|
Ethel Wilkey turns 100 years old
By Stephanie Salmons
The old farm house is set back off the road, surrounded by green mountains.
Ethel Wilkey moved to Dillsboro – to this house – the day after she married her husband, the late Joe Wilkey, in 1938, and she’s been there for the past seven decades.
Ethel Wilkey recently celebrated her 100th birthday She was born Sept. 16, 1908 in Watauga County and lived there before moving to Lenoir at the age of 5.
Growing up, Wilkey, along with her five brothers and five sisters played typical childhood games.
“All we had to do was play games,” she said.
She was around 6 when World War I began.
Ethel Wilkey, center, is pictured with her sons Frank, left, and Dennis at a celebration for her 100th birthday. She was born Sept. 16, 1908, in Watauga County and has lived in Dillsboro for the past 70 years. About 150 people attended her Sept. 21 party.
Although she was young, the war still had an impact on her life – two of her older brothers were in the military, she said.
One of her brothers “didn’t hardly get his training in before going overseas,” Wilkey said. “(Another) older brother joined the army. He was a sergeant. They kept him here to train the younger boys who were drafted.”
This brother was on his way to Europe when the war ended, she said. The family received a notice from the war department that said he was missing in action.
However, once he returned stateside, the family received a letter from him and they knew he was OK, Wilkey said. Another letter came from the war department came saying there was a mistake and he was not missing, she said.
The car was still a novelty when Wilkey was young. When she first moved to Lenoir, she said she’d walk up a hill where she could see the highway and watch for cars. “It was a big thing,” she said.
Wilkey tells a story about a 1916 flood.
“It washed fields of corn away,” she said. “The rain had come overnight. The day before, the family was working in the field and left their tools out for the next day.
“The next morning the water was above the corn,” she said. “My brother rode in on a horse to find tools that hadn’t washed away. The water was up to the horse’s stomach.”
After that, the family moved more toward Blowing Rock, where they lived on a farm that had an apple orchard, she said.
She and her family would pick berries, like blackberries or huckleberries.
“Dad would go to Lenoir and buy 100 pounds of sugar for Mom to use to make jams, jellies and apple butter,” Wilkey said. “You raised everything you ate back then.”
Wilkey said that she had to leave school to help at home but eventually returned.
After finishing the ninth grade, Wilkey said that she went to work for a laundry. Because of the Depression, her time was cut to only two days a week.
“We drove trucks to Blowing Rock and got hotel laundry,” she said. “No one had money to use the laundry,” she said.
Because her family farmed, Wilkey said they didn’t feel the effects of the Depression as much as other people.
“Everything shut down. Everyone who had a place to plant something did,” she said. “We always lived on a farm. We still had plenty to eat. The people that had to buy their stuff had it the worst.”
She took up crocheting and made, among other things, blankets and scarves. Some she kept, some of her creations she gave away.
Her sons, Frank and Dennis of Dillsboro, recalled the changes they saw during their lives – and their mother’s.
Frank recalled the days of having to carry water and heat it to wash clothes
“We finally bought a washing machine,” Ethel Wilkey said.
Electricity was brought to the house shortly after World War II – around 1946, Frank said.
Ethel Wilkey said that when they used to raise cattle, she would churn butter as well and that they used a spring house to keep things cold in the days before refrigerators.
“Society has changed considerably,” she said. “There was nothing to do back then. We used to play games at home, have parties. Me and my sisters used to sing every night after (our meals).”
Her biggest accomplishment of the past century? Raising her family, Wilkey said.
Ethel Wilkey celebrated her first century last Sunday (Sept. 21) during a reception at First Baptist Church. According to her son Dennis, nearly 150 people attended.
|
