matter what it took. We didn’t get to try the Glide until just recently, and even though it was still a very unfinished product, I wanted to take it home. I could go on about Glide for at least a half a day without taking a breath - I can’t hardly wait. I want it yesterday!

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What was it like having the Glide team join you at work?

Having Amos and Luke at The City Museum with me was one of the highlights of my life. We did not have a chance to sit down and explore some of the challenges and possibilities because we were too busy running around in there!

In closing, I guess I would just like to say that I feel that Amos is carving a place out in history with the Glide. I feel that this is a product that will revolutionize travel for blind people like the cane and the dog guide has.

I feel like sometimes when we’re on the ground floor of a product being developed, we think only about what we would like to see in the product and we forget about how much work is being done on the main floor, so to speak. We need to step back take a look at the big picture and praise those folks that are on the main floor and working so hard to make this product what we want it to be. Our praise or kudos will be the fuel that will spur these people on to even greater achievement and we need to remember that. It’s great to have a passion for something, but if there are people that are in there with you that have the same passion and they let you know, it gives you the will to keep going.

I want to thank everyone for the opportunity to share with you and give you a piece of my mind!

Thanks so much, Terry!

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