"I must have crocheted at least 100 afghans," she said.  "I've given them to everyone of my children and grand-children and great grandchildren all down the line.  I crocheted bedspreads, too."  Ida's own bed is toppedwith one of her beautiful crocheted creations.
For the record, Ida has 19 grand-children, 20 great grandchildren, 24 great, great grandchildren, and 3 great, great, great grandchildren.
Her passion for African violets be-gan sort of by accident.  After receiving plants as gifts from her grandchildren, Ida began propagation with leaves from those plants as well as leaves from the plants of other people.  Down the hall from her apartment, a large array of her blooming African violets has a special place in a window well for residents and visitors to observe and enjoy.
Ida's health can be precarious because of her age, and precautions and medications are in order.  Her blood is checked every month because she takes cumadin, a blood thinner.  On July 5th, 1992, in the last decade of Ida's century, she underwent heart surgery and had a valve replaced.  "It was rusted shut," she said.  "Now I got a pig's valve.  After surgery I was like dead for two days.  But now I'm fine."
Ida has also had a complete hip replacement and sometimes walks with a cane for support.  The cane doesn't affect her ability to boil her potatoes and make her bed.
What does the world look like through the eyes of someone on the verge of being a centenarian?  "It's gotten worse," she said.  "There are too many divorces, and the young people are too used to push button.  There are too many shootings and there was another lady that was stabbed to death.  Television is the worst thing people could have.  Mothers and fathers are working and the kids don't know what to do with themselves.  We used to come home from school, change our clothes, and we had our work to do.  We carried in wood and fed the chickens and gathered the eggs.  And then we had our learning to do."
When Ida was born, only one in ten people in the U.S. lived in cities.  Today, one of every two people lives in a city.  Mothers and fathers are still working, but not side by side with their children.  People are still dying, but not from whooping cough.  People are still learning, but not only from their parents and school teachers.
Yes, Ida Plocher knows life before and after conveniences, before and after wars, and before and after death and disease.  Ida knows the 20th Century, for it belongs to her as it belongs to few others.  And now she is beginning to know, like the rest of us, the 21st century.
Thank you, Ida, for your story.



CAPTIONS FOR PHOTOS.
Ida Plocher was born in 1902.

The Moldenhaurs -- Ida, her parents and siblings, after WW I.  Baby brother Albert had already died.  Back (l-r):  Ida, Lena, Carl, Gustie, Bill, Ann, Clara.  Front:  Fred, Father Carl, Esther, Mother Auguste.

Ida, the maiden, "getting
the morning sun."

Walter and Ida in their
"courting days."

The wedding couple, Walter and Ida, on May 4th, 1920.  Back (l-r):  Fred Priebe, Mabel Braunworth, Alvin Plocher, Rose Priebe.

The Plochers with their children in 1942, "taken before the boys went off to the war."  Front (l-r):  Walter, Vernice, Ida.  Back:  Mae, Dale, Albert, Floyd, and Jewell.