By Anna Krejci
News-Chronicle
They've seen the days of horses and buggies turn into the age of the automobile. They've seen radios and TV invade our homes. They've seen movies go from black and white with no sound to full color with THX certification. They've seen both world wars and the Depression. And they've seen countless other innovations and political, social and cultural events.
Who are they? They're sisters Majorie Krueger, who turned 101 on Saturday, and her 99-year-old sister, Ruth Rickert.
There is a long history behind the two women who now live together in a residential facility in Howard. They play cards such as bridge, sheepshead and rummy, and Rickert said she watches TV, especially Wheel of Fortune and the news.
"I'm waiting for good news," Rickert said. A supporter of President Bush and the Iraq war, she said she is waiting for violence there to end.
Krueger, on the other hand, said she wished the United States was not involved.
Despite differences in opinion on current world policy the sisters, who were 15 and 16 when the nation granted women the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment on Aug. 26, 1920, agree on the importance of voting and plan to vote in the November elections.
Krueger and Rickert were two of eight children in their family. Their father was a cheesemaker.
They walked two miles to board a train for a 10-mile ride from their Black Creek home to school in Shiocton. When Krueger graduated from high school in 1920, the family moved to Green Bay. Rickert then graduated from Green Bay West High School in 1922. She was in a class of 40, with a more-or-less even number of boys and girls. Krueger was one of six girls who graduated from Shiocton High School with 102 boys.
Krueger's husband died at a young age, and Rickert, a Wisconsin Public Service employee for 40 years, never married. To be employed there at the time, women could not marry, but Rickert said the "stupid" rule was not the reason she is single.
"Mr. Right never came along," she asserted.
WPS employees used to retire at age 65, as did Rickert. "Now they can keep on until they die," she said.
Before working at WPS' property records department during the Depression, she followed her job with Northwest Engineering to Chicago, where the company moved.
Krueger raised two children with her husband and worked as a secretary for a company that today is Krueger International. She helped one of her children run a hardware store until she was 91 after finishing her career at KI. She always worked on a typewriter, she said.
Her many years in secretarial work might influence her winning streak in spelling contests at the nursing home.
Krueger and Rickert named life's highlight so far as high school graduation, and both said they do not have any goals left they would like to accomplish.
Between them they have traveled to Hawaii, England, France, Italy and the Holy Land - trips made by airplane as opposed to more local excursions on a Model T Ford in the early 1900s.
Krueger could not measure the technological strides made since her birthday on Aug. 28, 1903, except perhaps through the human race's evolving language.
"'Technology' - we didn't have the word in our vocabulary," Krueger said.
The greatest social change was young people working more and more and having to pay other people to care for their children, Krueger said. It was a change for the worse, she added. Krueger and Rickert shared knowledge from their life experiences.
Rickert advised young parents to stay at home more with their children.
Krueger said people should follow their desires. "You're doing as you wish, what more can you ask for," she said.
After the death of Krueger's husband, Rickert and Krueger lived together for 40 years in a house on Howard Street in Green Bay. Six years ago they moved to Cardinal Ridge Residential Facility in Howard, giving them a long history of life together.
When asked of what she thinks of birthdays, Krueger said, they are "just another day." Rickert turned 99 on July 21.
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