"I make sure I stay up right till the dot of midnight to make sure I get that day in. And this year especially. I thought, I'm so close to being 108, so I stayed up right till exact midnight to make sure I made it," she said from her room in Riverview Senior Living Community.
Snyder, born Aug. 10, 1908, in Boston, had celebrated her 108th birthday a few days earlier with 55 friends and family members but wanted to be entirely sure she'd actually reached the age that only about 0.035 percent of people will live to, and one she'd never expected to reach herself.
The year Snyder was born, Teddy Roosevelt was nearing the end of his tenure as president, the 46th star was added to the American flag for the newly named state of Oklahoma, Henry Ford produced the first Model T and the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. And since then, she's seen a lot.
Snyder moved to Chicago in 1918, the year World War I ended.
"Seems like I remember them yelling, 'Extra, extra! War ended!' They didn't have TV or radio then, and it was very special just to get a newspaper and have these extras out," she said.
She and her first husband moved from Chicago to Peoria when he was transferred for his job, which she notes they were lucky he had during the Great Depression. Her husband was bringing in $23 a week, and she earned an additional $10 as his assistant.
To make it to 108, Snyder credits "just simple living." She always was athletic, she noted, and enjoyed swimming, playing tennis and badminton, biking, horseback riding, dancing and walking with friends. She watched what she ate.
"I'v never smoked, never even tried. And I don't care for soda pop and drinks and french fries and greasy foods. I dodge them. I eat carefully," she said.
At 108, she's outlasted many of her friends and family members, and many of her own possessions. The carpet in her East Bluff home had needed replacing for nearly 30 years, she said, but she didn't bother to replace it, figuring she wouldn't be around much longer.
"And the carpet just wore out completely, and I'm still going strong," she said with a laugh.
She hasn't had a driver's license since she gave hers up voluntarily at age 97. She still has her mind, she's proud to say, and impressive hearing and sight. She reads the Journal Star every day, she said. Without glasses.
Being 108, she said, isn't all that bad.
"I like it. I hope to make it to 109, 110," she said. "But I don't really expect to, just like I didn't expect this either."
Laura Nightengale is the Journal Star health and lifestyle reporter.
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