Villagers celebrated a very, very special birthday with lots of relatives and friends of Marie Hensch. Marie was 100 years old and her daughters, Ardith Tofteland, Luverne, and Ruth, Washington state, hosted a party. Think of the changes she’s seen in her lifetime and think of the lives she’s touched. Marie was a teacher, teaching in the same district where she once went to school in Lyon County, Iowa. She was busy, for 35 students in eight grades needed daily lesson plans. Former students came laden with flowers so you know she was a favorite. At 14, she moved with her family to Boyden, Iowa. She still keeps in touch with the country church there. This weekend that church has a big celebration themselves, 125 years. At the party, tables had fruit jars filled with a variety of garden flowers. Marie wore a pretty rose dress that she proudly told me Ruth had made for her. She never tried it on before the party and it fit perfectly. Cars and people were everywhere for a 100th birthday is a very special event. What fun we had on Sunday night. Chuck DeBoer, his wife at the organ and daughter at the piano, provided a hymn sing. Later, joining the group was Keith Elbers and the music filled the Village. It was great and we hated for it to end.Carolyn’s daughter came by plane from Arizona late in the afternoon. In the early morning hours the next day, Nelma and her mother were on their way to Beaver Creek and picked up Dolores Melton, then to Austin for her sister, Jill. They all proceeded to Michigan for a visit with Carolyn’s brother.Erma’s returned home. Emil has been under the weather. Signe’s had lots of company, six people from Canton, S.D., and one from Rock Valley, Iowa, as well as a grandson from Alabama. Claire Crawford and Dennis Roning have joined the card players on occasion. In observance of the birthday of the ice cream cone in 1904, we had ice cream cones, of course. In the absence of Pastor Berg, David Klumpenhower conducted the Bible study. We watched "The Sound of Music." One villager thought it boring and one said she didn’t like old movies. She liked Lifetime on TV. Margaret Thornton gave me this to be sung to the tune of "My Favorite Things.""Maalox and nose drops and needles for knittin’Walkers and handrails and dental fittin’sBundles of magazines tied up with string,These are a few of my favorite things. Cadillacs, cataracts, hearing aids, glasses, Polident, Fixodent, false teeth in glasses, Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings, These are a few of my favorite things. When the pipes leak, when the bones creak, when the knees go bad,I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so bad."I’ll tell you the rest on a slow day.I’ll keep you posted.
