Norma Geyer’s 100th Birthday Party

Welcome!  Raise your hand if you are 100 years old!  No one?  Then, listen to Norma’s biography for hints about how you, too, can reach that age.

Norma was born in Yreka, 100 years ago.  Well, it will be 100 years in three more days!  She was the first child of Oliver and Laura Costello, who lived on the Ft. Jones Road, directly across from where Ron and Judi Washington live today.

She had the pleasure of attending Greenhorn School, a one-room schoolhouse, where her mother taught.  Her mom loved to put on school plays.  Norma does not have fond memories of those forced efforts toward being a thespian!

Her sister, JoAnne, was born four years after Norma and the two became great friends—and they still are!

Soon after Norma graduated from Yreka High she got a job for the telephone company.  She was one of the young ladies who connected the plug to the correct hole on the large board.  She loved to work and be on her way to independence.

Soon, she was given the opportunity to transfer to an office at Lake Tahoe.  What young person wouldn’t jump at the chance!  She thoroughly enjoyed her time there and met her future husband, who had recently returned from the Second World War.  The couple married and had two children, Vikki and Mike.

Norma and the children moved to Phoenix, where Norma loved the heat and Big Time Wrestling.  She would take the family to watch men throw each other about the ring.  She learned never to sit in one of the closest rows!

Norma and her children moved back to Yreka in 1963, where she worked for the District Attorney, then the County Clerk.  Eventually, she became County Clerk, a position she retained for many years. 

Toward the end of her career, Norma met and married Ed Geyer.  They enjoyed traveling through North America.  They became snowbirds, with a home in Phoenix, and spent summers in their motorhome further north.  The couple, while in Phoenix, sampled every restaurant, Norma creating a journal describing how to re-find each one.  (Sense of direction was never one of Norma’s strong points!)

Ed and Norma spent several summers at Medicine Lake, where Ed was a Sheriff’s deputy and Norma knitted and became a proficient trail builder.  Her paths, snaking through the hills beyond their campground, caused consternation within the U.S. Forest Service hierarchy!  After all, there hadn’t been environmental studies!  This prompted several emergency meetings with Norma– which got the bureaucrats nowhere!  Norma continued with her hobby—after all, she claimed that she was merely raking debris off old, abandoned roads.  Norma outlasted the federal agency, who ultimately thought best to ignore Norma’s illegal efforts!

After Ed’s death, Norma moved back to Yreka.  Since then, she has been very active in the community, especially with the Hartisan Hospice Boutique.  She managed it for many years and continues to create handmade items sold there.

So, you might now guess what Norma’s recommendation would be to anyone, in order to having a long life–“KEEP BUSY”.  That describes what Norma was and still is!

Norma sincerely appreciates her family and friends for coming to this event and sharing their memories.  See you again in another 100 years!

Provided by Mike Grifantini

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