The Jazz Age was in full swing, Mount Rushmore National Monument was dedicated, the Phantom of the Opera was a new hit, and The Great Gatsby was written. The year was 1925, and along with all of those highlights, it was the year that Charles Myers was born.

To most of his friends and neighbors, he is known as Chuck, and anyone who has lived around Callaway for any length of time knows who he is. He was born and raised here and continues to live with his loving wife, Donna, on the land his father and grandfather before him farmed. On Wednesday, March 19, Chuck celebrated his 100th birthday.

Chuck was born on March 19, 1925, just south of what is now the Callaway Good Life Center. He graduated from Callaway High School in 1942 and continued farming with his dad and working for other local farmers. Of course, the United States was in World War II at that time and like all other young men fresh out of high school, Chuck was called to the military.

“I took four different physicals, but flunked them all,” he shared. “I had a bad hernia and we didn’t have any money to fix it. We kind of thought maybe they would, but they didn’t. So I couldn’t go because I couldn’t pass the physical.”

Chuck was the youngest - or the “end gate” as he called it - of three children; he had a brother, Bob, and a sister, Yvonne. “We had a good life but we were always needing more money. Times were hard back in the 30s, but we always got through,” he recalled. “Dad always had some kind of livestock so we had a little bit there. He always tried to pick up any kind of little