The year 1924 was profound for its many inventions that have become everyday staples in today’s society. Sweets such as Dum Dums were created. Kleenex and Band-Aids were introduced. Iodized table salt was sold in grocery stores. The first Winter Olympics were held that year in Chamonix, France.

Besides all these famous inventions and events, 1924 also was the year Norma Peters of Vallonia was born.

Born on Aug. 31 of that year inside her childhood home that nestled in the open countryside of Tampico and Wegan, Peters said her secret to living to 100-years-old is “good clean livin’.”

“No smoking, no drinking and no gambling,” she said.

The daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Oberman, Peters grew up in a country-style home — built by her father — with two sisters, Millie Wessel and Louise Hackman, and a brother, Louis Oberman, who are all deceased.

Peters recalls a big kitchen where something was always cooking, a front porch off to the side of the living room and a balcony upstairs.

“When mom would make strawberry preserves, she set it on the roof to cook because it would get so hot,” she said.

Growing up, Peters worked in the fields with her father picking tomatoes that would eventually be sold to the old Brownstown Canning Factory.

“I was his right-hand man,” she said.

Her family lived two miles from St. Paul Lutheran Church at Wegan where she would attend school until the sixth grade. Peters then attended Slygo Hill School in Vallonia at the time and then transferred to Brownstown Central High School for three years. That’s where she met her husband, Frederick.

Peters said the “dating scene” in the 1940s was very different compared to today as boys would often drive around to visit various houses of young girls asking them on dates.

“One night there were about six different cars that stopped at my house,” she said. “I went with the last one, but I don’t remember who it was.”

While Peter’s said she doesn’t exactly remember her first date with Fred, it didn’t take long for the couple to make it official.

“After that first date, we didn’t date anybody else,” she said. “There was one girl that wanted him real bad, but he didn’t care for her.”

When Fred was 19, he was called to service and joined the fight against the Germans in World War II. Peters and Fred decided to get engaged before he left and wrote letters every day until he returned after the war in 1945.

Three years worth of letters are kept in a box somewhere in the home of her daughter, Janet.

During that time, Fred experienced battle on one of the fives beaches of Normandy, France, in what would later be known as D-Day, the largest seaborn invasion in history.

As an engineer, Fred was one of the people on the front lines preparing ways for American troops to invade the sandy beaches.

Peters and Fred later in life travelled back to France and walked the beach many American troops and their allies had fought and died upon. Janet also made the same journey her father took during his time in the war.

To aid in the war effort, Norma Peters decided to leave high school after her junior year and went straight to work for Noblitt-Sparks in Columbus.

Noblitt-Sparks, which opened in 1919 — the same year Cummins Engine Co. was launched, was a household phrase in Bartholomew County and known as an air pump manufacturer among other items.

As World War II erupted, the company joined thousands of other industries in converting their operations to wartime production.

Employees who once assembled car mufflers and radios were then creating steel containers, fire extinguishers, rocket-launching tubes and parts for military vehicles. Peters was in the midst of wartime production.

While never having obtained a driver’s license throughout her life, Peters and her sister would often take the bus to Columbus and stay during the work week and travel back home to the farm on the weekends.

In her free time, Peters wrote in her diaries that are still intact to this day. Entries of trips to Zaharakos Ice Cream Shop in downtown Columbus and reviews of movies she saw at the Crump Theatre covered the pages.

“Almost every day she wrote in her diary she said she wrote to Fred or received a letter from him,” Janet said.

Her diary also captured important events in her lifetime such as Dec. 7, 1941, when the U.S. declared war on Japan, President Franklin D. Roosevelts “Day of Infamy” speech to Congress and May 8, 1945, the day Adolph Hitler surrendered.

After the war, the soldiers who survived returned home to their loved ones in celebration. For Peters and Fred, it was the perfect time to tie the knot.

The couple were married on Dec. 16, 1945, in the dead of winter.

“It was so cold that day, my wedding flowers froze,” Peters said.

A few years later, Fred became a Sears salesman which allowed the couple to travel across the United States for many years and they started creating a family.

“I think I counted it one time and we lived in 24 different houses,” Peters said.

After settling back in Vallonia with her four kids, Dennis, Larry, John and Janet, it was time for the family to start a new venture. In 1961, the Peters established an IGA store across the street from Vallonia High School. It became a common occurrence that Peters could always be found in the kitchen.

“If she wasn’t working, Mom was always home making food,” Janet said.

A common dinner delicacy was a meal called Ground Beef Ground Style, which was hamburger fried with onions, mixed with cream of mushroom soup, cream cheese and ketchup with cooked biscuits on top.

During the 10 years of owning the IGA store, Peters had some interesting experiences including a visit from Cowboy Bob, played by Bob Glaze and taking a ride to the hospital to deliver her son, John, on a tractor in the middle of a blizzard in 1961.

“There was 26 inches of snow on the ground that year and Dad couldn’t get home to take her to the hospital,” John Peters said. “She went part of the way on a tractor and then went with a neighbor on the other side of this snowbank. It was in the newspaper.”

Janet said some of the fond memories she has with her mother are wearing homemade dresses, sewn by her mother, to square dances and helping her wash clothes with a ringer washer.

“We always called her the Energizer bunny because she was always doing something,” she said.

Norma said she never thought she would live to see her 100th birthday, but she has always been healthy. It also helped that living a fruitful life runs in the family.

As a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Vallonia, which celebrated its 150 year anniversary, Peters had the opportunity to get her picture taken as the oldest member of the church.

A woman with simple needs, a humble heart and a hard-working attitude, Norma said she would want to be remembered as nothing out of the ordinary.

“I would probably want to be remembered as just an ordinary housewife, mother and good woman of faith,” she said.

Peters will have an open house from noon to 5 p.m. Aug. 31 for anyone that would like to visit. Cards also may be sent in the mail.