Stanton resident celebrates 95 years of life, experiences, and joys
By Daniel Arens
When most of us think of reaching 95 years of age, we think of nursing homes, aches and pains, and the last slow decline of life. Cora Alderin, on the other hand, seems about as full of life as she has ever been, and her enthusiasm with living is contagious.
“Age is beautiful,” Cora said, sitting at the table of her house where she still lives, adjacent to her son Chuck’s home east of the Leland Olds Power Plant off Highway 200. “You’re as old as you feel, and as old as you make you feel.”
Cora married into the family, which is one of the Swedish families that originally settled in the area around where she still lives. She referred to the region as the “Swedish Flats.”
Cora was the youngest of seven siblings. Her family homesteaded near the the Alderins, Olanders, and other Swedish farms.
Her first introduction to the Swedish families came from coffee visits.
“You came to visit in the morning at 10, that was coffee time,” she said. Also, an afternoon visit at four was a regular occurrence. At these times of day, everyone could be counted on to have their coffee pots going, and people went around to each other’s homes for coffee, baked goodies, and good conversation.
Above all, Cora spoke about the value of conversation.
“In those days, people visited each other,” she said.
Cora lamented the breakdown in personal communication that has come with the distractions of technology, although she admitted that she enjoyed the “party line” which allowed people to connect with different local telephones.
Cora lived on the local farm throughout her life, including a purchase with her son Chuck for 65 Jersey and Holstein cows. They sold the rich milk produced to a local ice cream place along Main Street in Stanton.
Besides farming, Cora also taught at the country school south of Center and worked with the local library in Stanton. She also mentioned that she wrote a little column with the “Deapolis News” correspondence for the Hazen Star.
