Tatting and Chatting With Hazel Harper

I love getting phone calls from people in the county. I recently talked with Hazel Harper. She wanted to talk with me about tatting. This interesting woman will celebrate her 100th birthday October 11th this year. She excitedly told me, “This is my centennial year!” To me, that is truly worth celebrating!

During our conversation, not only did I learn about her tatting skills, but she also told me that she is able to recite all fifty states and their capitals. How many of us can do that at any age? I, too, was required to learn the state capitals when I was in the fifth grade. However, I am only able to retrieve a fraction of those capitals. Why are some people able to do so well as they age into their golden years and still be vibrant, interesting people? Of course genetics will play a large role in aging. However, I also believe that our future health depends on how well we take care of ourselves long before old age. As I would imagine, Hazel was an active youngster who played outside most of the time she was not in school or doing household chores. “We played outside all the time. We got a few toys at Christmas but we made most of our toys.” When I asked Hazel about other physical activity, she related that people walked all the time. “We walked to church and school- about a two-mile trip, one-way.” I imagine that fast food was not part of her young life. “We raised all that we ate on the farm where I grew up in Boiling Springs. “ Hazel was born in Ohio and later moved to Cherokee County with her family. She married in 1930. She and her husband lived many years in Ohio where he worked with International Harvester until he retired. At that time they moved back to Boiling Springs where she currently resides. She lives alone except for the nights when Donna Allen keeps her company. They spend many evenings playing Scrabble. With such a good foundation, she probably had the essentials for living a long life. As she became an adult, additional healthy decisions probably came into effect. Choosing not to smoke or drink alcoholic beverages probably added more years to her life. She stated that there were whiskey stills abundant in the coves in the area but she and her family did not partake. As simple as it sounds, making sure that she was still able to recite all fifty states and their capitals has certainly kept the cobwebs cleared in her mind. If you were to ask her the secret to long life, her answer is, “Clean living!”