Extra Extra: Mrs. Rosalie Hamilton turns 100 years old!

What do you have to do to get a great big bouquet of red roses, lilies, baby's breath and ferns?
Apparently you have to be 100 years old!

This lovely lady is Mrs. Rosalie Hamilton, the Gold Country Girls third grade teacher at Gold Oak School.

As the big sister, I was the lucky one who attended her class first. I also was lucky enough last Friday to attend a special Senior Center luncheon in honor of her 100th birthday. I think I was the only one there calling her "Mrs. Hamilton". She was thrilled that I was there, I was thrilled that I was there. I was her only student attending that luncheon. Gosh, it made me feel young!

Mrs. Hamilton arrives at the Senior Center in her beautiful spangled dress which matched her shining hair. She is always at the center, enjoying lunch, or playing pinochle in a group which includes my mother-in-law, who was nice enough to invite me to this special luncheon.

What, I have to pay my $3? It's my 100th birthday for pete's sake, you would think I could get in for free for once! (My words, I am sure she didn't even realise we were all here for her yet!)

Surprise! We break out into a rousing round of Happy Birthday!

This is my mother-in-law Jayne with Rosalie. Jayne just wants lunch to be over so that she can beat her at pinochle. But first we had to have a turkey dinner... and birthday cake too of course.

Everyone wanted their picture taken with Rosalie.

I posted a few photos on Facebook last weekend, and had several comments. One lady, mother of a good friend of Heidi's, said that she "loved Mrs. Hamilton, she was a sweet wonderful woman and such a good teacher". Another said she had Mrs. Hamilton in third grade also and she would "bring apples or some kind of fruit for us to have as a special snack".

She has lots and lots of friends, and they all wanted their time in the spotlight with Mrs. Hamilton!

I have only two strong memories of third grade. One was a little dead hummingbird that she brought to school. It had apparently flown into her picture window in her living room and broken its neck. She brought it to school to let us see it. I remember it was a bit sad, but so beautiful. Part of life to be learned.

Another time, as we lined up along the wall at the back of the school where our classroom was, waiting for her to open the door, there was a little rattlesnake (very small but still dangerous of course) at the foot of the bank along the sidewalk. I don't really remember what she did but no one was bitten. I just remember how little the snake was, and how she taught us about what to do if we encountered one again.

Getting ready to cut the birthday cake. (We helped her, she only had to cut the first piece.)

Mrs. Hamilton once taught at the Kelsey Schoolhouse which is on the Georgetown Divide where I live. It is a very small school. I would have loved to go to school there, especially if she was my teacher!

She was treated to another round of Happy Birthday. It was a good cake, vanilla and chocolate with pudding in the center. There was just enough, we ate it all up. Yum!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Hamilton. We love you!