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Pat Walsh
Pat's Peeps Podcast
Ep. 126 Today's Peep Shares Centenarians' Astonishing Life Stories, Reflects on Early 20th Century Charm, Including Dust Bowl Memories, Longevity Secrets, Family and Modern Marvels, and Expresses Heartfelt Gratitude in Roseville
Ever wondered what it feels like to live a century? Today, we're bringing you an extraordinary episode featuring Virginia and Leila, two centenarians with a treasure trove of memories and wisdom. Join us in a special live recording from Ivy Park in Roseville, where these remarkable women share their reflections on life, love, and the simple joys that have sustained them through 100 years. Virginia's astonishment at outliving her family and Leila's poignant tales as a farmer’s wife offer a heartfelt glimpse into an era long past, complete with charming anecdotes and invaluable life lessons.
Step back in time as Virginia recounts her childhood in early 20th century Roseville. Her vivid memories paint a picture of small-town charm and the transformative impact of historical events like the Dust Bowl and World War IlI. With stories ranging from her brother Glenn’s heroism as a P-51 pilot to the evolution of farming technology, Virginia provides rich personal and historical insights. Leila echoes these sentiments with her own experiences, emphasizing the resilience and joy found amidst life's everyday struggles and the loss of loved ones.
What’s the secret to a long and happy life? Virginia believes it lies in faith, purpose, and gratitude. She shares her daily routines that bring her joy, even as physical challenges increase with age. Our conversation touches on the importance of family support, the beauty of music, and the marvels of modern technology. Concluding with an expression of gratitude to our engaging guests and supportive audience, this episode is a heartfelt celebration of life, filled with inspiration and warmth. Tune in and be reminded of the importance of cherishing every moment and finding happiness in the simplest of things.
Okay, so it's Patrick, and where are we? At Denise Pat's, pete's 126 on the podcast? I believe it is. I believe it is so, yeah, so no intro today. Today is one of those rare days where no little intro song on the podcast. But we don't need an intro song today. I am really excited because today I'm at Ivy Park in Roseville, thanks to my friend Denise, who helped set this up, thanks to Summer and we have a group of folks in here who are joining us, which I really was not expecting.
Speaker 1:Can I hear it from you guys? Thank you very much. Look at these lovely people that are in here, my gosh. I thought it would be a wonderful idea if I could find someone who's lived about at least five years longer than me and could talk about life and some of the things that I'm curious about, perhaps that other people are curious about, and so I am joined by not only a wonderful studio audience, but I'm also joined by Virginia here. Pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 3:Virginia Well, thank, pleasure to meet you, virginia Well, thank you, nice to meet you too.
Speaker 1:I mean these lovely ladies. I'm surrounded by these two lovely ladies, and Leila is next to me, on this side. It's a pleasure to meet you and, as I understand it, both of you ladies are 100 years old. Is that true? Yeah, 100 years old, 100 plus Leila. When was your birthday? How old are you, leila? To be exact, 100 plus going on 101?. You want my birthday? No, well, no, Did you just have a recent birthday. I'm 100. Okay, so you're exactly 100. And you, Virginia?
Speaker 3:100? 100. She's a month older than I am.
Speaker 1:No, kidding, is that right? So you're 100 and a half is what you're saying.
Speaker 2:We used to say that I'm 100 and a month 100 and a month. Oh my gosh Happy belated birthday, maybe two months.
Speaker 1:When's your birthday? June?
Speaker 2:June 25th.
Speaker 1:June 25th and you are July 15th. July 15th. Well, happy belated birthday. I don't know how long you can go past the birthday and still say happy belated birthday, but you know what I mean. But I'm gonna say it. Anyhow, it's delightful to be with you both and I just thought it would be really interesting to sort of talk about what it's like to be a. What's it like, just in general, for those of us who hope to be 100 someday. What's it like to be 100 years old?
Speaker 3:are you kidding? What do you mean by that, virginia? Well, I really don't know what I mean by it. To tell you the truth, it's okay. I just didn't dream I'd ever live that long. Really, yeah, because I've lived longer than anybody in my family, and that goes back to my grandparents too. They were in their 90s at the very latest Wow, in the 80s. But I've lived longer than anybody and I had a large family, is that right? Well, they go back many years here in Roseville, to 1898. It's a shell house family. I don't know if you've heard of them or not. I have not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you. So what does that feel like to you? As you think about that, you think, well, heck, I've lived longer than most of my family ever lived. What is that? Do you think about that? Or you just live life just like you always have just daily living going about your day.
Speaker 3:Well, sometimes I wonder why that sort of thing? But here I am and there's not much I can do about it.
Speaker 1:Well. I'm glad to hear that we love having you join us. What about you? What about? What do you have?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just a plain country farmer's wife and lived through all the struggles and as I was getting older and older, the Lord put real joy in my life. So every day was a blessing and a joy and I tried to pass that on to my family. And the joy, and I tried to pass that on to my family. I had seven children and now I still have five.
Speaker 1:So they're very lovely a blessing. You say the struggles in your life. Obviously that would be a struggle losing children, outliving your children. When you say struggles, what were some of the struggles that you think about over 100 years? And I'm going to ask you the same thing about the joys.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, when growing up we didn't always run to the doctor, we had deals. One time I was playing with nephews outside in the country and I stepped on a rusty nail and my mother called the neighbor and he said come on up. And when we got up there he had chewed a plug of tobacco and they put that warm plug on the bottom of my foot and I can still feel the heat. But I never went to the doctor. I never had any problems from it.
Speaker 1:The President's Wife. A warm plug of chewing tobacco was the medication for stepping on a rusty nail. That's remarkable.
Speaker 2:Mrs. You know those old folks had a lot of remedies the President's Wife, Sure Mrs and I think they still are good.
Speaker 1:That's a new one on me, see. This is why I love hearing stories like this. So when you say struggles and we're talking about that, you know that's really amazing. They say that. I always hear this and, being in the business I am in radio they always say gee, we're living at this. It's the most difficult time. There's so much chaos, this and that in the world. It's never been like this. You've lived 100 years, heck. We've had world wars. We've seen a lot over 100 years. Vietnam. We've seen all of this.
Speaker 2:I didn't live in a house with running water until I was 33 years old. All the homes I lived on the farm and stuff we had to carry our water which they don't have to do now. They just put, turn a handle and they got water.
Speaker 1:Sure. So you had to go to a well fill up buckets.
Speaker 2:We had a windmill.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, you had a windmill, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And I had to carry all the water from the windmill.
Speaker 1:Same memories for you, Virginia.
Speaker 3:No, not that extreme, but I did live on that ranch. I go back to 1898 and all here in Roseville and I remember living on one of the ranchesches and it had a pump also for the water, but the worst part was the outhouse. You had the bathroom outside. You don't think about these.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, tell us about it, that part. I hated. So, yeah, no indoor plumbing, so you had to use the outhouse.
Speaker 3:You had a big family.
Speaker 1:So you had to use the outhouse.
Speaker 3:You had a big family, so you had to use the outhouse. That was a long time ago.
Speaker 1:What about showers and things like that? These are things we don't think of. You've got a big family outhouse showers.
Speaker 3:I think it was more bathing than showers. Bathing sure, sure.
Speaker 1:Wow, see, that's true. So you know. The other thing we don't think about is, especially from a guy like me who's needed much dental work over the years. I often think about heck, what was it like? You're going to the dentist as a little girl. Have you seen things change over the time? Like technology and like dental technology things like that.
Speaker 3:Of course, the dentist that we used to go here was from an old family too, Dr Barry Boston. But it was the Barry family and we had known them for years because they knew my family that had been here since 1898. So everybody knew everybody then in those days. And I remember as a child this one family that lived out in the ranch and you would hear this man be coming. I'd be a kid on the street. You can hear this man coming in in a horse and buggy one horse and one buggy, and it would be cloppity, cloppity, cloppity and you could hear him coming. So you knew who it was. But he was from an old family too, but that was many years ago, many years ago.
Speaker 1:We're talking with these two delightful ladies, virginia and Leila. We're at Ivy Park in Roseville and listening to how things have changed over the years. It's very interesting to the the how things have changed over the years. Very interesting to hear just how things have changed. What about laundry? Let's just like the mundane things in life today. You know we take this for granted. You know we have a washing machine and a dryer.
Speaker 2:You throw it in a couple of minutes no problem, I can remember I went to a country school myself and two brothers, and I can remember the dad hooking up the wagon and the horse and mother tucking us all around there in the wintertime in the blanket and he took us to school and then he picked us up by horse horse we went to a little school with eight grades in one building what was that like for you?
Speaker 2:it was. I was young there, I just was the only kinder didn't even have kindergarten, we just went into first grade where were you raised, if I might ask?
Speaker 1:Nebraska, nebraska, so it's cold. Back there too, they get cold in the winter. Do you want to hear about a blizzard? Of course I do?
Speaker 2:Sure. Well, it was when my daughter was born. It was in 1948, and it was the coldest, most blizzard I was. The Lord provided a quiet time, so I, so I could go to the hospital to have her, because we had to go about 20 miles and and then we came back and then we got blizzard out of town. We couldn't even get to town and you think you'd have food? Well, the only thing I had left to eat was crackers and neighbors came down to enjoy the crackers. I went out to the kitchen, out to the chicken coop, to gather some eggs at noon and they were already frozen.
Speaker 2:So one time we went to town and the blizzard came while we were in town. So, my husband, we tried to go home. We went on this one road and there was about four or five cars along. Everybody tried to turn around. Well, they didn't know where the ditch was, so they got stuck. So finally one car came and we all piled. There were ten of us in one car. Two guys stood on the bumper, on the fender in front, to show the driver how to, because the blizzard was so bad he couldn't see. And we finally got into town and then we got a mailman to take us down where my mother's was, and they walked up the hill and and so they're going.
Speaker 1:I'm trying, I'm imagining this, so they're.
Speaker 2:They're driving down a road in a blizzard with two guys on the front bumper, and that's their, that's their eyes, it's clear there was the driver and two guys up on the bumper and then a couple of guys in the trunk and I was in the back seat with two other children and the baby. Oh, but the Lord watched over us and we got to town and, thank goodness, we got up to my mother's house. Oh my gosh, that's incredible.
Speaker 1:What about you, Virginia? Where?
Speaker 3:were you raised In Roseville? Oh, in Roseville, and I graduated from Roseville High in 43, and we walked from one end of the town to the other in the town for grammar school as well as high school, and I graduated in 43, and the coach there was the cousin, and he was a cousin to Newt Rockne, yeah, and they look very much alike too, by the way. But anyhow, and then his wife was part of the Shell House family too, so that's how he was involved. But he was our coach for a long time, coached my older brother who was in high school at that time, and then when the war came along, then my brother volunteered to go into the service, volunteered to go into the service, and so he was picked up right away and he was became a p51 pilot and his but his plane, he was killed.
Speaker 3:His plane was sabotaged. They said us, they told mother and daddy, that the plane was sabotaged because he was considered a hot pilot. He always wanted to fly. He used to build airplanes and have them with balsam wood and then fly them in the house all the time. Natural-born pilot.
Speaker 1:What was his name?
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was a natural, but he was killed over in Casablanca.
Speaker 1:What was his name?
Speaker 3:Yeah, in 1940. I'm trying to think. I can't think of the date right now, but anyhow it was when the oh 43. It was when the first war broke out.
Speaker 1:It was the early. What was your brother's name?
Speaker 3:His name was Glenn Ferris Van Vliet.
Speaker 1:God bless him.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry for your loss. Yeah, over the years since growing up in Roseville and graduating from Roseville High School. I'm sure there's a lot of people listening to this and I'd be curious as well. Virginia, how have you seen Roseville change over the years?
Speaker 3:Oh my Well, when I was here it was still a little town and then, from what I understand, I lived in Sacramento with my husband because he was with the Fuller Paint Company at that time and he traveled a lot. So I was home with the girls. I had two daughters, diane and Cindy, and so I was kind of a homebody all the time. I didn't work outside the house and anyhow, no, I lost my train of thought what was Roseville like?
Speaker 1:How was it different?
Speaker 3:Well, it was just a little town and you could walk in the street and you wouldn't see a car, a lot of lots and open fields and things. Yeah, but when I was a little girl I used to stand on the well younger, about 10,. I stood on the corner one day and saw all these people coming from Oklahoma because of the dust bowl that they had and they had everything piled on top of their car and all that.
Speaker 3:I saw that downtown and watched them go right through Roseville and head on down to the valley and they all became rich farmers because they were hard workers and they're the ones that have all the big ranches down in the in San Joaquin Valley in that area.
Speaker 1:That is fascinating. So you have memories of seeing those who came from the Dust Bowl home in that area.
Speaker 3:Yeah, coming into California, yeah because it was our little town of Roseville was very quiet. There wouldn't be a car going anyplace. You could stand in the middle of the street and you wouldn't see a car for an hour or so. But anyhow, I graduated from Roseville in 43. And you know that was a long time ago, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:I'm just having the greatest conversation with these two lovely ladies, 100 years old. And again, just to let everyone know that we are at Ivy Park in Roseville and we have an audience here and this is really a lovely place. So just let me give a plug. Okay, for Ivy Park I haven't been able to tour it, but I probably will be asking somewhere if I can see some of it, but it's just so nice and you ladies are so wonderful and I just I really am enjoying this conversation. So you lived a hundred years.
Speaker 2:Now, as it will go ahead, I have another quaint incident that we had to do because it was so cold and the sows had their babies in the wintertime, and when they were born my husband would pick them up and bring them in the house because they started to freeze. We'd put them on the oven door and thaw them out, and then we'd take them back, and then the mothers wouldn't take them Really, because they've been handled by humans.
Speaker 1:I guess, Like the babies being put on an oven door. That's interesting. Things are so much different. How dare you put my baby on an oven door?
Speaker 3:I'll tell you one thing.
Speaker 1:I'm glad I lived in California, not Nebraska. Huh, that's pretty good.
Speaker 2:It was really struggling and it was a lot of hard work. No mechanical. Now the farmers go out, pull the wagon, run it through, it, picks the corn shells, it puts it in a wagon and take it to town and sell it.
Speaker 1:They got it so easy, don't they? We all did it by hand In the old school way, knowing that things were a little bit harder right back then a little different, maybe not so much harder, I don't know. Different Of all the years, of all the decades. In a hundred years, I have my favorite decade, for whatever reason. I enjoyed this decade, for this reason or that. What would you say? And I'll start with you. Um, I'll start with you, leila. Is it what would be your favorite decade?
Speaker 2:what do you mean by that? In?
Speaker 1:other words, like for me, what was my favorite time? I enjoy your favorite time, like I. I enjoyed the 70s, but I was in school. I had you know there's reasons. I enjoyed it, but I often feel like I was maybe born at the wrong time, because I feel like perhaps the 40s or the 50s or the 30s even would have been a beautiful time to be alive.
Speaker 2:You know, I never thought or worried about being at the wrong time. And I must say, life became easier when we came to California, much easier, and I enjoyed my family, I enjoyed my children. I took part in every activity that they were in. And then we had to go take their animals and stuff from foray to Watsonville and sell them and stuff, and I took them and we sang on the world. We just made joy of it. One time we had a cow. We lived out in the country, in California, and we had a cow I think she must have been a Guernsey or a Holstein, because we had to milk her and her milk was almost half cream. So we, every night I would morning, every morning I would scrape off some of the cream, keep it in the refrigerator. And then we had one of those old ice cream fixers, oh yeah, and we made ice cream and the kids just loved it. The neighbor kid came over and everybody wanted to clean off the sheet, that's the best ice cream we just made fun.
Speaker 2:We had troubles, a lot of troubles ice cream we just made fun with. We had troubles, a lot of troubles, but we, the good Lord, guided us through them and we enjoyed life.
Speaker 1:Sure sure. What about you, Virginia? Was there a time that you particularly enjoyed or did that, or are you like Leali, where it didn't really matter that?
Speaker 3:was in the 40s. Yeah, we'd go. There'd be a gang from high school, we'd all pile in the car and go out to I can't remember the name of the park, but they had a dance floor out there and we'd go spend the evening dancing and one night they had Ella Fitzgerald there as a guest and so that was really something, but it was. Everybody came from roseville to go up there and dance and we'd rockland people from rockland to all the kids that were that age, and then we just dance all evening until it was time to come home and, uh, get our rides back home. But that was a lot of fun because I I like to dance, always have what kind of music did you enjoy dancing to and listening to?
Speaker 1:What's your favorite music? Are you a big music fan?
Speaker 3:I'm really not. I can't really think of one particularly. Is there a style of music you liked? It was? Well, we used to. I'm trying to think of the words I want. We would, you know, dance with a couple and then we'd do the swing. Oh yeah, A lot of the swing. Yeah, they call it the swing now, but we called it something else then, but that's. I learned that it was called the swing later, but we just did a lot of dancing. It was a big hall out there at the park, and I don't know if it was William Land Park, but I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it was William Land Park, but I don't think so. In our little town we were a little town, we were only like 10,000, 10,000 people. But we had Norfolk and one time we had a dance hall there and one time Lawrence Welk came and played Before he even had a band Really he came and we danced to his music his waltzes and stuff oh that is great, and the boys didn't know how to dance, so us girls would dance with each other and we were good.
Speaker 1:Sure, did you used to watch the Lawrence Welk show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we would go to Norfolk to the dance when there was dances there, Sure.
Speaker 1:I grew up, you know my mother would watch Lawrence Welk. You know we'd watch Lawrence Welk. Sure, the Lawrence Welk Show.
Speaker 3:That was later in my life. That wasn't that early.
Speaker 1:Like the 60s, right 60s into the 70s, and it's mainly on TV. Sure, oh, and it's mainly on TV. Sure, oh, yeah, I remember it on TV. You have to watch it if you're a kid, because your grandma and your mom was watching it so you had no other choice because we only had three channels.
Speaker 2:And to this day, I love Lawrence Welk.
Speaker 1:music Is that right, the champagne music of Lawrence Welk. My mother had a huge influence on my life because she loved music. She sang in a band and she had a huge record collection. So I would listen to all of her records and I would be exposed. I mean, at 10 years old, I tell you, ladies, I knew everything from Kay Kaiser and his orchestra to Patty Page.
Speaker 2:That was a real treasure.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely Right, and I just happened to be interested. She had a big collection and I would just take it upon myself to go in there and listen to the music. But you know, we had three channels, of course, back then, If you were lucky, and maybe you got the UHF channel, if you got that tuned in. But you know, technology has come so far. I'm sitting here with a device in my hand, a phone, and I'm able to make a phone call. I was able to get a map good enough to where I got lost on the way over here and I can record you and do all of these wonderful things with my phone. So you've seen technology over the years change so much. I think for me sometimes, even though I value this and I think it's wonderful what they've come along with, part of me sometimes misses the days when we didn't have to look at our phones all the time. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2:We are well aware of missing the days. We have a hard time keeping track of what each day is right, oh, is that right?
Speaker 1:Is that right? I didn't hear you have a hard time keeping track of what day it is, just because it's just.
Speaker 3:Well, I have to look at my cell phone once in a while, but I try to remember before I do look.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think now what happened yesterday, then I recall that way and try to remember she has her football, her baseball, she loves baseball.
Speaker 1:You love baseball, I'm a baseball fan?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, so am I, but my husband wasn't. He said it was too slow and he liked football and basketball and hockey and that sort of thing, but I like baseball. I played baseball for Roseville, oh, one time for Wolf and Roy their son was rather daughter, was our pitcher and we played softball. And then we went to different cities. We went to Marysville, we went to Chico and all the different got a ride with them and played softball and then come back home but I played left field, good for you, good for you, One of the most important positions, and I caught a ball.
Speaker 3:That came directly at me. I was so surprised. All I did was put my hands up and caught the ball. Oh, is that right. But it was a fast one because it was right at me. Good for you. How old were you then? Oh gosh, I guess I was 16. 16?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you've just always loved baseball. So have I? I never quite understood the people that say, oh, it's too slow To me. The other stuff just you know I don't watching someone run up and down a court all the time, just like, okay, I've seen this, what else? Baseball I've always been my favorite. My dad is in the Sacramento baseball hall of oh really so we have definitely have that in common. Yeah, what about you? Do you? Are you a?
Speaker 2:sports fan. I played baseball softball in the summertime for the city and I wasn't really that good, so they put me way out in the field and a fly came by and I caught it. And man was I surprised. You were surprised too huh. During the summer we had the ball games, and we didn't participate in any big town ones or anything, we just played with the small villages, uh-huh.
Speaker 1:But it was fun, wow. So do you think everyone always says? I kind of asked this earlier but, I kind of want to revisit this just for a second, because people say, oh, it's so crazy today. Does it seem crazier today the world to you than it has before? Because, heck, in a hundred years you've seen world wars, you've seen things. Do you just look at this and go, hey, you know, calm down, things aren't that crazy. Or is this just typical? Or what are your thoughts on the way things are now?
Speaker 2:It is a crazy world it is, and it's getting crazier all the time, and one of these days the Lord's going to come back and then it'll be peace and quiet with our new heaven and our new home. Heaven and our new home. I give all my credit, all my hundred years, to the love of the Lord. He's the one. Many times I stumble in my room, but he takes a hold of my hand and doesn't let me fall a hold of my hand and doesn't let me fall.
Speaker 1:That's so sweet. Wow, that's very sweet. I agree with you. I give him the glory as well. How do you feel waking up every day at 100 years old, virginia? I'm lucky, I wake up, do you think? Is that what you think? Is that the first thing? Well, I woke up again, or is it just another glorious day that, as the island says that God has given you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:Every day is a happy day, isn't it? Yes, sometimes.
Speaker 2:I wonder why?
Speaker 1:Because you're happy.
Speaker 2:The Lord keeps me happy, gives me busy.
Speaker 1:Right? See, isn't keeping busy? Having something to look forward to, right? That makes a difference in life, doesn't it? Yes, you have something to look forward to. No one wants to just sit around. You want a purpose in life, right?
Speaker 2:Right, right, right.
Speaker 1:And some people say, you know, I'm ready, but I'm happy every day because of what he does for me. What is your purpose in life? When you wake up, you have a purpose in life. What is it?
Speaker 2:I have a beautiful hymn in my mind and the minute I get up I start singing. I'm not a fancy singer, but I love to sing, as a lot of people probably know.
Speaker 1:You sing in front of people.
Speaker 2:I walk up and down the halls a lot of times singing.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not going to put you on the spot and ask you to sing anything, because I know that can be very, but if you feel like breaking out in song at any point, you just let me know. What about you, virginia? What's your first thing? You wake up? She sings. What do you do? How do you wake up with a sense of purpose?
Speaker 3:Well, to eat, for one thing.
Speaker 1:Got to get to that?
Speaker 3:that's definitely no. I um just I'm grateful that I can, but I do an awful lot of sleeping lately, I think because of the age and stuff seems like I'm forever sleepy. But uh, other than that I I have my friends and I used to play a lot of bridge, but a lot of the ladies have passed away since, so there's not that many. I used to play golf a lot and they said if you play golf, you've got to learn to play bridge. So I took lessons and learned to play bridge and I love the game, but all my bridge players have passed away. The favorite ones are all gone now, but anyhow. So I play skip bow once a while, which isn't all that great of a game. Skip bow, skip bow. Yeah, what's skip bow? It's well, it's kind of hard to explain. I could hardly play it, but let's explain. But the majority of the people, I think, play skip bow here.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's a card game.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's a card game. It's a card game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, okay Is there a point in time where you feel maybe you start to feel your age in terms of doing physical things, going out. Let's say you wanted to, you know, go jogging, or you wanted to work in the yard. Every time I walk it's painful. Was there an age where you and I'm sorry to hear that by the way.
Speaker 3:Well, it's the legs. Your legs finally give out on you, and I used to be very active in high school.
Speaker 1:When did you begin to notice that your kind of legs were?
Speaker 3:kind of like yeah, yeah, come on. Well, I guess at least more so in the last five years it's been worse, but you know you've got to keep going. So you just keep pushing, one leg after the other, one foot after the other. Keep going so you just keep pushing, one leg after the other, one foot after the other. But if you don't, you just don't come downstairs to eat. I don't like to have food in the apartment, I'd rather come downstairs. So it's a struggle, but I make up for it by eating well.
Speaker 1:Good for you, and it's certainly also important, Leila, to have good people to interact with on a daily basis right, a lot of friends, a lot of friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I hope.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, who wouldn't be friends with you? I mean, you are just like just so amazingly sweet. I look at it. I mean everyone just seems so nice here. I mean it's just.
Speaker 2:Well, it doesn't mean we didn't have troubles. Sure, we had a lot of troubles with four boys and two girls. There's bound to be different things come up, but we just weathered through them.
Speaker 1:Well, I noticed one thing when we came in here you had some stories, you were holding some papers in your hand and you were gonna talk about a couple of things you had on your mind, and I sure would be mad at myself if I didn't allow you to do that.
Speaker 2:So oh, one thing I was gonna say in my in the first home that I lived in, we were were on farmers. It was on the farm and actually the house was a little schoolhouse and my cupboards were apple crates and now look what they have. And I had to carry my water for my washing machine and then when I was finished, I had to carry the water out. So maybe that's why I'm still going.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Hard work must have kept me going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I was going to ask you both what you know, because, inevitably, any time that someone turns 100 years old, you'll see a story and they'll say oh, we asked them for the secret to longevity, right? You always hear that question. Well, what's the secret to longevity? I'm surprised, I am.
Speaker 2:And sometimes I think well, how am I supposed to act because I'm 100? So I just keep on acting like I am.
Speaker 1:You just have to be yourself, right, right. That is so strange that people expect you to act in a certain way.
Speaker 2:You just have to be yourself when you wake up every day and go about your life. I'm slower mm-hmm and it takes me a little longer to get different, but I'm still going yeah, yeah, what is so?
Speaker 1:what would you attribute the longevity to? If you're gonna pick out, I think you know what. You actually said it earlier, if I'm not wrong. I picked up on this a couple. You actually said it earlier, if I'm not wrong. I picked up on this a couple of things and correct me if I'm wrong hard work, right, and the fact that you're happy because you, you, you make sure to be happy in your life, whatever's going on. You seem like the kind of person, leila, that well, you're happy, but I wasn't always that way.
Speaker 2:in the troubles you just learn from your mistakes and then you just try to do better. There's many times I think, oh, I wish I could have done that over. I would have been a better person.
Speaker 1:But each day it's here and then it's gone Sure and no one's perfect.
Speaker 2:And then we got a new day to look forward to.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Every morning.
Speaker 1:So what would you say then? What would you attribute If you were to pick three or four things? Well, I think this really kind of helped. Well, I do.
Speaker 2:I do give credit to the Lord guiding me through hard work and my mother was a very hard worker. And then I got in with a good church and some good people and they gave me a new life, a new joy, a new happiness. So, and that's what I look forward to Beautiful. I look forward day to day. I don't worry about where am I going. Sometimes I think, well, lord, will I wind up in this bed for the rest of my life? But I don't stay on it. I just said, lord, you're going to do what you plan for me.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yeah, wow. What about you, virginia? Cigars and whiskey, or what?
Speaker 3:No thanks.
Speaker 1:What's the secret?
Speaker 3:No, I don't do any. Yeah, no, I'm very happy what I'm doing now. I miss being with my family and my little house that I had in Sun City, roseville. I bought that by myself. My husband was always the boss of the family and it was always his idea whatever we did, family, and it was always his idea whatever we did. But I did this on my own and I was rather proud at the idea of doing it, but on my own. I paid cash for it. I paid cash for the house, paid cash for the car because of the house that I sold in Belmont in California, I got a really good price. So I was able to do all that and I often wonder, since I was able to do that and I love my little house what am I doing here?
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a very powerful question. Do you, does your family, still come and visit you and take care of?
Speaker 3:you? Oh, yes, they're in town. Yeah, I have two daughters, one in Sun City, roseville, and Cindy used to live in Palm Springs, but she now lives in Roseville also, and I have grandchildren that are here. That's why I came back here to Roseville. Even though I was raised here and my father was born in Roseville, my grandmother was born in Rockland and my great-grandmother was born out on the home ranch, which was the Shell House family, and I'm named after her.
Speaker 3:My first name is Helen, and I was named after my great-grandmother, and she brought babies into the world. She's a one of those mothers you know could bring babies into the world, what we call them midwives. Oh yeah, she was a midwife. In fact, she even brought the fellow that was a policeman when I was in school, just just real young. We called him Kirby, kirby the Cop, and he had a cap on and had a motorcycle and had chaps, the leather chaps and we called him Kirby the Cap Cat Cop. My grandmother brought him into the world that long ago, and he was the only policeman that we had in roseville at that time too the only police yeah, was kirby the cop kirby the cop, the only policeman in roseville yeah, at that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was you know way back and uh, yeah did you well, I, I have to say I love my little house and I miss my family. They live in Salinas and up in Redding but I have a daughter here and she, bless her heart, takes care of all my needs. And I really struggled hard to first get settled here because I felt I was still capable to do my own. But once I got settled and accepted where I was, there's a lot of joy here.
Speaker 1:Very nice, you still got to get out and about. Your family come pick you up, take you out. You guys go do stuff. I mean everyone gets out of their home and goes and does an activity, right, you still get out and do stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, they do that when we need it. But my daughter always goes to my doctor's appointments and stuff, because if I hear something that I didn't want to hear, then I don't hear the ring. I'll sit on them, that's all right and anyway. So she does that and she just keeps saying, mom, I just want to make you happy, and she works hard at it.
Speaker 1:I respect her so much, my mother.
Speaker 2:You know, in your family you always have one that sort of shines out.
Speaker 1:Well, there's six of us kids and my family.
Speaker 2:Even though you love them all.
Speaker 1:Yes, but when my mother needed help, you know she would really speak to me, speak to us. As a kid, you know and I would pay attention to my mother what she had to say. And so when it came time to where she needed some help, she had had a stroke, so she needed some help, and so I had to get her into assisted living. But out of the six kids I was the one I loved her so much that I would pick her up, take her to the house, get her makeup done, get her hair done, play cards with her, do everything I could so that she could live the same life that she has always lived, because she would live in a house or apartment, right? So I said this is your apartment. I said I approved it. It was really nice. We approved it together. I made sure she was taken care of, she could go to church, she could get everything that she wanted done and I think that's a responsibility and you know she had needs, special needs, showering and things.
Speaker 2:Take her into a, and I was that one for my mother. All the rest of us left Nebraska and moved away, but every summer and every winter I went back for two or three weeks. I never let her have Christmas alone. Good for you, that just means a lot.
Speaker 1:Because I loved her have Christmas alone. Good for you, that just means a lot.
Speaker 2:Because I loved her so dearly.
Speaker 1:Do you have a recollection of your, let's say, your grandfathers, grandmothers? Do you have a recollection of them, Because they must have lived?
Speaker 2:what my grandmother was from Germany and she used to sing songs to me and I learned them but I've forgotten them. But it was kind of cute and I loved my grandma too.
Speaker 1:Do you remember any songs that your mom used to sing to you when you were growing up?
Speaker 2:The only thing I remember in German is Ach wie der Sein.
Speaker 1:Does that mean we're?
Speaker 2:I think that means hello or goodbye, I don't know which one I thought so.
Speaker 1:I thought so. What about you? Do you remember any? Did you sing any songs to your kids when they were growing?
Speaker 3:up? Oh yes, almost constantly. My older daughter has a beautiful voice. My husband was a singer also In fact his whole family were singers. But anyhow, we used to ride in the car when we lived in Reno and his office was in Sacramento. So when we'd drive back and forth from Reno to Sacramento we'd all be singing in the car. And my older daughter really has a beautiful voice, and his family had a beautiful voice, so we did a lot of singing also too.
Speaker 1:My mother sang all the time and we would be traveling and she would say, hey, you kids want to hear another song that I wrote and we'd say yeah.
Speaker 1:And she would say I'm looking over a to hear another song that I wrote. And we'd say yeah. And she would say I'm looking over a four-leaf clover. And we believed her. You know lazy bones sleeping in the shade? We believed her. She wrote these songs. Until later on I realized, oh, she didn't write those songs, but she was a great mom. She would always sing to us, yeah my mother sang in church too.
Speaker 3:Oh, is that right? Yeah, when we lived here in Roseville. Yes, in fact she sang in a little operetta that the church had and it was the um, three Little Maidens that we, I can't remember it was a, what was the title of it, but anyhow, she and they sang the song there Three Little Maids. Then they were little Japanese and they sang the song there Three Little Maids. Then they were little Japanese ladies and they did the little stunt like that, which was kind of entertaining you know what I'm saying she had a beautiful voice and she sang in the choir all the time.
Speaker 1:What was her?
Speaker 3:name. Her name was Catherine VanVleet. I guess God bless her. I might say yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, I have just had the best time. Is there anything that, as we sort of finish up our conversation, I don't want to take your entire day. You've got places to be, things to do. Is there anything that you would like to say to my audience, anything that you would just like to say?
Speaker 2:You know it's so easy to complain, and my thinking is, if we could look for the blessings instead of complaining, we would all be happy.
Speaker 3:Oh, God bless you for saying that. You can't be happy all the time. Little complaints doesn't hurt anybody.
Speaker 2:All right Is that your final thoughts too?
Speaker 1:Or did you have a couple of final thoughts? Doesn't hurt anybody, All right. Yeah, is that your final thoughts too? Or did you have a couple of final thoughts? No?
Speaker 3:that's not my final thoughts, because, even though I'm happy, I've got to agree with that.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm still proud, and I'll bet you do, but it doesn't. But on the other hand, it doesn't keep you from being happy, though, right.
Speaker 2:Well, I sang in the choir and a couple times I sang a solo. But that's the past, right I?
Speaker 1:don't do that anymore, but I still sing. I still just want to take us out with a something, song, huh, you want to take us out with something? Oh, I thought I would give it a shot.
Speaker 3:I sang too I take us out with daughters and and Emily dance one night with the had the orchestra teenagers wearing back. But I sang a song too. I'll never forget that. But I had stood up there and I'm trying to think of the song that I sang. Anyhow, it was quite modern at that time during the war time, but anyhow, I enjoyed doing that. It was fun. But I never thought I'd ever do anything like that. My mother had a voice, daddy had a voice, but I didn't really tell you the truth. I was gonna. My girlfriend was supposed to sing with me and she decided not to do it.
Speaker 1:So I was up there by myself trying to sing, so anyhow, so okay, my final question is that on this thing because I've just had so much fun I could ask you a question.
Speaker 3:Thank you, this has been fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you. Is there? Are there any? So let's put the. This is just out of, maybe, my own curiosity. Let's put, like, let's say, big band and that kind of music in the background just for a moment. Do you like any rock bands? Do you like Led Zeppelin, pink Floyd, what do you like Anything like that? You're looking at me like what are you asking me right now? What's your favorite Pink Floyd song.
Speaker 2:My favorite what?
Speaker 1:Pink Floyd song.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't expect you to ask me that.
Speaker 1:God bless you. You're so wonderful. Do you know this music? Yes, I mean, you had kids, right what?
Speaker 3:The favorite song.
Speaker 1:I was just asking if you liked rock music Led Zeppelin, Creedence.
Speaker 3:Clearwater. I like any kind of music. To tell you the truth, fantastic, fantastic. I like all kinds of music Wow. Tell you the truth, fantastic, fantastic. I like all kinds of music, wow, well.
Speaker 1:I just thought I would. I figured I would ask him. I have had a great time here, so I want to thank you both.
Speaker 2:Yes, do we get a copy of this?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You're going to be able to get a copy of this, but, leila, I don't want a copy of it. Virginia, you don't want to. Virginia, you don't want to? Oh, okay, now this is my final question. I promise Sorry audience when someone talks about podcasts. Do you ever listen to a podcast or do you think I? Don't know what a podcast I turn the radio on. Do you ever?
Speaker 2:listen to a podcast. Did somebody suggest a project?
Speaker 1:A podcast, not a project A podcast. A podcast. A podcast, not a project A podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, I usually go and think about it. I try not to do hasty decisions.
Speaker 3:So, in other words, I didn't hear what you said.
Speaker 1:Do you ever listen to podcasts? Do you know how to listen to podcasts? I don't know what you mean. No, I don't. Okay, so I'll tell everyone here because they might want to know how they can listen to this. I don't know if anyone here listens to podcasts.
Speaker 2:It seems to be I know I see you back there going, no.
Speaker 1:And I try every night on my radio show to tell my wonderful audience look, it's not only the radio show but it's a podcast after and I do that every day and I don't know that people know how to do that really. So, in order to hear this tonight say I see you shaking your head no, this will be on my podcast.
Speaker 1:I am going to play some of it on my radio show so you can just turn the dial on and hear that tonight, probably in the 7 o'clock hour. But the podcast do you use a smartphone? Do you use a phone like this all the time? Oh yeah, so do you ever?
Speaker 2:I'm old-fashioned, I don't have that.
Speaker 1:Okay, I love that. Do you ever hit your phone and ask for directions or something like that, or what time a movie starts?
Speaker 3:Yes, I asked Siri.
Speaker 1:Okay. So if you were to ask Siri, if you said to Siri the same thing like you would on anything else, you just said Siri, play Pat's Peeps pod. Peeps would be people, people that I take out traveling with me and listen to my show, pat's Peeps podcast. It'll literally pop right up there and you won't have to do anything else except push a button and it'll play. That's how easy it is and people don't understand that, but it's really that easy. What peach Pat's Peeps? All right, I get people, except like a little peep, little peep, you know. P-e-e-p.
Speaker 3:Peeps, see, I don't hear any names, so it's kind of difficult. Denise is going to help you.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have Denise help anyone. It's so easy. All right, denise, help her with that. It's so easy to do. It's so easy. It's as easy as turning on the radio, but that's where you'll hear it and I'll make sure that she knows where you can hear this, okay, I?
Speaker 2:would love to have a coffee.
Speaker 1:Lila, what a pleasure having a conversation with you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:And thank you, pat oh.
Speaker 1:God bless you.
Speaker 2:May the Lord bless you as you continue your work.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, virginia. Thank you, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 3:It was really delightful. Thank you very much for coming, Thank you.
Speaker 1:I Thank you so much for your time today. It was really delightful. Thank you very much for coming. I enjoyed it. Oh, and thank you everyone. Thank you Summer, Thank you Denise, and thank you to Ivy Park and Roseville.
