Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A Sweet Home man celebrated one century of life with his family from all over the nation.
George McBride was born 100 years ago on Aug. 3, 1908. His family gave him a party on July 26 at the Sweet Home Community Center.
That’s older than Father’s Day, which started in 1909. It’s as old as the assembly line and paper cups.
McBride was born in Sterling, Colo., to Bill and Hilda McBride. He had three brothers and one sister. His lone surviving brother, Gene, 91, was present at his birthday party.
Between the ages of 16 and 18, he rode box cars to California where he got into construction work. He spent his life working in construction, operating heavy equipment in construction of dams and roads in California and Oregon. He worked on the Folsom, Boulder, Shasta and Culver dams. He also worked on Interstate 5 in Oregon. He started out working on old equipment, he said. It broke down half the time.
“What’s kept him alive so long is his sense of humor and hard work,” his daughter, Midge Knowles, said. McBride was diagnosed 30 years ago with cancer and told he had a year to live. Obviously, it didn’t work out that way.
Seven years ago, he moved to Sweet Home from California to live with the Knowles family.
“I love it,” he said of Sweet Home.
McBride served in the Army and was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, where “he said he did KP there more than anything else,” Knowles said.
His first car was a Model T Ford about 1923.
McBride joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints around 1962, Knowles said. He quit smoking and started traveling and enjoying life. He retired at age 65.
He has one daughter, Midge Knowles, and one stepdaughter, Joan Rasmussen. He has seven grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
He used to enjoy woodworking, making whirligigs and tulips, which he would give to everybody that came to his house, Knowles said. Now he “enjoys life, enjoys visiting with friends and family.
“He’s a storyteller, always entertaining grandkids with stories of him and Daniel Boone.”