Mercy Ridge resident looks back on the first 100 years

What's the secret to living to be 100? There is no secret according to Mercy Ridge resident Walter Hoskins.

While family, friends and Mercy Ridge residents are all anticipating Walter's 100th birthday on Oct. 22, to him it is simply another day.

Born in Baltimore in 1911, Walter is the oldest of two children. He and his sister grew up in east Baltimore, only six or eight blocks from Johns Hopkins Hospital.

One of his fondest memories of growing up in Baltimore is when "the man with the hard crabs wagon" would come by and his grandmother would purchase two or more dozen of the crabs and steam them. Walter always got the claws and sat on the porch to enjoy them. His grandmother also made the best crab cakes, he says.

Walter left school early to work at Ritterhoff, a plumbing and heating company. He obtained his plumbing and heating license while working for them for almost 15 years. After leaving Ritterhoff, he joined the Baltimore City Police Department where he worked for almost 25 years.

Walter met his wife, Jennie, when they were just neighborhood kids. Together they had two children, Robert and Sharon.

Now, he's the proud grandfather on five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Prior to moving to Mercy Ridge in May 2003, he lived in Sparks, in a beautiful home on 3 acres.

This past month, residents at Mercy Ridge enjoyed their annual parade in honor of Assisted Living Week.

On Saturday, Sept. 17 — in spite of the rain — vintage cars, staff entries, Providence Volunteer Fire Company trucks, clowns, Perry Hall cheerleaders, Linda McHale's School of Irish Dance, The Kiltie Band of York Bagpipers and the Orioles Bird joined members of Mercy Ridge and the surrounding community for a special day of festivities.

Recently, St. Vincent's Villa was the site of a Girl Scout Gold Award project headed up by Katharine Kriss, a senior at Maryvale Preparatory School.

Katharine, the daughter of Andrea and Gerard Kriss of Lutherville, has been a member of Girl Scout Troop 4441 since the first grade. She also has an older brother in college who was a Boy Scout Eagle Scout and a younger brother in eighth grade who is also a Boy Scout. What a great family tradition.

When asked why she decided on this particular project, Katharine said, "I think it is important for the children at St. Vincent's to learn how to grow vegetables, become self-sufficient and to make healthy eating choices."

Her project — St. Vincent's Vegetable Garden: A Path Toward Nutrition and Self-Sustainability — involved designing, building and planting a vegetable garden with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, squash and lettuce.

She also created a scrapbook-like recipe book so the fresh vegetables can easily be transformed into delicious meals. She also created a gardening guide so the children can learn how to maintain the garden year after year. Congratulations, Katharine, on a perfectly-done project.

There will be two special events at the Historical Society of Baltimore County in the next two months.

To celebrate Dollhouse Month, Maryland Miniaturists Unlimited will host a dollhouse and miniature exhibit to benefit the historical society and to promote the hobby of dollhouse miniatures. The event will be held at the historical society headquarters, 9811 Van Buren Lane, Cockeysville, on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 16, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The theme is "Dollhouses Then and Now," and the exhibit features vintage dollhouses and room boxes from the society's collections, including a model of the historic Baltimore County home, Ravenhurst, and models of other historic sites.

Creations by the miniature club will also be displayed, including a 1⁄4 scale Tudor village, large multistory dollhouses with electricity, a model of an historic house at Montebello in Baltimore, and intricate dollhouse rooms of various scales.

There will be demonstrations of miniature construction techniques by Stacy Moser that will appeal to children and adults alike. Requested contributions for this event are $6 per adult, $2 per child ages 6 to 16, with children younger than 6 are free.

Tempest From a Tea Cup: Maryland's Early Trade with China, 1643-1840 will be held Sunday, Nov. 13, 2 p.m. at the historical society headquarters. This event is a presentation about the history of the early China trade, 1643 to 1840, with a focus on Maryland and Baltimore County.

The talk will discuss not only the items imported to Colonial America and the early United States, but also whom imported them and what influence they had on American decorative arts and the nation's economy.

John Danz, who lectures on the origins of Maryland's trade with China at Notre Dame of Maryland University, will make this illustrated presentation. Admission is $5 for non-members, free to HSBC members.

For details on either event, call 410-666-1878.