Elgin woman credits keeping busy for her 100 years
At 100 years old -- 90 spent in the Fox Valley area -- Goldie Weisenbarn remembers a time when problems like traffic congestion and suburban sprawl were unheard of.
The Wisconsin-born Weisenbarn has seen a lot of changes since she moved to Dundee Township as a 10-year-old in 1917, when the valley was mostly farmland and the Elgin National Watch Co. was still going strong.
She's also seen a few things stay the same. For example, in 1917 she joined Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Elgin, and she's still a member today.
Weisenbarn will celebrate her 100th birthday Sunday with a party at Bethlehem Lutheran for about 150 of her closest friends.
Weisenbarn lived in her own house until two years ago, and insists on helping out around the home of granddaughter Pam Olson, with whom she now lives. She has never had any serious health problems and takes no medications or vitamins.
"She's supposed to take an aspirin every day," Olson said, "and it's a chore to get her to even do that."
Weisenbarn offers no secret to good health, but she has a few tips.
"I never smoked," Weisenbarn said, "but I drank about six cups of coffee daily."
Weisenbarn also practiced moderation with alcohol, drinking only on Saturday nights out with her husband, Lenny Weisenbarn, who died in 1968.
"When Lenny died, liquor died for me," Weisenbarn said. "I never took a drink after that."
If self-discipline is one of Weisenbarn's keys to good health, then her current health is well-earned.
As a child she helped out on her family's farm on Randall Road. After the eighth grade she left school for good, and the 13-year-old's father got a permit for her to work gluing cardboard boxes together.
From there, Weisenbarn worked a handful of other factory jobs before landing at the Elgin Watch Co. in 1936, when she was 29. She stayed there until the factory closed. Since retiring, Weisenbarn has kept busy with family and church.
And that may be her secret.
"I've always worked," Weisenbarn said. "I've just kept going."