Frank Lacko Sr., of Ballina Road in Cazenovia, turned 100 years old last week — and he seemed to take it all in stride.
“It’s better than 90,” he said during a family birthday party in his honor last Saturday, Oct. 3. “I’m that much older and I know that much more.”
Lacko was born Oct. 1, 1915 in Pennsylvania when, according to a timeline created by his great-grandchildren, the population of the United States was 100,546,000, the price of a pound of bacon was 27 cents, women could not vote and there was no such thing as a television. Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States and the U.S. had yet to enter World War I.
Lacko was raised in a coal mining town and ultimately became a baker by trade. He moved to New York City after his father, who was a miner, passed away. In 1936 he married Elizabeth Vanderhoef, to whom he stayed married for 64 years, until her death in 2000. He served in the Navy during World War II on the U.S.S. Midway aircraft carrier in the Pacific, where he worked as a baker. In 1953, Lacko moved to Middleburgh, N.Y., with his family, where he became a farmer, raising Yorkshire pigs and various crops, and at night he worked at GE in Schenectady. He and Elizabeth grew their own food and had large gardens which he loved to tend.
“He told my mother when they were dating she’d never want for flowers, and he lived up to that,” said his daughter, Betsy Sadlon, with whom Lacko lives in Cazenovia. “He was a very hard-working man. We’re very proud of him.”
Sitting around the kitchen table in the Sadlon home last Saturday, as dozens of people began to arrive for the party, Lacko and his family members flipped through a photo album and reminisced about his life. As a backdrop, a birthday banner stating “Happy 100th Birthday Pop!” that included the timeline of Lacko’s century of life was strung across the kitchen windows.
One of Lacko’s great passions in life was traveling and, always in the family motor home, he and Elizabeth traveled across the United States, visiting every state, as well as the Northwest Territory of Canada and up into Alaska. “There was a lot to see, and I went to see it,” he said. He was especially fascinated by Native American culture, and visited a number of reservations across the country. On his farm in Middleburgh, he found hundreds of arrowheads, which he collected. In 1990, he donated a stone pendent carved with a picture of a turtle that was found on his land to the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howe’s Cave, N.Y., where the pendent turned out to be a historic revelation.
“They were profoundly grateful for it because it revealed a piece of their history in the area,” said his granddaughter, Rebecca Sadlon. “It made it clear to them the Turtle Clan had been in the Schoharie Valley.”
Lacko’s family was full of stories about his life he had told them over the years, such as when he was in the Navy and, against regulations, baked a cake for a fellow recruit turning 18 who had never had a birthday cake in his life. “I said, ‘Well, you’re gonna have one,’” Lacko said as his family told the tale. “All of a sudden the chief said, ‘What is that?’ and I said it’s a birthday cake.”
“He caught a little flack for that,” said Betsy Sadlon.
Another favorite family story was when he met Amelia Earhart at an air show in Scranton, Pa., in 1929 — the year after she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Lacko, age 14 at the time, left his house with two dollars in his pocket. He took the train to get to Scranton and then got hungry so he bought himself a hot dog. He stood in line to take a ride in Earhart’s plane but, when he got to the front of the line, he did not have the full cost of the ticket. He bartered with the ticket seller to give him a ride worth the amount of money he had left, at which point Earhart herself, hearing the exchange, said, “Give the kid a good ride.” And he was allowed on.
There have been many changes to the world during Lacko’s 100 years of life, and many historic events, such as World Wars I and II, the opening of Disneyland, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, mankind’s landing on the moon, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the advent of legalized gay marriage. Today, in 2015, the population of the United States is 321,216,397, the price of a pound of bacon is $5.47, women can not only vote but are running for president and people can access the Internet on their own portable phones.
Lacko, who is now legally blind and has diminished hearing, is still mentally acute, and enjoyed the party at which four generations of his family were present. “He always used to say he had two goals: to see the new millennium and live to be 100. I figured he was stubborn enough to make it,” said his daughter, Barb Lacko, of Missoula, Mont.
He attributed his longevity to only drinking alcohol in moderation, not smoking tobacco a day in his life, working hard and growing his own food. When asked how things have changed during his lifetime, Lacko simply said, “I accepted them as they came.”
