One Day At A Time

Dorothy Buch didn’t need time to think of an answer when asked recently what the secret was to reaching her 100th birthday.

The Linnwood Estates assisted living resident answered the question with one word – vinegar.

“My little secret is vinegar,” Dorothy said. “Every morning, since I was 25, I drink vinegar, about a teaspoon. I put it in a little glass with about two tablespoons of water. Vinegar is a cleanser and it gets rid a lot of bacteria. I tell people I get pickled every morning.”

Dorothy, who turns 100 today, said she’s been blessed with good health most of her life.

“Jesus still lets me live,” Dorothy said.

There was the time she had a goiter, a couple bouts with pneumonia and the revelation 15 years ago that she has an irregular heart beat.

“I went to the doctor and he said, ‘You’ve got a strange heart. It beats, it skips, it beats,’” she recalled. “I went into the hospital for a week. They tried all kinds of diets. They said I have a crazy heart. They just couldn’t figure it out.”

The irregular heartbeat hasn’t stopped Dorothy from doing two of her favorite pastimes – sewing and playing the piano.

She’s done both since childhood.

“I sew little scraps of material together to make pads,” Dorothy said. “I make pads where you can take it outdoors for a picnic or keep it in the house to wrap up in and keep your legs warm.”

For years, Dorothy was the pianist and organist at Trinity Lutheran Church.

“I played with the choir and would go to practice every Wednesday night,” she said.

Although she no longer plays at church services, it isn’t uncommon to see her behind the piano at Linnwood Estates - entertaining her fellow residents.

For several years, Dorothy shared her love of sewing and music with children in the area. She gave piano lessons and also taught home economics as a 4-H leader.

“I helped kids with their projects - sewing, cooking and home furnishings,” she said.

Dorothy Green grew up in a farmhouse on the top of the hill at Green Hill Farm in northern Mills County. She attended a country school, walking a mile to and from school every day. She’s a 1932 graduate of Glenwood High School.

“What made me so strong was walking a mile to school and walking a mile back home for eight years,” she said.
Dorothy met her late husband, Carl Buch, at a “Saturday night party” in the mid 1930s.

“He came up to me and said, ‘Come on Dorothy let’s square dance.’ He knew nothing about square dancing, but said we could learn it together.”

Dorothy and Carl danced and farmed together for 61 years after getting married on March 9, 1938. Dorothy still has vivid memories of the early years of their marriage when they farmed with horses and shared an automobile, “an old Ford,” with Carl’s brother.

“We started from scratch. We were married during the depression years,” she recalled. “It was a big change when we got a mechanical tractor.”

Carl Buch died in February 1999, “doing what he loved,” Dorothy said.

“He was out farming. He didn’t come in for a meal. He never answered the bell,” she said. “I went out and looked for him. I came around the corn crib and there was a tractor standing there. I just opened the door and felt his pulse. He was gone. He died of a heart attack sitting on his tractor.”

Dorothy and Carl were blessed with three daughters (Eleanor Thomas, Carol Harless and JoAn Collins). Today, Dorothy’s extended family includes five grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

Until the last few years, Dorothy was an avid traveler. She was a charter member of the Heritage Club at Glenwood State Bank. One of her most memorable trips was to Hawaii in the early 1990s. Yes, she enjoyed the natural beauty of the islands, but also remembers the trip for something that happened when she went snorkeling. She was in her 70s and snorkeling for the first and only time in her life.

“I went in the water and then got out, but a friend who was five years older than me got in and did it. So, I went back and got my head under water. I got so excited that my lower teeth came out, but I didn’t notice it until it was time to eat lunch,” Dorothy said while sharing a laugh with her daughter Carol. “I thought to myself, ‘It’s the first day of the trip and I lost my teeth. What am I going to do?’

“Well, the water was so clear that you could see the bugs at the bottom. We were still there when a guy came out of the water and said, ‘Anybody lose their teeth?’ He found them in the water.”

She seldom leaves town, but Dorothy still gets out on a regular basis, taking part in a quilting club at Trinity Lutheran Church on Wednesdays and attending services at the church on Sundays. She also enjoys watching television. Her favorite programs are Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Dancing With the Stars and The Price is Right.

“I know some of the answers, but I really just enjoy seeing how smart people are,” she said.

Dorothy is celebrating her milestone birthday this week with her family, her friends at Linnwood Estates and the congregation at Trinity Lutheran Church.

After all the celebrating is done, things will return to normal for Dorothy and she’ll continue to take things one day at a time.

“I guess 100 is kind of a big thing,” she said. “I know I don’t have the get up and go like I used to have, but if I don’t do something today, I can just get up and do it tomorrow.”