Boardman Country

Dad had five older sisters.

The youngest of them was 15 years old when Dad was born in 1932.

The sisters are all gone now except for Grace…the eldest.  Aunt Grace (shown here as an infant) will celebrate her 100th birthday on December 1st, 2009.

As of this morning it’s official.  My brother Marc and I will be on hand there in Rock Hill, South Carolina, for the festivities that happy Tuesday afternoon.  We booked our flights, hotel and car this morning, gobbling up about 82,000 “air mile” points in the process.  I could never really figure the math on that sort of thing – traveling about 6 or 7 thousand actual miles and using up 82,000 mileage points.  Hmmmm.

As you may have perceived lately, I’m a bit fascinated with the one-hundred-year increment.  The older I get (I’m 54 at the moment), the shorter 100 years seems to feel.  I sometimes wonder if my great grandfather, for example, felt like 100 years was longer than the way I feel it.  My speculation is that he felt a century was much longer than the way I feel it for the simple fact that life just moved more slowly back then.

I’m glad I’m going to have the chance to personally ask Aunt Grace how her particular hundred years seems.  I mean, consider it.  1909 to 2009 was an utterly astounding century.  To have lived the 100 years that saw technology move the world from seeing the horseless carriage as a novelty to the end of the space shuttle life cycle has got to have been a relatively “quick” experience.

I’ve been reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, the story of Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  Ambrose reminds us that when the expedition commenced in 1804, information had never, ever traveled faster than a guy on a horse!  Granted, it’s been a bit over 200 years since then, but have you noticed lately the speed at which your email reaches you?  And from how far away?  How foreign this world would be to Mr. Lewis were he to glimpse it now.

These days quite a few of us probably have some connection to a centenarian.  But if you’ve never thought to or have just never taken the opportunity to talk with one, let me have your questions in the comment section of this post and I’ll be sure to ask Grace to answer them for us all.  It really could be some fun!

You’re in Boardman Country!

Make yourself at home,

Brad

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Tags: 100 years, 100th birthday, aunt grace, brother marc, festivities, great grandfather, happy tuesday, horseless carriage, hundred years, increment, lewis and clark, lewis and clark expedition, meriwether lewis, mileage points, simple fact, space shuttle, stephen ambrose, thomas jefferson, tuesday afternoon, undaunted courage