Lucille Machon turned 100 on Sunday, Jan. 22, at a party thrown for her and a community of her closest friends at the House of Pizza in Boothbay Harbor. There, in party mode wearing a lovely sweater and a yellow-rose corsage, surrounded by balloons, Lucille owned the center of the room. Most of the buzz in the place centered around Lucille. It's not every day people get to celebrate the birthday of someone born in 1917. She's still surprised by the turnout. “People are so good,” she says.

At home, Lucille owns her place on the sofa in her living room in her house, which was floated by barge from Squirrel Island almost 70 years ago. The house fell off the barge when it reached the harbor. Lucille's son, Ira Machon, shows a picture of it floating in the water. How the house was rounded up again is another story, but it has been sitting on dry land for a number of years, looking out at the harbor from which it was rescued.

Lucille loves where she lives. She loves her people, her town, and her place in the world. Asking a 100-year old woman for her favorite memory, or to ask her for advice for the next generation is fine, but 100 years is a long time to recall details. This is what anyone needs to know, that she's always been happy in the place she was born. This may be why she's still here. That and bacon. She loves bacon. She has it about every other day.

Ira and his wife Connie live with Lucille, along with a friendly tiger cat and a Border collie. Ira and Connie have a home in South Carolina, but they stay here because Lucille prefers to remain at home now, although she said she used to drive her car with a trailer in tow down to their place. Lucille has two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

During part of her childhood, she was brought up in the building that currently houses the Thistle Inn. It was a complete lot of land with a house back then, with no road breaking up that space. When her father sold the house, it went for about $75. Speculation about what it's worth now leads to the conclusion that it's a lot more.

Lucille has a strong, beautiful face, with broad, high cheekbones and dark eyes. She brushes it off when she's told this, and then she attributes it to a full-blooded Indian grandfather.

When asked to recall a happy memory, Lucille’s thoughts go directly to a cross-country trip she took to California with two friends. They drove by car and towed a trailer to visit Lucille's brother, who was in the service. “We stopped everywhere. Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon. It took us 14 days,” she says. She remembers Zion as being especially beautiful. She got homesick only three days after they reached California, so Lucille and her friends drove back across the country to Boothbay Harbor.

Her favorite president was John F. Kennedy. “He was a good man,” Lucille says, and adds that he was handsome. He visited the area once, and Lucille, along with most of the harbor, gathered one Sunday to watch him walk into church. Security was tight, she recalls. The crowd was not allowed to move, just watch and wave. When it's pointed out to her that John F. Kennedy would also be 100 years old, having been born on May 26, 1917, Lucille seems surprised. What does she think about the current president? Does she like him? She answers with a resounding, “Yes! We needed a change. Someone needed to shake things up. I think he's the one to do it,” she says.

She loves old country music and she doesn't think today's music is any good. She liked Elvis Presley, not so much Frank Sinatra. The Beatles? Forget it. She thinks that's when music began go to down hill.

She says she's lived life on her terms, and she would advise young people to do the same. “Do what you want. If you can think it, you can dream it. There are so many opportunities out there,” she says. She's worried about them, though. “Young people have it harder than we did. The families aren't as close as they used to be. The father and mother go to work and the kids go to other places after school. Things are different,” she says.

When she was about 80 years old, Lucille suffered an accident that left her bedridden for almost three years. When she recovered, her attitude toward life changed. “I am grateful for every day,” she says. She's as surprised as anyone that she's reached 100. But like most people of any age, when she wakes up, her first thought is, “What am I going to do today?”

An old chair sits to the left of the doorway to the kitchen in her house. “It's over 100 years old,” Ira notes. When it's pointed out to Lucille that the chair is older than she is, she laughs. “I love that chair,” she says.

Toward the end of the interview, when it's time to take a photograph, Ira sits beside his mother on the sofa. Lucille's expression is serious. Does she want to keep the serious face, or would she prefer to switch to a smiling face?

“Serious face,” she says. The picture is taken, and she asks to see it.

“Good,” she says.