SPRINGDALE — When Lulu Wolking came into this world, a half-gallon of milk sold for 13 cents, a dozen eggs cost 20 cents, a pair of boots cost $2.95 and the population of the country was about 73 million.

        “I can remember vividly back to when I was 3, better than I can remember what I had for dinner last night,” said Ms. Wolking as she settled into a chair near her portrait at Maple Knoll Village.

Lulu Wolking, 102, is congratulated by Maple Knoll Village associate executive director Lena Mares (right) after Ms. Wolking was honored as a centenarian. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        Ms. Wolking, born in 1898, will turn 103 in November. She was one of four centenarians honored this week at Maple Knoll. Three are residents of the retirement community; one is a volunteer there.

        All four were honored with the dedication of the Centenarian Wall, Treasures of Time, a wall painted with clouds and adorned with their photos outside the entrance to the village's auditorium.

        In addition to Ms. Wolking; Elmer Huber, 103, and Eleanora Pineo, 103, both Maple Knoll residents; and Bernice Biddle, 100, a volunteer who lives in Springdale, were honored.

        Mr. Huber, a retired electrical engineer born in Greenville, Ohio, and a resident at Maple Knoll for 17 years, still has a firm handshake and a smile that charms. The World War I veteran plays cards and listens to Bible audiotapes.

        To what does he attribute his long life?

        “No smoking, no drinking, no carousing,” he says. “Getting up early in the morning. I still get up at 5. I usually go to bed at 7:30 at night.”

        Dee Smart, a spokeswoman for Maple Knoll, said by next year six more residents will become centenarians. In the next five years, 46 more residents will have turned 100.

        Ms. Wolking has lived at Maple Knoll for almost 14 years, moving here from New Mexico to be closer to her son and daughter-in-law, Stan and Joan Wolking. She worked and was a homemaker, the mother of two.

        “I read and watch TV, I like the old game shows,” Ms. Wolking said. “I love to walk. I love to write letters, but these days my fingers are stiff. So I use the telephone.”

        She has watched the world grow up and get smaller. As Jerry Smart, president and CEO of LifeSphere, the corporate name for Maple Knoll, points out, the country was a very different place at the turn of the century.

        Americans earned on the average 22 cents an hour, a car sold for $1,500, there were fewer than 150 miles of paved highway and the average life expectancy of men and women was less than 50 years.

        How does Ms. Wolking feel about how the world has changed in her lifetime?

        “I don't dare think about it,” she said. “I like to remember the olden days.”
       

Delta talks at a crossroads
Residents question UC's motives on donated home
OxyContin maker agrees to plan
RADEL: Light rail
Two accused of assaulting MRDD clients
Danger lurks for kids on Net
Study finds activism strong here; more urged
Winter wasn't as bad as we thought
New day dawning for New Miami
One century of life earns them honor
Crime Stoppers gets $10,600 shot in arm
Group opposes textbook decision
Aging classrooms faulted
BellSouth wires Ky. to Internet
Bill would let condemned request DNA evidence test
Black churches confront AIDS
Chemical fire draws lawsuit
Cincinnati schools see test-score progress
Hotel-abduction suspect to be tried in N.J.
Legal Aid opens new building
Man gets six years for sex offense, declared predator
New runway study posted on Web site
New team pushes technology
Ohio district awaits new era
Police seek help in search for missing man
River searched for body; Boone Co. man charged
Senate passes bill limiting telemarketing
Senate starts in on garbage
UK cloning advocate to leave
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report