Born near Bristol, South Dakota, in 1940, Tom loved to talk from an early age. His first public performance was at the age of four: "My father stood at the back of the hall and held up a silver dollar. If he could hear my every word, he said, I would get that silver dollar." After the war, the family moved to Pickstown, a new town built on the Missouri River to house workers constructing the Fort Randall Dam. The move to Pickstown became a pivotal decision in the Brokaws' lives, as the family began to live out the American dream of community, relative economic security, middle-class pleasures, and, for the Brokaw sons, a good education, American Legion baseball teams in the summer, and a boy's life outdoors. When Tom was 15, the Brokaws moved to Yankton, and there two events occurred that were to shape Tom Brokaw's life: To earn money after school, and influenced by his mother's daily devotion to the Today show with Dave Garroway and The Huntley-Brinckley Report, Brokaw got a job at the local radio station, spinning the new rock-n-roll records; and he met Meredith Auld, a classmate at Yankton High, who would eventually become his wife.