Paul Corbin celebrates his 100th birthday!
Advance businessman/historian/archeologist Paul Corbin never expected to reach the ripe old age of 100, but friends and family are not surprised.
"My daughter Shirley once told me that I would live to be 108," Corbin told this reporter on the occasion of his 99th birthday.
Corbin has been active all his life, beginning with a lively childhood on the banks of Cato slough in Bollinger County in the early nineteen hundreds.
"My father and mother were married Nov. 23rd. 1913, and moved into a house just ¼ mile from my mother's home," relates Corbin. "This was a four-room house with a porch across the front, and was located on the bank of the Cato Slough, 1-1/2 mile south of Greenbrier Mo. The family of eight children were born there. The family never owned a camera, so there is no picture of this house."
Born in the landmark year of 1914, Corbin spent his early years outside, hunting and fishing with his younger brother Claud. They roamed the countryside, trapping, building their own log cabin, and doing things that boys can only dream of today.
The elder Corbin walked and ran five miles, one way, to attend high school at Zalma, Mo. in an age when most rural students quit school after eighth grade.
In Corbin's book, "Reflections in Missouri Mud," he tells of early life in the Greenbrier region:
"Any mealtime was a very social time for the family. It seemed that every family member had some item of interest to tell, and sometimes it would get rather noisy and rowdy, especially when one family member would pick on another one. However, we were not nearly as bad as one family I heard about.
This family of six boys was so rough that they would hit each other over the head with their plates. They were breaking plates so often that the family started using lard can lids for plates. They even went so far as to nail these lids down to the table. They didn't have to wash these plates, as the boys always cleaned them as they swabbed their gravy with a biscuit. There was one problem, however, with this arrangement. The boys were continually wearing the heads off the nails as they swabbed gravy with their biscuit."
Corbin's dry humor is evident in this tale from the past.
Even more remarkable than his accomplishments is the fact that Paul Corbin can remember practically every detail of his life, from the price of corn in 1922 to the history of every westward trail in American history and every Native American artifact he has ever dug up.
Corbin and his wife Geneva spent many summers traveling various trails, such as the Chisholm Trail and the trail of Lewis and Clark, camping out along the way and collecting artifacts.
In 1945, the Corbins opened the first variety store in Advance, operating it until the early 80's.
Corbin also served on the Advance Board of Education during the time when the school district built the elementary school in 1957.
When the community came together to build the Inland shoe factory in the seventies, Corbin was one of the organizers.
This reporter first met Corbin in 2001, when the NSC reported on the donation of $25,000 of Corbin's Native American artifacts to the Cape Girardeau, Mo. Nature Center. The artifacts still occupy a prominent position in the nature center's display.
In 2001, Corbin also began sharing many of his humorous and historical essays with the North Stoddard Countain.
Corbin was also a volunteer organizer of the Advance Community Library, when it opened in June, 2004. Corbin donated a computer, chairs, tables, and many hours of time in going through donated books.
On Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014, the Advance assisted Living Center will host a 100-year birthday party for Corbin, and all his friends are invited to drop by and wish him well. The party will start at 2 p.m.
Happy birthday, Paul Corbin!
Comments
- -- Posted by farmwife2 on Thu, Nov 27, 2014, at 7:25 AM
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