"I used to be six feet, but I shrunk a little. Now I'm five-eleven," said Merritt Sherman, who turned 99 on Feb. 22. "Last time I went to see the doctor, why he says 'call me if you need me. I can't find nothing wrong with you.' I don't have any special diet, but I never drank or smoked."

Sherman, who recently became a great-great grandfather, retired at 96 from his post as Highland Park School crossing guard, near his house, after 17 years. He is equipped with a sharp memory of nearly a century of colorful stories, some with printed records to back them up.

He keeps his A-list paperwork, and cherished vintage sepia tone black and white photographs tucked tightly into his father's leather Bible. Somewhere in Genesis he keeps his parent's marriage certificate, issued in Osmond, Nebraska, 1882, and their photo together on their Michigan farm.

Wedged in Exodus, his father, Herbert's deed of land he homesteaded in Kadoka, S.D., certified by the Department of Interior General Land Office. "160 acres for $6.25 to Herbert Sherman, Nov. 22, 1910."

"They even furnished you with cattle, but you had to live on it for 10 years before you owned it," he recalled. His parents moved there from Morenci, Mich., a hundred miles southwest of Detroit. "It was a hard life. The winters were very cold, and in the summers we were fighting off, and hunting, rattlesnakes.

"Our boots were up pretty high while we were haying to avoid getting bit. I remember hearing my friend, Al Long, who lived at the farm next to ours, howl because he got bit by a rattlesnake when we were playing in the river close to our farms. His leg got all black and blue. The doctor traveled by horse, and didn't make it in time, and Al died."

He said his mother was amazing to raise eight children in those conditions, and remembers her bundling them up before allowing them outdoors during winter. But the kids also had to take care of themselves.

"We'd sometimes take two horses and a sled to ride the half mile to school," Sherman said. "It was tough. You had to keep your face covered up."

The Shermans moved to Seattle in 1918, and enrolled Merritt in Highland Park's fifth grade class.

"There were two portables, and wooden planks leading up to the school," said Sherman.

His first job, in 1923-1926, was working on the S. S. Kulshan, a Black Ball 160-foot steel hulled steamer ferry. He did the Seattle to Bremerton to Vancouver run. He lived aboard it, sometimes 30 days straight, and after taking a test for firemen on the boat, was paid $80 per week, plus room and board. "That was pretty good money. I saved quite a bit," he said. In 1923, however, Sherman was a mere 14 years old.

"You had to be 18 to work on the boat, so that's what I told them," laughed the nonagenarian of his rebellious stunt. The job paid off, both financially and romantically, as that is where he first met his wife of 74 years, Ina Margaret, who died in 2006. This episode had a soap opera edge.

"I actually met Marie first. She was traveling with Ina. Ina was up in her cabin. Not long after that, I had a few hours to leave the ferry in Seattle and wanted to see a show at the 5th Avenue Theater with Marie. I went up to see her that night. She was gone, but Ina, her roommate, was there, so I took her. After that I went with Ina. Marie didn't like it at all."

After the ferry job, and driving a delivery truck for the post office, Sherman found steady work with the Northern Pacific Railway in the mid 1930's, and transferred to the Railway Express Agency where he remained 40 years.

Margaret Young is one of Sherman's biggest fans. As Highland Park Elementary School's administrative secretary for 26 years, she has gotten to know her old friend with the young spirit during his crossing guard job there.

"He is such a nice fellow, and has been a joy," said Young, who, with the rest of the staff and children, honored Sherman with a big retirement party in 1996.

"He's a walking encyclopedia but doesn't know it." By that she means he can be modest about sharing his knowledge collected over the decades.

"During the war, troops were camped out here at the school. They asked Merritt if they could also camp in his backyard and use the facilities in his house, and he let them." (After 5th grade his parents moved to Oak Harbor. He moved back in the early '30's and built his current home on 9th Avenue Southwest with his uncle, after whom he was named.)

On a lighter note, Young said, "Merritt remembers that caterpillars would squish on the trolley tracks that went right past his house, and sometimes the cars slid and couldn't move."

Sherman does, however, boast that he might be related to Roger Sherman, a prominent signer of the Declaration of Independence. "He's probably a distant cousin, but I'm not sure yet." He is still searching for printed records that might back him up.

Steve Shay may be reached at steves@robinsonnews.com