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Nippenose Valley Village resident celebrates 100th birthday tomorrow

LOCK HAVEN -- One hundred years is a long time.

In those 10 decades, technology can go from a bulky record player to having millions of songs from artists large and small in your pocket. Television can go from black and white, to color to even more refined 4KHD; wars are fought and won, iconic celebrities rise to fame and are mourned when they're lost. Not many get to live to see all of this and then some.

But for Alta Feerrar, she will have done just that tomorrow as she turns 100 years old.

A resident of Nippenose Valley Village in nearby Lycoming County, Alta was born on Aug. 20, 1926.

Assisted by only a walker, Alta can tell you about her life and even share a lesson or two about her past profession as a journalist for local newspapers. Always wearing her wedding band and at least a pair of earrings, Alta will tell you she loves jewelry.

"My husband was a jeweler," she says.

While seated outside on the patio at Nippenose Valley Village, Alta spoke about her life, her career and her children.

Alta and her late husband, Bob, shared 67 years of marriage and had two children, a boy and a girl.

The couple were devout followers of Christ, participating in many mission trips to Haiti, Antigua and the West Indies.

Alta notes she and her husband also traveled to areas of Europe.

"I believe in traveling," she said. "It's good for you."

She said the family would take trips to the beach each year.

"They liked the ocean and boats," she said. "We had a boat of our own at the house because we lived along the river."

Alta called these yearly trips "special vacations" for her and her family.

"We were very close as a family. We tried to be as much together as possible," she said.

Alta is a charter member of Felicita's Chapter 500 of the Order of the Eastern Star, a Daughter of the American Revolution, charter member and life member of the Jersey Shore Historical Society and a member of the Lycoming Historical Society and the Jersey Shore Town Meeting Inc.

Alta's career saw her serving as a journalist for 25 years at the Williamsport Sun Gazette and Lock Haven Express.

"I was a reporter and was on crime reporting," she said.

She said oftentimes another reporter would go to the scene of a crime or accident and bring information back to her for articles. Other times she'd be following up on court cases.

"People were assigned to different things that happened and you would often follow up on it. A lot of times it takes you through the court system," she said.

Alta said she could remember moments where she'd feel bad for those involved in some of the articles she had to write while on the crime beat.

She spoke happily about her time with the newspapers, noting the people she met.

"You meet so many people and get to talk to some that may be different from you," she said.

Noting she never found herself in danger, Alta said she loved her time as a journalist.

"I liked everything about it. It's a good job because it keeps you abreast of everything," she said. "There were good times and not good times but I liked it."

She encouraged those who might be interested in the profession to be willing to try new things and not be afraid of different experiences.

"Get every little job you can. You have to be willing to change," she said. "You've got to like it a lot to take it on. You do it because you like it!"