Thormaehlen - Aging gracefully: portraits of people over 100

Edward Palkot as a baby.

Text and photographs copyright 2017 by Karsten Thormaehlen.
Foreword copyright 2017 by Edward J. Palkot.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 97814521460535 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Thormaehlen, Karsten, photographer.
Title: Aging gracefully : portraits of people over 100 / Karsten Thormaehlen.
Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, [2017]
Identifiers: LCCN 2016010962 | ISBN 9781452145334 (hc)
Subjects: LCSH: CentenariansPortraits. | CentenariansInterviews. | Portrait photography. | Longevity.
Classification: LCC TR681.A35 T46 2017 | DDC 779/.2dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016010962

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LIFE IS LIKE RIDING A BICYCLE. TO KEEP YOUR BALANCE, YOU MUST KEEP MOVING.
ALBERT EINSTEIN

Edward J. Palkot

Life is full of surprises. A while back a book came in the mail: Happy at Hundred by Karsten Thormaehlen. I learned that one of my sons had brought my own status as an active elder statesman to Karstens attention. Im glad that he did because I find this type of book valuable for the cause of seniors worldwide.

Oh, the good old dayswhat was so wonderful about them? Bathing once a week in a washtub of water shared by the whole family. Watching my mother scrub clothes on a rickety washboard. Waiting for the iceman to bring in a big cake of ice for the ice box. And on and on. Would you call that wonderful? Not I.

Somehow we managed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, known as the steel city, manned by men with brawn, where in the spring and fall streetlights had to be turned on at noon because of the heavy smog blocking out the sun. When people ask me how I reached the age of 102, I simply tell them I built up so much resistance breathing that air, and drinking from the rivers polluted by chemicals discharged by the mills, that here I am.

I still remember World War I, seeing a truck loaded with soldiers headed for the front. And I have a clear memory of November 11, 1918, when my father placed a sign in his tailor shop: Closed for the Armistice.

When I entered the first grade of the Conroy School in 1919 (we didnt have kindergarten), I was bewildered and remained so until the third grade. It was then that my teacher had me take the drama role of George Washington going to Betsy Rosss house to sew the first American flag with its 13 stars. Sitting on the stage were five Civil War Union soldiers in uniform. My interest in the theater was born.

Sometime after this, my father sold his business and we moved to his new venture, the McKees Rocks Hotel. It was then that I began my driving lessons at age 15 in a 1921 Hudson with no power brakes, no power steering, no heater. To shift gears I had to use a clutch. I managed to get my drivers license at age 16 and have been driving ever since.

My interest in the theater continued, and in the seventh grade I had a role in an operetta. All these years later, I still sing the ditty about St. Patrick and his shnakes on St. Patricks Day. It was natural that I enrolled in the School of Drama of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), graduating in the deep depression of 1935. Jobs were hard to find, so I went into teaching speech and directing amateur plays on Long Island, New York.

While I was studying for my masters degree at Columbias Teachers College I was out at a local tavern in Great Neck when I met a young man of Lithuanian heritage (I, too, have Lithuanian roots) who suggested that I meet his sister, Anne. After Anne and I met, the sparks began for methough not necessarily for her! Nonetheless I pursued her for some time before I proposed marriage with a ring. We were engaged on New Years Eve 1939 but we kept it secret for a while. Eventually we got married on April 5, 1942.

Anne would eventually bless me with two sons and two daughters. She was a wonderful mother who kept me from being too strict with the children, but accepted the discipline I gave regarding the importance of an education, limiting access to the newly acquired TV set, and so on. Our children have gone on to have successful professional careers and wonderful families of their own.

My poor vision kept me out of active service in World War II, but during the war years I was very active as a personnel man at the huge Sperry Gyroscope plant on Long Island. Afterward I continued my personnel career in Connecticut, and finally retired in 1978 as Vice President of Human Resources for Marine Midland Bank in Manhattan. In my retirement I remained active in a number of clubs, including the Garden City Retired Mens Club, where I served as president (and where we gather for a few mean games of cribbage every week), a travel group with whom I saw a bit more of the world and with whom I still socialize, and the Knights of Columbus (Senior), who have made me president now.

Golfinga lifelong lovetakes up some of my time. Our foursome at the Salisbury Senior Golf Club at Long Islands Eisenhower Park received some publicity for being the oldest group there. We consisted of a man with Irish heritage (age 89), a man with German heritage (age 92), a man with Italian heritage (age 96), and me, with Lithuanian heritage (age 102). The local newspaper, Newsday, ran a story and picture of our foursome, which hangs on the club wall. This congenial foursome, drawn from four different nationalities, demonstrates what makes America a great country.

My children blessed me with six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. After my dear wife, Anne, died of ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease), I had the good fortune five years later to develop a warm friendship with a woman named Alice, whose late husband had been Annes first cousin. Alice has three daughters, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of her own. Extended family gatherings for holidays and personal milestones are regular, including fishing trips at my daughter Barbaras seaside home.

Im still living on my own in a lovely home, tending my garden, shopping and running errands, stopping in at local restaurants for great food, keeping up with my reading, doing crossword puzzles, and chatting with my neighbors. I keep my feet active doing the polka and my appetite sated by eating pierogies at a Polish restaurant. And when people ask me how I do it, I reply, The first hundred years are the hardestafter that you just roll along.

As I look back, I dwell on all the changes the world has seen during my lifetime. From a handmade crystal radio in 1921 to todays digital technology (I use e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter). Early automobiles requiring handheld crankshafts. Iceboxes replaced by modern (ice-making!) refrigerators. Gas lamps giving way to energy-saving electric bulbs. Aviation going from the rickety planes I once flew in to supersonic jets. On and on and on.

What a wonderful world. I would have it no other way.