Paul Soderdahl has lived at the same address on Humphrey Avenue in Oak Park for all but the first few months of his life. Considering he is about to turn 102 on July 10, that’s saying something.
Paul currently lives on one floor of the three flat his father bought in 1905, the year Paul was born. “I have lived on each floor several times over my lifetime,” he said congenially.
He remains close friends with the Plourde family. “They take me to Russell’s Barbecue, and I celebrate Christmas and the holidays with their families,” he said fondly. Kip Plourde lives in one of the units and drops in to check on him.
“Their daughter Emily used to come home from school at Whittier and have cookies and milk and do her homework until her parents came home,” Paul remembers.
“People can’t believe it when we tell them our daughter used to come home to freshly baked cookies and milk, but it’s true,” Kip confirms. “Paul is sharp as a tack and would help her with her homework, and then they would do crossword puzzles.”
Paul himself once attended Whittier Elementary School, “but it was just a few rooms back then,” he recalls.
“Paul is old school-he referred to me as ‘sir’ the first years I knew him,” said Kip. “We moved in 15 years ago. We were a young family who knew his neighbors, and he needed a tenant. He has a heart of gold. We would come home to find baked goods on our back porch several times a week, and we still do find homemade cookies,” he noted.
Paul’s father and mother were Swedish immigrants. “Paul’s father lived to be 103, which, considering he was born in 1860, is remarkable,” said Kip. “His father was a handyman in the estate district of Fair Oaks and Iowa and also a custodian at the high school. By renting out apartments in his house, he raised his family of three children; Paul was the oldest.”
Paul worked throughout high school delivering for a pharmacist located on Austin Boulevard. He went to pharmacy school in Iowa, and stayed there to teach during the school year and also run summer activity programs. He returned to Chicago and accepted a teaching position.
“At first I got raises, but then because of the economy, I kept getting salary cuts, so after several years I ended up making my starting salary again,” recalled Paul of the Depression era. For financial betterment, he went to work as a chemist for a Chicago leather company. “I never went to any of the wars because I was always classified as 4-F because I worked for the company that was instrumental in creating the leather parachutes for the government and such,” he said.
Paul is an avid gardener, planting tulip bulbs, and is known throughout his neighborhood as “the man who plows the sidewalk.” Paul still operates a snowblower and enjoys providing the free service to his neighbors. “I know my neighbors on either side of me,” he said. “I like to stay active.”
Paul met his wife through a youth activity club and the two enjoyed traveling. “We took a photography course in Switzerland by a University of Wisconsin professor,” he said. “She and I both had identical cameras.” They adopted a daughter, who is now grown with children and grandchildren.
“I call my daughter every Saturday; I used to call my sister every Saturday before she died,” Paul said.
He participated in several senior organizations, noting “I like woodworking,” but has stopped in recent years.
“I gave up driving on my 94th birthday,” he said. “I just decided it was time and sold my car.”
Paul maintains a very regular routine, rising usually by 7 a.m. and going to sleep at 10 p.m. He enjoys watching Wheel of Fortune and is an avid puzzler. Although hard of hearing, he is very spry. He walks to the area grocery stores, to Erik’s Deli on Oak Park Avenue, and to church year-round.
When his wife was alive, they were part of a group of four couples who met once a month to socialize, and even went camping and traveling together. But Paul has outlived all but one member of his old group.
There is one constant in his life, however, from his old days. “Whenever I do anything for him, he treats us to a dinner out, usually at Russell’s Barbecue,” said Kip, of the decades-old mainstay in River Grove. “Paul used to take his wife there when they were dating and he still enjoys eating there.”
Ruth Radnitzer, Virginia Harris
Lessons from the lunch room
“It’s time; my knees aren’t so great, especially in the bad weather,” said Virginia. “My feet hurt and legs,” agreed Ruth.
Ruth Radnitzer has been the lunch lady at Whittier Elementary School for the past 35 years. Her friend, Virginia Harris, has worked with her for 33 years. This year, they’re hanging up their aprons and putting away their trays for good.
The two were feted with a celebratory dinner party, May 10, at The Loon Café in River Grove with more than 60 current and former faculty and staff members from Whittier Elementary School.
“I used to be very quiet, shy, and wouldn’t speak to anyone,” said Ruth. “Now I feel comfortable talking to people. I’ve come out of my shell,” she said, reflecting on what she’s learned working as a lunchroom supervisor.
“She has to call all the parents and remind them to send their children’s lunch money, so she talks all the time,” Virginia confirmed.
Ruth and Virginia have been friends for more than half a century. “Our husbands were in Scouts together, and our children knew each other,” Ruth said. “I had worked at Whittier for a few years sitting with the special education children at lunchtime, and I was asked by the principal if I would like to work in the cafeteria.”
Ruth also worked as a sub-secretary. “When the position opened up to work with me in the cafeteria, I asked Virginia,” Ruth recalled. “She had to ask her husband, just like I had asked mine, and we have worked together ever since.”
As the lunchroom supervisor, Ruth makes sure the meals are ordered, money is collected and everything balances on the computer. Virginia is the server who also supervises the line where the children fill their trays. Both are certified in food service and have received special training in first aid and use of the defibrillator.
“Not just anyone can be a lunch-lady,”Virginia observes
“We are a team. When I am busy doing something, Virginia knows what to do without me asking her,” said Ruth. “I could never do what Ruth does; I don’t know anything about computers,” marvels Virginia, who will turn 92 on Aug. 7-she was born in 1912. “My five children graduated from Whittier and my daughter is the lunchroom supervisor at Lincoln,” she said. She has another daughter who is a retired teacher. Her grown children came from as far away as Florida and Colorado to attend the retirement dinner party.
Ruth’s three sons also graduated from Whittier and two also are in education.
“My son Karl actually taught at Whittier,” she noted.
Ruth prefers not to reveal her age. “It’s nobody’s business but mine,” she said.
“I don’t care who knows mine,” said Virginia.
The two have seen real changes in their tenure. “First there weren’t any lunches available from the school at all, then there were bag lunches from the high school, and then hot lunches, and now there is a steam table,” Ruth said. “The meals are healthier now, and I notice more children are buying them.”
Both ladies agree chicken nuggets are the favorite entree.
“We just serve the food though, we don’t see what goes in the garbage,” Ruth is quick to point out.
They’ll miss the children most. “I feel it’s important to say that the children are wonderful, very polite, and say please and thank you,” notes Virginia. Ruth nods in agreement.
Both plan to continue participating in EthnicFest, Whittier’s annual multicultural celebration. Proud of her Swedish heritage, Ruth maintains a table with delicacies from Sweden, including Pepparkakor (Swedish ginger cookies) the past two years. Virginia helps sell refreshments at the festival.
“This year, several former students stopped by to say hello,” Ruth said.
“They are so tall compared to how little they used to be, and they all remember our name but we don’t remember theirs,” Virginia added.
After working together for 33 years, they don’t plan to stop their friendship cold turkey.
“I told Virginia that if I am in the car going somewhere I know she would like to go, I’ll stop by and get her,” said Ruth.
Virginia stopped driving several years ago “after I ran over a fence.”
“I didn’t know you could drive,” Ruth said, looking surprised.
“Oh yes,” Virginia recalled. “I would drive down Division with my kids and give each one a job-this one look for cars on the right, this one on the left and that one for police.”
Both say the key to their longevity is keeping busy. “Why, who wants to be a plain old stick-in-the-mud?” Virginia asked. “It’s good to keep your mind and your body active,” Ruth concurred.
“And the parents are just so appreciative that someone is there taking care of their child,” she added. “When I told a parent the other day that I was retiring, she asked ‘What will they do without you?’
Both ladies smiled at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
Mary Paulas
Beauty before age
Mary Paulas works as a manicurist at Sandra Ross Salon, 339 Harrison St. in Oak Park, most Fridays and Saturdays. That, in itself, is unremarkable.
“She has about 30 clients,” said Sandra Ross, the salon owner. Nothing unusual there, either-except that Mary will turn 90 next month.
“She gives the best manicure I’ve had in my life,” said client Maria Basualdo of Oak Park. “I was gardening and my nails were terrible. She has the steadiest touch.”
Mary Paulas was born on June 7, 1918. She has lived in Berwyn in the same house for the past 50 years. “I have to take my driver’s test every year to renew my license, and I just passed,” she says, proudly. She drives everywhere, including the city, “but I don’t take the expressway-the cars just go too fast,” she explains.
Years ago, Mary worked at Marshall Field in Oak Park and met her boss there. Both left when Field’s closed to work for Leo Joseph, another salon owner. Sandra Ross bought the salon from Joseph and moved within the last few years from its longtime location on Marion Street down to Harrison. It never occurred to either that Mary wouldn’t come too.
“I have been working since I went to beautician school when I was 18,” said Mary. “And I will keep working until I know it’s time to stop.”
Mary recalls the excitement of living and working in Chicago as a young woman. “We would go dancing-there were so many ballrooms back then-or roller skating or ice skating. There were many rinks,” she recalls. “Or we would just go for long walks.”
Her favorite time period was in the “1930s and 1940s. Everyone used to get so dressed up. You had to have matching shoes, purse, gloves and even a hat,” she said.
And hair was a big part of a well-dressed woman’s grooming. “Women would come every week for a shampoo, set and style and manicure for 50 cents,” she remembers. “Women favored longer hair then and there were so many styles, updoes and chignons. It was more affordable back then to get your hair done also. Hats were very popular and you styled your hair according to the hat you were going to wear.”
She even remembers attending the 1933 World’s Fair as a young girl, when “there were so many games and rides.”
Mary is the youngest of a family of seven children. Her twin sisters are 93 and still alive. “They lived together all their lives, they never married, and they often dress alike because that was the fashion when we were young.”
Her mother lived to see 96 years and her father reached 78.
Mary regularly exercised and maintained her weight. “I have always been a swimmer and even today I swim at a local health club,” said the mother of two sons and a daughter.
“Mary is just wonderful; she keeps us all young,” said Sandra Ross.
The keys to a healthy, long life?
“Be happy, don’t hold a grudge, keep active, and laugh at everything because there is no sense in crying,” she said, “and stay active.”
Mary always worked, even after getting married. “I had my own beauty shop in the front of the house, and we lived in the back; my children were raised in the shop,” she recalled. Her husband, now deceased, worked as a taxi cab driver after returning from WWII and then worked for a baking company delivering bread to many area restaurants.
“It never occurred to me not to work; I like keeping busy too much,” she said.
She has traveled over the years-“with a girlfriend because my husband didn’t like to travel”-to Europe, all over the U.S. and to her favorite place, Hawaii.
“It’s so beautiful there-to wake up and see the sunrise and hear the waves on the beach and smell the flowers-you have to experience it to understand,” she said. But she always returned home to Chicago and has no plans to live anywhere else.
“I paint a little, crochet, knit and I like to watch Good Morning America and also Dancing With The Stars.”
Mary said her role at Sandra Ross Salon is “try to keep the peace and have fun.” Chelsey Reaves, 20, stylist and manager of Sandra Ross, has worked with Mary for two years. “Other than the shampoo girls, who are in high school, I am the youngest employee and she is the oldest,” Reaves said. “I think of her as my friend first, but sometimes she gives me advice like a grandmother, and when I have a bad day she rubs my back.”
“I can just look at her and know something’s wrong and say, ‘What’s wrong, pussy cat?” Mary notes.
“She tells the best stories, like when she used to do the showgirls’ hair, tint and bleach it-and then they would ask her to go in the bathroom and, you know, make the carpet match the drapes,” Chelsey laughed.
“Oh, don’t put that in,” Mary said, laughing. “It was a freer time then-anything went.”
Mary would stay late to do the showgirls’ hair before they went on, “and sometimes I went to the theater and touched up their hair in between acts. They were paid well and they tipped well. I would enjoy watching them onstage,” she said, noting that Chicago had many entertainment venues back then.
“I also met the movie star Colleen Moore once. She is the actress who donated her dollhouse to the Museum of Science and Industry. Chicago was filled with movie stars and famous people back then, and you could see them on the town.”
Diane Covelli has worked with Mary for 25 years, starting together at Marshall Field. “She is my idol,” Covelli said. “Mary is the best.”
Marie Coduto of Berwyn has been a client of Mary’s for more than 40 years. “I followed her from Field’s to Leo Joseph and then to Sandra Ross,” she said. “I have seen Mary every Saturday, and we talk about my family and we talk about her family-we are friends.”
“I am like a psychiatrist,” Mary observed.
“I love her,” said Yadi Ochs, a stylist, who also worked with Mary for more than 20 years, starting at Marshall Field. “She can never retire-never.”
Mary Paulas says she’ll know when it’s time.