3.29.2009

1909

OK, so I have a special occasion speech due tomorrow, and I haven't even begun to get started on it. We have to pretend like we're giving a speech at a special occasion (wedding, birthday, etc...). I haven’t exactly started on it yet, but I do know what my topic is - my great-grandmother, Lois Hill (“Granny Hill”)'s 100th birthday.

That's so incredible to me, that she's been alive since 1909. It's almost unfathomable.

She was born the day after William Howard Taft officially became the 27th President of the United States. That's 17 presidents ago! That's the year the first subway car with side doors goes into service in NYC, the year 1st credit union opened, the 1st US airplane was sold commercially (for $5,000!), the 1st Lincoln penny was issued, the North Pole was reached, construction on the Titanic begun, and the cost of a first-class stamp was $.02. Some of the things that hadn't been invented yet - zippers, toasters, hair dryers, bubblegum, sunglasses, ballpoint pens, Monopoly, trampolines, shopping carts, duct tape, Tupperware, bikini swim suits, disposable diapers, Velcro and milk cartons. Life expectancy was under age 50, and the average worker made $12.98 per week for 59 hours.

Isn't it crazy how much has changed in 100 years??

Isn't it crazy how we take simple things like zippers, duct tape, pens, and bubblegum for granted? What if those things had never been invented? These things are pretty much everyday things for us...how would we have survived in 1909 without them?

I sometimes wonder what my great-grandmother thinks about society today. I mean, life was so different for her back then. I wonder what she thinks about all the cars, the clothes, the fads, the music…just our society in general.

She married Lowell Hill and after WWII they started the North Alabama nursery. Lowell died in 1967 but Granny Hill kept the nursery going til the 80s…She was the oldest of 4 kids, and is the only 1 still living. She’s lived through the Great Depression, both World Wars, the Gulf, Cold, and Vietnam Wars, the attacks on Pearl Harbor, September 11, and the War in Iraq. She got to see the first animated Disney movie (Snow White and the seven Dwarfs), the creation of Mother’s Day, and the opening of the Empire State building and the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge. She got to see the creation of NASA and the first man on the moon, as well as see Alaska and Hawaii becomes US states and the first black president.

She’s experienced SO much in her life and she's just an amazing woman, and I’m proud to be called her great-granddaughter!

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