It's amazing how fast 100 years can go fly by.

"I never thought I'd be this old," said Naomi Snyder, of Palmerton. "I wish I was 50 again."Snyder will turn 100 on April 27. She celebrated it recently with friends and family at the high-rise in Palmerton."When she turned 99 last year, she told me 'I'm going to have a birthday party next year,'" said her friend, Judy Kresge, who organized the party.Born in Aquashicola, Snyder was one of four children and spent her life in the area. She married Cleveland Snyder, who served in World War II. They had a son, Alton, who is 80 years old now and has a son, granddaughter, and two great-grandchildren. That makes Naomi a great-great-grandmother.Snyder said she doesn't know how she made it this far."I don't know. I worked," she said.Snyder began working at the age of 13. Over the years, she worked at various textile mills: Scotties, the silk mill and a tie factory in Walnutport.She recalled walking home from Walnutport with three other women."We took our shoes off and walked home," she said, as if it were commonplace to do so.Belva Greene, Snyder's 85-year-old youngest sister, said their grandparents lived to be in their mid-80s and 90s, but Naomi is the oldest in the family."She only spoke Pennsylvania Dutch," Greene said about her sister.That was what they spoke in their home."My grandmother always talked English to me, but mother always spoke Pennsylvania Dutch," she said.Snyder's friend, Adelia Mohr, said she thinks Snyder has lived so long because she eats a hard-boiled egg every day. That and she had always been very active."She kept busy, maybe that's the key to a long life," Mohr said.She recalled how one winter when she was cleaning snow off her car, Snyder was cleaning off her car, too, at the age of 93."I said, 'Let me do that for you,'" Mohr said, "but she said, 'Nope, nope, this is my exercise.'""She's feisty," Kresge said.At the age of 65, Snyder took up horseback riding. Her husband had passed away, and she met a fellow named Clarence Livegood, who taught people how to race horses at Pocono Downs in the 1980s. One day, he brought over two horses and asked her if she knew how to ride."I never rode before," she said, but she told him she didn't like it.Determined to teach her how to ride a horse, he asked her to climb up on it. She tried, but fell on her butt. Eventually, she got on and off they went."I liked it," she said. "A little puppy went all the way between us," she said with a smile and a laugh recalling the fond memory.The two were together for the next 33 years. Snyder helped him take care of the horses, brushing and feeding them, loading hay and cleaning stalls."I love horses," she said."She worked hard," Kresge said. "And to think she's still self-sufficient."Snyder makes her own bed and cooks most of her own meals."Even now, if she can do it, she doesn't let anyone else do it," Mohr said."That's what keeps her going," Kresge said."I like my old-fashioned meals," Snyder added.