Stephanie Long
(10/18) When George Adler of Thurmont
was born, the first vacuum was marketed and
Louis Mayer opened the first movie theater.
Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United
States and first-class stamps cost two cents.
The average worker earned $12.98 a week for 59
hours of work.
The year was 1907 and a century later Adler
is still going strong while the world he was
born into is now the stuff of history books.
Adler still like a good snowball fight with
his friends at the Thurmont Senior Center.
However, he uses fakes snowballs for an indoor
fight. He likes spending time at the senior
center for other things, too. He goes there
daily to eat lunch and spend time with his
friends. Affectionately called “Pop” at the
center, Adler has been eating lunch there
everyday for over 20 years, well almost
everyday.
“He didn’t come on fish or ham day,”
explained Anna Rollins, director of the
center. Adler doesn’t like fish at all, and if
you ask him if he would like some the answer
is very clear.
“No!” he said with a laugh and shake of his
head, “No!”
Once the center realized Adler’s taste in
food, they started fixing him something else
for lunch and he has rarely missed a lunch
since. According to his daughter, Georgette
Baxter, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Until recently Adler walked to the center
from his home and, “He wouldn’t even look at a
house unless it was within walking distance to
the center,” Baxter said. “He likes to come
here [the center].”
Another constant in Adler’s life is his
daily cup of hot cocoa with lunch, which he
has to have according to Rollins. When Adler
is not at the center, he enjoys spending time
looking at koi fish ponds and flowers,
something Adler knows a lot about.
At the age of 16 Adler left his native
Germany to see the world, literally, as a
cabin boy on a ship that sailed around the
world. After a brief stint on the boat, Adler
decided it wasn’t for him, so he got off the
ship in New York and began looking for a job.
He found work as the caretaker of a large
estate in New York, where he learned about
gardening and much more. He also ran a small
Black Angus Cattle farm in Frederick for a
time before retiring.
