BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Evelyn Smith turns 99 Monday.
Over the weekend, the former telephone switch operator with the Weston Dodson Coal Co. of Bethlehem marked the event with 15 family members and friends in her favorite way.
“Typical summer picnic fare,” said her son, Craig Smith, who spent the week in town with his mother and relatives, some of whom drove from Maryland to celebrate.
A tale of two icings
Hot dogs, hamburgers, and of course, cake.
The cake was chocolate. The icing half chocolate, half vanilla. The birthday girl wanted to try both flavors, so they cut her a piece right out of the middle.
When you’re 99, you don’t waste time being shy. You just go for it.
“She had a real good day. She was there for four hours, which is a long time for her, engaged. When she has good days, she has great recall,” Craig Smith said.
“So does Gloria.”
“There were a bunch of girls that used to pal around. They used to call her the kid because she was the youngest in the group.”Son, Craig Smith
Evelyn Smith has been friends with Gloria Keeler of Fountain Hill since the fifth grade – that’s nearly 90 years of friendship. Smith was a guard on the Fountain Hill High School basketball team while Keeler was head cheerleader.
“There were a bunch of girls that used to pal around,” said Craig Smith. “They used to call her the kid because she was the youngest in the group.”
The two girls met at Stevens School and moved up through the grades together. According to Craig Smith, his mom and Gloria are the only two remaining class members.
The joy of her life is her son Craig, says niece Barbara Taylor, of Bethlehem.
The joy of her adulthood, says Craig, was helping run the Bach Festival, something she and her older sister Jeanette, did together. They served lunches for the festival-goers and were co-chairs for more than 40 years, and also made the famous Moravian sugar cakes and rhubarb pies attendees came to expect.
“You couldn’t get a ticket to it back then,” said Craig Smith. “They served lunch at their church, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, (at Packer and Vine streets).
“They raised money for missions. They were so proud of that. She and her sister were best friends. They were together every day.”
He said his mother lived frugally and gave generously.
“She would always say, ‘If I don't have the money, I don't buy it,’ and if she had a buck, 70 cents went to other people.”
Generations apart but inseparable
Craig Smith said his mother has lived her whole life without a major credit card, or a computer, and she just got a flip-style cell phone in the last two months. She knows how to operate it and calls him, and his cousin, Taylor, every morning, chatting for five minutes just to let them know she’s OK.
Evelyn Smith spent her party day Saturday telling stories and having fun. The youngest family member at the party, Ryan, 11, idolizes his great-great aunt.
“They're almost inseparable,” Craig Smith said.
“You can't believe that with that age difference they could be so tight, but they are. He is full of questions and full of answers, but they share a joy of gardening, especially in summertime. She had a planter out front, and he would always help her put in the new flowers.”
Speaking from her comfy recliner during some quiet time Sunday afternoon at Moravian King’s Daughters and Sons Home in historic Bethlehem, Evelyn Smith, the middle of three girls, recounted all of the details her son had mentioned via phone the day before. And a few he hadn’t.
Her favorite color is blue.
Her mom and dad had a garden and made all of their own food.
“We were poor, but we didn't realize it, because we always had enough to eat,” she said.
And her favorite flower, she said…. well, she likes them all.
“I’m boring that way,” she chuckled softly.
Hardly boring, Taylor recalls.
“She’s like my second mom. She is never without two or three tissues in her pocket, which we tease her about,” said Taylor.
“She liked to knit and she just liked people. Sitting down was not her hobby. Anywhere she could find people, she was.
“She worked part-time at Yohe’s Pharmacy (at 10th Avenue & West Broad Street) making the ice cream sodas. She’d bring kids in after school to play board games.”
Not easily ruffled
And when things weren’t going right, her son says she would say, “That’s enough for today. Tomorrow’s another day.”
“She never lost her cool,” he said. “That’s about as good as she would do.”
Craig Smith recalled a few other fascinating facts about his mother’s lifetime.
- She was born when Calvin Coolidge was president and there were still some alive who fought in the Civil War.
- She and her late husband bought their single home on Bethlehem’s West Side for $15,000 in the late-1950s and their monthly mortgage payment was less than $50.
- She's a lifelong member at St. Peter’s and also taught Sunday school and sang in choir.
- She brought bingo to shut-ins at Cedarbrook Nursing Home.
- She helped lead her church’s Girl Scout troop.
And, if you weren’t already smiling, this might do it:
“When we sold her home earlier this year and she realized a bit of money, I asked her where she wanted to go for dinner to celebrate,” her son said. Her reply:
“We can go to Pottsie’s Hot Dog Shop” —one of her favorite places, where she would get a hot dog and a chocolate milk.
“With mustard and onions,” Evelyn Smith clarified.
And if she could tell the world something today, besides revealing her secret to living life so well for 99 years as “just lucky I guess,” it would be this:
“Be kind to each other. Support each other. Everything today is so explosive. It doesn’t have to be that way. Life is simple.”
