Prince George, B.C.- While  Canada  is pulling out all the stops to celebrate its 150th  birthday,  Vicki Gutfriend  of Prince George is  partying on  to mark her  100th birthday.

A resident of Laurier Manor,  Vicki   was born in Saskatchewan during  the first World War,  and  married her husband in 1942 during the second  World War.

She says the secret to a long life boils down to  healthy living, “No fast food,  no junk food,  no drinking and no smoking.”  That doesn’t mean she hasn’t had lots of fun over the years, “We would  get into a  horse drawn wagon,  someone would have a guitar,  and we would travel to  the next town to  go  to a dance.”  Although she  was never one  to  drink alcohol, she says there  was never a worry about anyone drinking and driving “The horse always knew its way home.”

She met her husband at one of those dances.

She belongs to  two seniors groups in Prince George, is a member of the Eastern Star,  Women of the Moose,  St. Mary’s group,  is one of the Red Hat Ladies,  and  is a line dancer.  She has been active  “I’m a hyper person,  I skied, I bowled, I curled,  I can’t sit still.”

She and her husband came  to Prince George  in the 60’s and worked at the  McLeods store on 4th Avenue  for  about 13 years in the menswear department until that  downtown store closed.  Her husband,  Greg,   became a  centenarian in 2013,  but has since passed away.

She has seen many changes over her 100 years,  including the  evolution of the telephone ” At first, you had to be on that  phone,  ring one,  ring two, and there were maybe a dozen people on the same line, butting in.”

And of course changes in mail delivery, “My uncle had horses, and they used to go   50 miles one way  to get the mail, and come back again the next day.  We didn’t have t.v.’s  or radios or anything like that.  Now ( with email) you feel like you’ve been invaded,  they know more about you than you know yourself.”  There have been plenty of other changes too  “I’ve seen so many things,  I could  write a book.”

A recent fall that  left her with an injured knee has this active  100 year old  woman  in a wheelchair “But my marbles are good,  there’s nothing wrong there.”

Today,  other residents  at Laurier Manor  are helping her celebrate with a party,  then  there’s another party planned for  this Saturday at St. Mary’s Hall “I will be probably so tired by Sunday, I won’t know which   end  is up” laughs Vicki.

And when it comes time to blow out the candles on her  birthday cake,  what will her  wish be?  “For one more year.”