Photo by Jim Tate Alice Maas turned 103 on Thursday and family and friends gathered to tell stories and celebrate at Prairie View Senior Living in Tracy. She is shown with her son, Bruce, and daughter, Judy Micke.

Years ago, Alice Maas and her family looked forward to receiving the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs for two reasons. One was the chance to order new and unusual products — an early Amazon, if you will.

The second? Toilet paper.

“We had an outhouse,” said Maas, who turned 103 years old Thursday and was celebrated with cake and ice cream at a gathering at Prairie View Senior Living in Tracy.

Alice (Andersen) grew up on a farm 9 miles north of Walnut Grove, before electricity and indoor plumbing reached many rural locations. She and her late husband, Arthur, had four children: Ronald; Judy Micke, Delano; Diane Halstenson; and Bruce. Ronald and Diane have passed. Bruce and his wife Maydra live on the home farm north of Walnut Grove.

Maas has seven grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

She has a quick wit, as does the entire family, and gave her thoughts on many of the stories being told around the table. One: She used to dress the many cats on the farm, and push them around in a baby buggy with her sister, Cora, who passed a year ago at the age of 100.

“She always had chocolate chip cookies or oatmeal raisin cookies,” recalled Judy. “She and dad were always together.”

Her daughter-in-law, Maydra, calls her a “warrior. She’s also the best mother-in-law, and has seen so much and overcome so much during her life.”

She was involved with many groups and organizations over the years, including Sunday school teacher, 4-H leader, and church council.

Maas is a religious woman, a steady thread that has weaved throughout her life. When asked for advice she’d give to a teenager today, she said, “Don’t take anything for granted; do your part in being good; go to church; and be involved.”

She’s amazed at how things have changed since Aug. 1, 1921. Just four days after she was born, the first radio broadcast of a Major League Baseball game was heard over KDKA in Pittsburgh (The Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-0).

She also wasn’t afraid to raise a few eyebrows at the Johnsonville Trinity Lutheran Church near Lucan. It was customary then, for men and women to sit on separate sides of the church, segregated. After she married Arthur, though, she sat with her husband, a bold move at the time.

Maas was a farm wife, raised four children, and was a jack-of-all-trades contributor to the farm’s success. She “milked cows, drove the horses, did field work, whatever was needed to be done,” said Maas.

She faithfully works on the Independent’s crossword puzzle every day.

“Sometimes they’re easy, other times they are very hard,” she said.

Her appetite has waned, but she still enjoys a good piece of toast with butter. And shrimp.

“You either like it or you don’t,” she said.

There’s really no magic formula for longevity, she feels, and she’s just “taking it one day at a time.”