<I>The Eagle/Angel Carpenter</I><BR>Three spring chicks (from left), Ila North, Charlie Lewis and Florence Silvers, recently celebrated their 100th birthday. The trio gathered at Golden Heritage Adult Foster Care in John Day July 16.

JOHN DAY – It can’t be easy making it to 100 years of age, but three residents recently reached the status of centenarian.

How did they do it?

“I think it’s a mistake,” said Ila North, who lives at Golden Heritage Adult Foster Care – she’s having trouble believing she made it.

Rita West who also lives at Golden Heritage said North used to walk her little dog up Airport Road every day.

“Just ornery,” Florence Silvers said, though she later admitted that working hard, eating good food and keeping her body strong may have had something to do with it. She lives at Valley View Assisted Living Community.

Charlie Lewis just sees himself as fortunate.

“I never took care of myself any better than anyone else – just happened to be lucky enough to reach the double-0 mark,” he said. He’s also lucky enough to live on his own, drive his car to grocery shop and do his own laundry and cooking.

Mable Belshaw beat them all, celebrating her 105th birthday May 17 at Country Spice Guest Home.

“She’s amazed us all,” said her daughter, Billie Morris.

“She’s been a hard worker all her life,” Morris noted. Her mother who was a ranch wife used to say, “You’ll never get anything done if you don’t stick to it.”

The new “Club 100” members each had a story or two to share, looking back at the good old days and living in a new era.

Ila NorthNorth, who’s lived most of her life in Grant County, said she has fond memories of camping, fishing and hunting deer and antelope.

She and her husband, Emmett North, once owned a cabin on Sproul Lake and enjoyed summers there with her grandchildren.

Her son, Robert, lives in Portland.

She held jobs housekeeping and working at MacGillivray’s Insurance in the old bank building where Century 21 now has its office.

Anyone having dinner at the Grubsteak Mining Co. restaurant in John Day will have the opportunity to see two of her oil paintings of old area mills.

In the early 1900s, she rode a horse to school, but a more current pastime was riding motorcycles. Her last ride was on a Harley Davidson with Earl Perry to celebrate her 95th birthday.

“They called me Motorcycle Mama sometimes,” she said.

Florence SilversLike North, Silvers enjoyed oil painting. She picked up the hobby at age 72. Several of her landscape paintings hang in her living room. She also loved sewing throughout the years; At one time sewed all of her clothing and sewed for others.

She was born with the help of a midwife in Mitchell to Warren and Marentina Davenport and had four sisters and three brothers.

She recalled that when the family got their first car her dad wouldn’t drive it much.

“He would drive it in the ditch, so Lavon took over – my oldest brother,” she said.

Silvers was raised out of town on a farm in Spray where she and her siblings were “extremely close,” said Darlene Nodine of John Day, Silvers’ niece. She said they looked forward to visiting each other at reunions.

Longevity runs in the family – a brother and sister are still living, Warren is 97 and Mary is 94.

Some of her favorite memories are of the times she helped deliver or delivered 24 babies in the Spray area.

“The doctor had to come from Fossil, if he made it in time,” Silvers said. “Sometimes he was out with a patient and I had to finish.”

Florence Silvers helped bring many children into the world, but was never able to have any of her own.

Nodine said, “Although she didn’t have any children, she mothered many nephews and nieces and others.”

Silvers has been active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout her life. She used to play the piano and the foot-pump organ and loved being involved with the youth of the church.

She and her husband John Shown held many activities at their ranch, and “barn dances were especially fun,” she said. The ranch was located between John Day and Mt. Vernon and is now owned by Bill and Debi Hueckman.

Commenting on how things are different in 2008, Silvers said, “The world has changed an awful lot. With TV, you used to get some news. It’s just all silly – can’t get anything that’s very uplifting.”

Charlie LewisOn Oct. 31, 1929, Lewis moved from Helix to John Day. He recalls local kids pulling a Halloween prank that night, hoisting a single-horse wagon on top of what is now the downtown historical church. They also threw two or three cords of wood in the street – back then it was unpaved and there wasn’t much traffic, he said.

The next day, Police Chief Al Empey headed to the high school and pulled several students out of class to fix the problem.

Lewis moved to the area to work with his cousins, Bernice and Lester Doering, at John Day Hardware.

Over the years he’s worked for the state Bureau of Public Roads; the post office, as assistant post master; Chester’s Thriftway (worked for Frank Chester); Texaco Oil Company; S & M (Smith and Meisner) Motor Company as service manager for 11 years; and owned and operated John Day Floral for 21 years.

He retired in the early 1980s, but he continued to keep busy.

In 1965, he was Chamber of Commerce president, city recorder and was on the city council. He’s also been a member of the Masons, Scottish Rite, Mystic Shrine and the Elks Lodge for more than 50 years.

He says he can’t do a lot now, but he’s in fairly good health. He enjoys visiting with neighbors. Friends Dick Gray and Steve Stancliff stop by every day and his niece Patricia Moore and her family check in frequently.

His home looks just like his wife Cecille left it before she passed away eight years ago, tidy with knick knacks, figurines and paintings to look at. The piano where she taught lessons still sits in the living room.

Lewis said he plans to give the piano to his 9-year-old great-niece, Rhyenna Moore.

He says many of his friends and relatives have passed away, and he doesn’t recognize too many faces when he’s out and about. The town has changed, too.

“John Day was a high western town,” he said.

“People used to ride horses up and down the street. All the buildings have changed,” he said. “It’s all changed. It’s hard to describe. If you’ve been there you’d realize it, but to tell it is something else.”