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A petite Viola Goble Tate sat in her navy blue chair at home recently and talked about the past 100 years.
Mrs. Tate's modern home is one she and husband Harold were able to build after she won a Reader's Digest sweepstakes in about 1975.
"She was in the hospital and the sweepstakes information came in the mail and it got thrown in the trash, but when she got out of the hospital, she took it out of the trash, entered the contest and won. It was for about $27,000," said her sister Sarah Hughes.
When Mrs. Tate turns 100 on Saturday, July 22, friends and family will gather at the Southern Baptist Church in Rutherfordton to celebrate with her.
Tony Hamrick and Missy Hamrick are hosting the event and everyone is invited. Tony is among nephews of Mrs. Tate who helps her with grocery shopping or doctor appointments.
"He sort of took my place to help," said Mrs. Hughes, 84, who once helped if Mrs. Tate needed anything.
Although quite independent, Mrs. Tate doesn't drive a car and never has. Back in the day she really didn't think about a driver's license.
"There weren't any cars and no place to go," she quipped.
A daughter of Robert and Estelle Goble, she and sister Sarah of Ellenboro, are the remaining survivors of the 10 children of Robert and Estelle Goble. One of the Goble's children was stillborn and another only lived for a day, Mrs Tate shared.
"I was the third from the top," Mrs. Tate said, "and there are 16 years between Sarah and me."
From her home, Mrs. Tate talked about life on the farm as a little girl growing up off Chase High Road on a 100 acre farm working beside her daddy.
"He never really taught us to work, we just watched and we knew what to do. We worked hard," she said.
At age 11 she had to quit school to work on the farm. Later on she worked at Alexander Mills until she was 21 years old.
Back on the farm she helped in the corn, cotton and wheat fields and picked vegetables when they were ready for canning and cooking for family suppers.
Some of the Goble children worked inside the house canning the vegetables for winter while the others worked in the field.
"I didn't milk. I was afraid of cows and I was also afraid of horses," she said. She was never hurt by either, keeping a safe distance from them. "Those big eyes scared me to death," she said.
A trip to the store by horse and buggy was only to buy sugar, salt and coffee. They raised the other foods.
For fun as a little girl she remembers going to the cornfield where there was some shade from the hot sun and she'd make baby dolls and other creatures from apricots. "I'd use sticks for legs and I'd use crabgrass to make tails," she said.
One of her brothers had a "little red wagon" she recalled.
When she was 21 years old she married Harold Tate in Gaffney (SC). That's where everybody got married then. They were married 69 years and both worked full-time jobs in textile plants until retirement ages.
"Six days a week we worked and on Sunday we went to church," she said.
The couple attended Providence United Methodist and Caroleen United Methodist Church.
Although they didn't have children of their own, Mrs. Tate was a mother to some of her nieces and nephews. Together the couple kept a great-niece Amanda and great-nephew Andrew, the grandchildren of her sister Sarah, while their parents worked.
Andrew and Amanda Hughes (Marshall) stayed with the couple until they were old enough to go to school and after that they would stay in the mornings and after school until their parents picked them up or the couple took them home.
"Sometimes they stayed overnight."
One of her greatest joys was having Amanda and Andrew in her life. Their photograph is prominently placed on a table in her living room.
Mrs. Tate said as a child there were no family vacations and not many as an adult. She recalls one trip to the mountains near Asheville where about six family members crowded in a one seat car.
"We were all piled in there and I remember laying on the top of the back," she said.
A pair of pliers were attached to the brakes to help with the stopping of the car, but when they didn't work, the family car came down the mountain, brakeless. "I will never forget that," she said.
Mrs. Tate was about 31 years old when she took a bus to Denver, Colorado to help her sister take care of a new baby.
"She was sick so I went out there to look after the baby," she said. When things improved she came back home.
She has traveled by bus or car to Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. "But never Florida," she said. She's never been to the beach or seen any ocean. She has never flown in an airplane although she remembers seeing her first plane, "with just two wings."
After Mrs. Tate was laid off from Caroleen Mills because some folks believed the work was too hard for women, she started working at Wendy's restaurant in Caroleen and later returned to the textile plant.
When she wasn't at work at the mill, she worked at home sewing for the public. She made clothes, draperies, quilts and anything else someone needed.
She was still sewing for the public up until Covid hit in 2020 and people were asked to stay at home and to social distance. Her sewing machine is still threaded, though, and ready to sew.
Today's world is so different, she said.
There were no modern conveniences at home, of course, and no television for a very long time.
She says one of the biggest changes that affect her today is the way people dress.
"I can't find clothes for my age alone. I can't find dresses I like. There are no sleeves and the necks are too low.
"I want high necks and long sleeves," she laughed.
Mrs. Tate's daily routine starts when she makes her bed, takes her medication, takes a bath and then heads to the kitchen to make coffee, breakfast and then she picks up her Bible and sits and reads it for hours.
After lunch she might watch television.
She loves watching Dr. Charles Stanley preach on television and knows he has passed away. She also watches the "old movies"such as Father Knows Best, Hazel, Andy Griffith and the news.
Right now she'd like to get the ABC channel back on her television since that's her favorite news channel.
Mrs. Tate's health is good and during a check-up two years ago she was told she no longer had any heart issues.
"They told me they couldn't find anything wrong," she said.
Many years ago she was diagnosed with a leaky valve and angina.
Her diet primarily consists of green vegetables with green beans being her favorite; chicken or bacon. A nephew takes her to the store and stops at her favorite meat market on the way back home.
Her mother would often pick "poke sallet" a green plant she couldn't stand to eat. She never got past the smell of it cooking, she said.
The best President of the United States, in her opinion, was Franklin Roosevelt and she didn't want to name her least favorite.
She doesn't cast votes anymore. After voting in a presidential election some time ago she said she walked out of the precinct and someone was announcing who had won the presidential election.
"They had already announced who won and they had not even counted my vote yet. I never voted again," she said.
Mrs. Tate has a strong prayer life and spends many hours a day praying for neighbors, the sick, the church and the sinners.
"I want everyone to be saved. If I had one wish, it would be that everybody could be saved and go to heaven," she quietly said.
As a little girl she didn't always get to church.
"It was too far to walk for the little children," she believes, although her parents did walk to church.
She was 11 years old when she said she gave her heart to Jesus and was later baptized in a Baptist church.
Her favorite hymn is "I'll Fly Away" and all Bible verses are special.
Sister Sarah said, "I'm so glad we are still living. Of all the siblings, I'm glad we are still here together. She's the quiet timid one. I'm the more loud talking one," she said.
"She's a very good sister and she looked after me and cooked for me when I had my surgeries. We share grandchildren and the Bible with each other," Mrs. Hughes said.
"I really never thought about living to be 100," Mrs. Tate said. Daddy was 94 when he died and Mama was 91.
"When I look back, it seems like 50 years was two months ago. I really never felt I'd get this age and I'm worn out, but I'll still keep going."
If there are any regrets over the past almost 100 years, it would be "to live a better life," she quietly and humbly said.
She believes her longevity is due to "living for Jesus."
