Free Press – July 3, 2008

Ada Bleam

Dear Friends,

Good morning. “I’m so thankful that I can live by myself,” Ada Bleam told me shortly after reaching her 100^th birthday, last week. Teddy Roosevelt, one of my favorite Presidents, lived in the White House when she was born. The country moved by horse and buggy and the railroad.

Ada Bleam looks 20 years younger than her age. Her excellent mental and physical health astounded me. Her daughter, Marjorie Geissinger, is very proud of her mother and alerted me to the celebration. She met me at her mother’s front door near Macungie.

Ada Bleam turned 100 on June 21 and recited a five-stanza poem at her family’s reception. “A House by the Side of the Road” is the same poem that she recited at her eighth grade graduation exercise. She was 12 at the time.

Friends, take note. A hundred years ago, you could not attend high school unless you’d passed a proficiency exam in reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, and spelling. It’s no wonder that educators from around the world visited America to study its amazing public education system. They don’t any more.

Ada Bleam remembered me as one of the three villains who had chosen her family farm for the Michener Library site in 1970. The Bleam farm was adjacent to Quakertown and ran from California Road to the railroad. As one of three county commissioners, I had voted for the condemnation of her land. Ada and Sam Bleam didn’t want to sell their property. Walter Farley, Bill Warden and my plan was to create an Upper Bucks campus for the Bucks County Community College on the Bleam farm. Constructing the new library was the first step.

History proved me wrong.

The college was never built there but fortunately the land has been used for recreational use ever since. In spite of those unpleasant memories, Ada was most cordial. “It was a big hurt,” she told me, “it almost took my life. My daughter [Marjorie] lived near here so I got away from the tragedy [of losing the farm]. Where I’m living today is a calming place.”

Her husband, Samuel, worked at Bethlehem Steel and farmed the land. He was a Quakertown school director as well. Ada attended the Shaw (one room) School next to her farm.

Ada wanted to be a teacher and chose academics at QHS, taking classes in English, German, algebra, history, and science. She graduated in 1925 with 22 credits, six more than required.

So it’s no wonder that her four children became teachers. Marjorie, QHS ’54, is a retired teacher and former principal at Quakertown Christian School. Mary Lou (Bleam) Cummings, QHS ’62, taught in Africa and has written a book. James Bleam, QHS ’64 taught in Newfoundland and the East Penn schools. Richard Bleam, QHS ’67, taught and then moved into manufacturing. He designs waste products and travels throughout the world.

Ada has eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

She remembered the first family car, a Dodge. Their first trip was to attend her graduation from eighth grade. But the car ran out of gas next to the Docktor farm on Pumping Station Road. (I wrote about Jeannette Docktor’s 100^th birthday last year. Richland Township’s climate must be ideal for long life.) “The Docktor’s gave some gas to my father,” Ada continued. “We just made it in time.” Her father, Earl Hixson, was a schoolteacher and a farmer. “We went to school nine months of the year because the children were needed on the farm,” she said.

(Would you believe that our public education is still based upon an agricultural economy? Children only go to school 10 months of the year.)

But I stray.

“My parents spoke Pennsylvania German when they didn’t want us to know what they were saying,” Ada laughed.

(When I was in school, the farm children spoke English, flavored with German. I remember how we town kids ridiculed their accents. It took me fifty years to figure out that they were bilingual and I was not. The Pennsylvania Germans have an accurate saying, ‘we get too soon old, and too late smart.’)

As a child, Ada raised strawberries on the farm and helped her father run his butter route throughout the Quakertown area. She remembers the old Broad Street stores like Goldsmith’s Jewelry, Hagers’ Meats and the Hillegas Drug Store…and, of course, the Quakertown Free Press.

By the way, Ada is an avid reader. “She reads a daily paper, cover to cover…and lots of books too,” Marjorie told me. Ada is very musical and plays the piano and organ… “I used to sing,” she said. “I had a strong voice.” She still has a strong speaking voice and a firm handshake.

And her diet?

“On the farm, we raised chickens, fruit and vegetables,” Ada replied. “So we had good, simple nutrition. “I still have one egg for breakfast.”

“She likes quick and easy cooking,” Marjorie laughed.

“I used to cook for eight…now I’m down to one,” Ada quipped.

She arises at nine AM but doesn’t get to bed before midnight. “I’m a night owl,” she told me.

We talked about the special events in her lifetime. The Titanic went down when Ada was four. She was 12 during World War I and remembered a neighbor who was killed in the service. “I saw the affects of war,” she observed sadly. Ada spoke about World War II, her marriage in 1936, and the walk on the moon…“It was a full 100 years,” she said.

“My family is my hobby,” Ada concluded.

“She’s a blessing,” Marjorie told me, referring to her mother. “Her 100^th birthday is a dry run for the 101^st!”

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith