Harriet Glasgow would have to show an ID card to get into a centenarian club.
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ALAMOSA — Harriet Glasgow would have to show an ID card to get into a centenarian club.
The resident of The Bridge in Alamosa looks more like 65 than 100. Physically and mentally very capable, Harriet is following in her mother’s longevity footsteps. Her mother lived to be 102.
Having turned 100 on Saturday, August 26, Harriet celebrated with her three children, other family members and friends in Salida on Saturday and with her Bridge family on Tuesday.
Enjoying traveling and trains, Harriet received a special gift certificate for a train ride from Bridge Administrator Carol Riggenbach and Activities Director Linda Cordova. Harriet has enjoyed numerous trips in her many decades of life and still enjoys going on outings with The Bridge staff and residents.
“It’s a very nice place to be,” Harriet said. “All of the people have been nice.”
Harriet grew up on a dairy farm in Plainfield, Illinois, the place she called home until she was 96 years old.
She and husband Wayne, a carpenter who passed away in 1978, raised three children, Kathie, Nancy and Skip and enjoyed numerous grandchildren and great (and great great) grandchildren. Kathie, who lives in Tennessee, shares her mother’s birthday. Nancy and Skip live in Salida, which was the drawing card for Harriet to come to Colorado.
“I got my driver’s license renewed at 96,” she said. “I asked them how long they would renew it, and they said ‘as long as you can drive’.”
Harriet has exhibited many skills over the years including working for the Harper Wyman Company in Chicago helping to make burners for stoves. She has had much experience with stoves, most of it resulting in plates of delicious cookies and homemade bread.
“Mom used to like to bake,” said middle child Nancy. “It seemed like every week she was baking a different batch of cookies.”
The family used to call her kitchen Beanie’s Bakery, after their nickname for Harriet. “Until she moved here she continued to bake, and we continued to raid her freezer,” Nancy said.
“It’s been a good time,” said her son Skip who like his mom is a person of few words, though both could probably tell books full of stories.
“I hope you hang around quite a bit longer,” he told his mother.
Daughter Kathie acknowledged her mother’s longstanding participation in Eastern Star, a heritage she had received from her mother and grandmother who was a charter member of the same chapter to which Harriet belonged. Kathie also followed the family tradition, and she and her mother both served as Worthy Matrons. Skip was a member of the Masonic Lodge, which is affiliated with Eastern Star.
Lawrence Martin, who doubles as Santa for The Bridge Christmas gatherings, recognized Harriet for her 82-year membership in Eastern Star.
The birthday party on Tuesday included a large cake with sides of ice cream and musical entertainment by Tim Longmire who played “Pretty Woman” as a special request for the lady of the hour. Below, a photo is propped in front of the musician showing Harriet in her wedding gown in 1940, the same gown her mother had worn.