Looking back over his life, Lou Larson can say that he's seen some changes.
He grew up without electricity in a house heated by coal. He remembers bringing coal up from the basement a bucket at a time. The kitchen was heated by the cookstove and water came from a hand pump. The outhouse, he said, could be very cold in the winter.
They walked to the post office to pick up mail. Back then, all the businesses gave away calendars each year. The Larson's kitchen had 14 calendars. The family also owned a clock that kept time for seven days.
Larson helped his father take care of the two-room schoolhouse. That meant going in early to light the furnace so the building was warm when the children arrived.
They kept chickens for the eggs and had a dairy cow, as well as a brown Airedale named Dan and a cat. Larson's brother, Clem, burrowed a team of horses from a neighbor each year to plow a field that was about the size of half a football field, Larson said. They planted potatoes, corn, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, radishes, onions, cucumbers and red and yellow currants. The rhubarb and asparagus came back each year. There were also fruit trees
In the summer, they took black innertubes down to the St. Croix River to swim. In the winter, a man cut ice on the river to fill up an ice house. He would cut a piece off to fit the kitchen icebox and it lasted three or four days, melting into a pan underneath.
Larson remembers seeing an airplane for the first time. There was a train that passed by too, but it didn't seem to have a schedule. When he was 12, his brother Clem bought a Model T.
When he started high school, he got his first pair of glasses and can remember he was amazed by how clear the world really was.
"I am blessed with a good strong heart," Larson said recently, "I take vitamins and exercise 15 minutes almost every day. My wife and I celebrated 73 years of marriage a year ago. She took good care of me."
Larson has lived at Concordia for about six years and he's happy there. The food, he said, is good and there are plenty of activities.
"I played poker with five buddies for the first time in four months," he said. "I lost and it didn't even matter -- it was so good to be together again."
His career was with IBM. He worked there for 42 years and created 40 winning suggestions. He once had a customer come find him to deliver a message. The printer carriage Larson had fixed was working perfectly for the first time, ever.
He's proud of his family, a daughter, two granddaughters and three great-grandchildren, as well as 73 years of marriage.
After moving to Bella Vista, he joined Crime Watch and received an award for distinguished service to the organization. He once found a man who had fallen in his yard and couldn't get up. It was mid-July and Larson was able to get him out of the heat and humidity.