By LISA BRITTON

Of the Baker City Herald

Louise Dodson sits behind the cashier table at the North Powder Grange, smiling at the visitors and asking where they’re from as she makes change for the Friday senior meal.

To her right is a doorway decorated with streamers and balloons exclaiming andquot;Happy Happy Birthday.andquot;

Dodson turned 99 on Jan. 30, and was still basking in the birthday wishes on Friday.

andquot;I’m a wreck. I’m worn out,andquot; she exclaims. andquot;I didn’t know anyone could have such a hullabaloo for their birthday!andquot;

Dodson was born premature in 1904, near the current Elkhorn Wildlife Area at the base of the mountains.

andquot;They didn’t have any way to weigh me, but they guessed two pounds,andquot; she said.

Due to the weather conditions at the time the snow was nine feet deep and drifting it took a few days before anyone made it up to see the baby. But her uncle had heard about the situation.

andquot;He said, ‘They’ve got a little baby up there, but she’s not long for this world,’andquot; Dodson said.

Dodson is known as the local historian in North Powder, with her roots dating back to the 1860s when both sets of grandparents settled in the valley.

She first attended school at Mount Carmel near Wolf Creek, and moved to North Powder when she was in third grade. After high school, she attended Oregon State University and Oregon Normal School at Monmouth.

After receiving her teacher’s license, she taught at Mount Carmel for a short time. However, her longest stint in the profession and the most time she’s been away from North Powder was 20 years in Vale.

andquot;It was wartime, and they were short on teachers, so I went back to teaching. We went to Vale,andquot; she said.

Even then they kept their home in North Powder, where they spent summer vacations.

andquot;There isn’t anyone around here who’s been around as long as I have,andquot; she said.

Which means she receives many phone calls and questions about what the Powder Valley was like when she was young so many that she decided to write a book.

andquot;A View of the Pastandquot; was finished last year in time for the North Powder Centennial Celebration, and includes essays and poems written by Dodson, as well as other historical facts.

andquot;People kept asking me what things were like when I was a little girl,andquot; she said. andquot;A lot of people want to know ‘How did you get to school?’andquot;

Horse and buggy, was the answer to that question, and at times it was just a horse.

andquot;Sometimes we’d almost freeze to death before we got to school,andquot; she said.

Now she can drive her own car around town, especially on Fridays when she’s the cashier and bookkeeper for the senior meal.

andquot;I have been for the last couple of years,andquot; she said.

Retirement from teaching didn’t slow down her activities, she said, as she took up sewing and oil painting.

andquot;Now I’m down to just about working jigsaw puzzles and reading the paper.andquot;

But her 99-year legacy is evident at her home, where the walls are decorated with her paintings, and every available space holds pictures of family.

Her children live near son Don and daughter Joy Harrod both live at North Powder, and Dale lives in Baker City.

And then there’s grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild, with one more on the way.

andquot;I’ve been very, very fortunate,andquot; she said.

But there may be another secret she has, one she shared at her birthday dinner after strangers asked her for her secret.

andquot;Just plain meanness, I guess,andquot; is what she told them.

Her friends disagree.

andquot;No, it’s plain orneriness,andquot; said Heidi Gordon, a volunteer from Union who brings the senior meals to North Powder each week.

Dodson just giggles at this, and accepts another birthday wish and hug from a fellow diner.