It was 1945. World War II had ended and young couples like Veatrice and the late Eugene Kilgore and Rose and the late Clem Distler were starting their families.
Both ladies, now residents at California Care Center, had their first children that year. Veatrice had 10 total, while Rose had 13.
Veatrice's husband wanted a big family. But for Rose, she said she hadn't planned on 13.
"But, that's the way they came and that's the way we took them," Rose said.
Veatrice said she is blessed to have 25 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren, all in Missouri.
For Rose, she had 39 grandchildren, but the great-grandchildren number in the hundreds.
The two mothers are fortunate that the majority of their families live close by and visit often.
"They hug me 'til I'm crippled," Kilgore quipped. "We have 11 in a church pew and they wear me out."
The Distler family gets together at least monthly in the church hall and they rent the California Nutrition Center each Christmas. Other times, the women will sew together.
Looking back, the nonagenarians agree they wouldn't change anything about their lives.
"You gotta do what you gotta do when you've gotta do it," Kilgore said.
Rearing so many children in a generation before electronics and faster-paced living, they each found their households ran on respect and love.
In the Kilgore home, Eugene, was often gone working for the railroad to provide for the family.
For the Distlers, all hands pitched in twice a day to milk the dairy cows.
Both mothers made their children's clothes and both remember preserving tons of food every garden season.
The younger children often helped with the younger children.
"My second child thought she was the mother," Kilgore joked.
And chores were not debated or shirked.
"Washing the dishes was not a problem; they knew they could do something else when that was done," Distler said.
Faith was an integral component in both homes. And Kilgore and Distler both are pleased that their children are still devout.
"I was a Sunday school teacher and involved; now, they're in church work," Kilgore said. "I feel like they got something out of it."
The older Distler children attended Catholic school. And everyone went Sunday morning.
Kilgore recalled that her children would line up their 20 shoes in front of the television on Saturday night. But, most Sunday mornings there were only 19 when they were ready to leave.
"There was always one missing," she laughed.
The mothers said they are proud of their adult children, though they have both met with loss too.
Kilgore said she pushed her daughters to go on to college and several of them are retired teachers and college professors.
Distler's daughter, Pam, said she felt she and her siblings grew up with an openness for diversity.
"We had a sister who was handicapped; Mom instilled in us that she was just as important as anyone," Pam said of her mother. "Even though people are different, we still loved them."