Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 20, 1993 TAG: 9304200343
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At 90, John Plasters is proud he still can read the newspaper. Without those darned spectacles.
And last summer when he wanted to go to the store and no one in his family would take him, he just got in the car and drove himself.
"Yep, he just snuck away," recalled his granddaughter Judy Belcher.
Though his 90th birthday was last Friday, John's family gathered for his party on Sunday.
John Plasters doesn't talk much.
But he doesn't have to.
Between his wife and daughters and granddaughters and great granddaughters, I don't know how the man ever got a word in edgewise.
At the Meadows of Dan Fire Hall over beans and biscuits and birthday cake, a whole mess of Plasterses tried to tell me who was who.
"Those are mama's brothers and sisters' children."
"No, it's easier to call them Mrs. Plasters' nieces and nephews."
"No, don't spell Nadean with a y. It's only spelled that way on her birth certificate, and she hates it!"
"You know what Nadean's nickname was?"
"No! Don't tell her! She'll kill you!"
"And please change Richie's name to Richard. He likes that better."
"What is Billy Ray's last name?"
"It's Ray."
"What?"
"His whole name is Billy Ray."
"I thought for sure it was Billy Ray something."
"No, it's just Billy Ray."
"Over yonder are my husband's cousins."
"Just who is Luther Boyd?"
"Luther Boyd is my daddy's first cousin."
What?
Whose daddy?
I gave up.
It really doesn't matter who's who.
"Because there's more love in this room than in the whole county," Judy explained.
The Plasterses are a BIG family. And they do a lot of hand holding and hugging. When I asked Judy to tell me about her Papa John, she told me she thinks of him whenever she hears the country song "Daddy's Hands."
"He's strong but very gentle."
Judy's mother - Papa John's daughter Shirley Meade - flew in from Texas for the party, despite several broken ribs. Tommy Milton - Papa John's grandson by daughter Artie Plasters Milton - came all the way from California.
"I broke my foot and my arm," Amy Elizabeth Plasters - Papa John's great-granddaughter - told me when I asked how old she was (she's 5).
Waving his cane at whomever he'd like a word with - and hooking great granddaughters Leigh Ann Pendleton and Jessica Draper for birthday kisses - John Plasters told me he never planned to have a family this big.
"It just sort of happened."
Rosie Plasters, the beautiful woman he married 66 years ago and the mother of his six children, told me it wasn't exactly love at first sight.
"I really didn't care much for him," she said with a twinkle. "But I guess he grew on me."
I learned most of what I know about John Plasters from the relatively silent half of the family - his daughters' husbands (you know, his sons-in-law).
"Up to five years ago, he could out-walk any of us," said Clifford Bowman, who is married to Lucille Plasters, who is John Plasters' daughter, who just happens to be one of two Plasters daughters to have been Miss Meadows of Dan.
He plays a mean game of poker and fishes pretty well, too, according to Jimmy Gilbert, who is married to John Plasters' daughter, Nadean, who used to be nicknamed . . .
Better not.
No. John Plasters doesn't have much to say.
But isn't there something - anything - I could share with our readers about what it was like to turn 90?
"You can tell 'em it took 90 years to get this old."
THE PARTY LINE: If you'd like to invite free-lance Mingling columnist Kathleen Wilson to a party or social gathering, call her at 981-3434; when asked for the mailbox, dial MING (6464) and press the # key. Then leave a message as directed. Or write her in care of the Features Department, Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491.
by CNB