Harriet Harding Sees the 1900's - All of Them
November 14, 1999

It won't be much longer and the century, Jan. 1, 1900 to Dec. 31, 1999, will be over and done with.

Harriet Harding of the Good Shepherd Home has personally experienced each and every one of those years, a fact which she celebrated Sunday, Nov. 7, at a birthday reception held in her honor at the home.

Harriet was born Nov. 7, 1899 in Tiffin. She's resided at Good Shepherd since 1992.

Her son Vern, her only child, lives in Fostoria. Harriet has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She was married to Oliver Harding who had a barber shop in Tiffin for many years.

What does Harriet think about turning 100?

"To tell the truth," she says with an impish smile, "I don't know much about it. I've never been 100 before."

Perhaps that's because she's not had time to think about it.

She's too busy taking part in the doings at Good Shepherd. She still reads the paper each day, plays bingo, participates in bowling and is an enthusiastic competitor in the Activity Department's spelling bees.

"I always did like spelling bees in school," said Harriet who attended school in Tiffin and also attended Tiffin Business School.

She worked for a time at the Seneca County Courthouse, Penney's and Hayden's Drug Store.

"Hayden's was a nice store, a popular store. They had a soda fountain and a lunch counter, too. I loved to work there."

Why does Harriet think she's seen the coming and going of so many years?

"People can live to be 100 if they live right. I try to live right. I always went to church."

That church is Tiffin's First Lutheran Church where Harriet has been a member all her life and where her soprano voice was heard in the choir for many years. In fact, she was baptized in that church.

"She has a beautiful voice," said her granddaughter Deb who was visiting from out of town.

According to Vern, she sang in operettas in high school.

"In high school, I used to sing in everything they had," said Harriet. "I never turned anything down. If they asked me to do it, I tried to do it."

Another way to live right is to help others and for over 15 years Harriet was a volunteer, a Gray Lady, at Mercy Hospital in Tiffin.

Harriet used to take book carts around to the rooms so patients could select reading material and helped with fund raisers.

Harriet was also quite expert at needlecraft, a skill she acquired naturally enough from her mother, Iva Mae Bloom.

"She was a wonderful dressmaker," said Harriet. "She sewed for a living. She was a wonderful mother. She made sure I did what I was supposed to."

Quilting was a special hobby. One of Deb's treasured possessions is a hand embroidered quilt Harriet made in the 1930s.

"The one that I've on my bed now is one she did," said Deb. "It's a bouquet of flowers. It's a little art deco for that time. It's got black, hot pink and a lime green shade. It's wonderful."

"She used to have women come to the house," said Vern, "and have a quilting session, usually on Wednesdays. I can remember that when I was a kid. She'd have the quilts set up in the dining room and they would quilt all day and they'd have coffee and lunch."

Harriet said she was blessed with a "wonderful mother." She must be a wonderful mother herself since Vern comes to visit every day. "I have a wonderful boy," said Harriet. "I don't know what I'd do without him,"

The display case in the Good Shepherd dining hall was filled with some of Harriet's personal possessions, including her childhood miniature tea set which she's owned for more than 90 years.

Another item is the cookie jar she always kept in her kitchen.

"Every time we went to the house," said Deb, "we went to the cookie jar where she had her famous sugar cookies and gingerbread coopies. She mad big, soft sugar cookies. They were the best."

Grandmothers know the way to a little kids' hearts.

"I always had it filled for them," said Harriet. "If I didn't have those on hand the children would be disappointed."

The secret to a good gingerbread cookie? Harriet says it's the molasses. You have to use Brer Rabbit molasses.

Harriet doesn't make gingerbread cookies anymore, so she didn't mind passing that secret along to today's generation of gingerbread cookie bakers.

Speaking of passing things along, the Focus would like to pass along its Happy Birthday wishes and congratulations to Harriet.

We hope she continues to enjoy life at the Good Shepherd and that she enjoys many, many more of those daily visits with her son.