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At 91, she still loves grading potatoesDRAYTON, N.D. (AP)--Ann Soderfeld stands out like a sunflower in the potato warehouse. She has visited the beauty shop before work to get her hair done, since she wants to look nice for the visiting photographer. Other than her silver hair being impeccably coifed, the rest of her appearance is the same as always. The diamond studs and pearl earrings? She wears them every day. The scarlet-polished fingernails? Every day. The church-worthy embroidered top? Every day. White-as-snow sneakers? Every day. But her appearance is not the big reason the 4-foot-11 Soderfeld stands out in the crowd at the Associated Potato Growers warehouse. It's this: She's 91 years old. Asked why she's grading potatoes for a 44th year, 26 years after the traditional retirement age, she answers with her own question: "What else would I do?" It's the same with the question about why she's so well-groomed and well-dressed for the dirty, unglamorous job of weeding out bad potatoes. "Where else would I wear all the nice jewelry and clothes my children buy me?" she asks. Potato grader, paying $8.50 an hour, is not the technical job that the job title might suggest. As the spuds tumble down conveyor rollers, the graders toss the spuds that don't make the grade into bins. Only the potatoes of top quality and the correct size make it to the end of the conveyor, rated as premium--or No. 1s--and thus fit for the family table. The rotten, bruised and discolored potatoes are culled, either dumped back into the fields or used as cattle feed. The No. 2s are edible, but have slight flaws such as being misshapen. The graders make split-second decisions on the quality, meaning the job requires a sharp eye and quick hands Soderfeld has both. She still has 20-20 vision and is an ambidextrous spud-flinger. "A couple weeks ago, there were so many potatoes coming that you couldn't see the rollers," she said. "I really had to fire them then." The job can be physically demanding on arms, wrists and backs, since Soderfeld sits on a stool. But monotony is the toughest part, warehouse manager Brian Woinarowicz said. "It gets to be a long day when you're doing the same thing for eight hours," he said. Soderfeld said she doesn't find the job tedious. It shows. In the last two years, she's missed one day of work--to attend a sister's funeral. She also missed one day four years ago--the first day of the six-month grading season. Soderfeld had broken her leg--while dancing--and Woinarowicz assumed she wouldn't be able to return. After she telephoned, wondering why her services were no longer required, she was back for Day 2, with a cane. "I like to be here with the gang," she said. The gang has mutual feelings. "We're lucky to have her," co-worker Marie Pribula said. "She's an inspiration to all of us. She keeps us going." It isn't just her age that makes her the queen bee of the warehouse. "She's an amazing woman," co-worker Jean Kasprowicz said. "She never complains. She always smiles. She gets along with everybody. She keeps up with all of us. No one here can say one bad thing about her." The end of the day means warehouse cleanup of the misfired potatoes. "Ann will be bending down, picking potatoes off the floor while the rest of us would rather just leave them there," Kasprowicz said. Soderfeld sometimes goes with the gang for a post-work wine cooler. But only one; she needs to drive home. She lives alone in a rural home where she and her late husband, Kenneth, raised eight children. In spring and summer, when the warehouse is idle, she tends to her house, garden and yard. But fall has meant potatoes for Soderfeld long before the last 44 years. She spent many autumns riding a potato harvester in the fields, discarding rocks, dirt clumps and green potatoes. And, when she was younger, she crawled on hands and knees to hand-pick potatoes, emptying her basket into burlap gunny sacks. "We'd earn maybe 10 cents a bushel," she said. "Now, that was hard work." 6/16/08 Date: 6/6/08 Advertisement
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