BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — With friends and generations of family standing around her, Charlotte Tommerdahl blew out the candle on her 100th birthday cake.
"The years just flew by," she mused from an oversized armchair in her Brooklyn Park apartment several days earlier.
The world has certainly changed since her first birthday. She was born in Callaway, Minnesota on Sept. 29, 1924, the second of nine children.
“Our town was Callaway, about 15 miles north of Detroit Lakes, which is the Becker County seat. I went to grades one through eight in my town, grade school and then we went into high school and we had our choice of going to Detroit Lakes or going north to Waubun on the reservation,” Charlotte recalled.
On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, Charlotte shared stories from her life on a reservation in northwestern Minnesota, where she graduated high school at 17. She moved to Minneapolis not long after.
“I got a job in the creamery but it was a nothing job and my cousin called from Minneapolis,” Charlotte said. “The huge Twin Cities Ordnance Plant was operating with, they made 350 caliber bullets for the war effort, shipping them by crate loads overseas.
“They hired many, many, many people and they needed office workers," she laughed. “My cousin worked in a production building, loud and noisy and all that, but she liked it. But she needed someone to help her pay her rent.”
So in March, she got on a bus for the city. After a short-hand typing test and a spelling test, Charlotte had secured a job as a secretary in the War Plant. She worked there until the war ended in 1945.
Still needing to pay her rent, Charlotte searched the papers and found a job working as the secretary for a chief engineer at the Bemis Bag Company in Minneapolis.
While working there she married her husband Wally, a man from Detroit Lakes she had met at a dance when they were both in high school.
“… Had our wedding in Calloway. Mother was by then the Postmaster, and she invited everybody in town. There were 200 people in our town!” Charlotte remembered.
The two were married in 1948 and two years later, their son Skip was born. Two other children, Barry and Diane, followed over the next eight years.
Charlotte was at home, the one Wally built for the family by hand, for 17 years before returning to work as a secretary for the Anoka-Hennepin School District. She was with them for 21 years before retiring in 1987.
Wally died in 1997 at the age of 72, from cancer.
Charlotte's voice still tells of how much love they had in their marriage.
"We had a long, good marriage, [Wally was a] good role model for those kids. Never had a problem with those kids."
While Charlotte lives alone, she has clearly maintained connections with her community and has many friends in her building.
Charlotte recalled a conversation with her building's manager earlier that day.
“She said, ‘Here's what you're gonna be asked: What do you attribute to your long life? How did you happen to reach this age?’ And I said, ‘I don't know what to say!’” Charlotte laughed.
When she talked about her life, she recounted hardships from growing up on the reservation with only her mother to care for nine children.
"... She was washing clothes all the time and they didn’t have wringer washers, either. She would have to rinse the boys' overalls and wring them by hand and hang them on the clothesline. Imagine nine kids at a table eating!" Charlotte exclaimed, remembering the meals. "The boys like to stand up and grab the bread, you know. Table manners were real import to her and we all learned well.”
Times were often tough. But she also told stories of good times: Game nights, get-togethers with friends, lunches with other couples and her children's many adventures.
Charlotte also loves Minnesota sports, especially the Vikings and the Twins.
“But you know, you can't live in there,” she said, gesturing dismissively toward her TV.
So, what’s Charlotte’s advice for reaching 100?
Stay busy. Even at 100, Charlotte goes to activities in her senior co-op’s common room. She worked hard as a secretary for decades and after retiring, continued to volunteer.
Play cards. Being with groups of people, either friends or family, still makes Charlotte’s eyes light up. Be around other people that make you happy.
Get a dog. “Barry got himself a new dog and he said that ‘I lost a lot of weight with my new puppy,’” she shared about her second son. “He runs it every day… I think… when we have get-togethers, [we] have dogs and the dogs are here, and there, and everywhere!”
All things in moderation. Charlotte said she enjoys a single cocktail or a glass of wine from time to time, but as she cautioned: “You shouldn't eat too much bacon. I had a nutritionist sit with me, I remembered everything she said and that taught me moderation in everything you do and eat.”
And her final point, which came up several times and was spoken like a lifelong secretary and editor:
“I read; always have a book. I feel sorry for people that don't read. There are so many good books out there.”