"I AM" so Grateful!!!!!!! :-)

A few days ago, Carol Zeh went to a discount store and bought a hat with a large brim. It was a request from her mother, Ruth Cherry Zeh.

''I want a Bette Davis hat,'' said the quick-witted resident of St. Luke Lutheran Community, a facility for the aging in the Portage Lakes area.

In the parking lot outside Kenmore High School, the senior Zeh sat in a shiny gold Prowler. When the Chrysler's convertible top was lowered, she pulled the brim over one eye — just like the movie star used to do.

Along with getting old come some privileges. For the nearly 97-year-old woman, it was serving as grand marshal in Kenmore Community Days Festival parade on Saturday.

Zeh graduated from Kenmore High School in 1928. And when parade officials were searching for the oldest, or at least one of the oldest, current or former residents of the community to be the parade's guest of honor for the centennial celebration, they found Zeh.

The granddaughter of local historian P. P. Cherry moved to 13th Street Southwest when she was a preschooler. At the time, the streets were unpaved and a neighbor's mini-farm took up much of the land near her family's two-story home.

''We had the first telephone on the street. But my mother got so annoyed with everyone coming to our house to use it that she began charging them a nickel,'' she said, laughing.

Eventually, the former Ruth Cherry hitched high school sweetheart Steve Zeh and remained in Kenmore for another 17 years. Steve died in 1996, just before the couple's 60th anniversary.

''Kenmore was really a hometown,'' she said. ''We knew everyone and everyone knew us.''

John Makan, Zeh's great-nephew, drove the car owned by a family friend along the parade route. The fragrance from lilacs and other spring flowers filled the air as a few hundred onlookers watched the Prowler creep along Kenmore Boulevard.

''Wave, babe,'' a gal told a little girl. ''That lady graduated a long, long, long time ago.''

Though Zeh's daughter and family friend, Tom Kantorowski, carried signs announcing who was in the car, she wasn't always easy to spot. Sitting low in the seat, only her silver hair or hat were visible. Still, Zeh proudly raised her arm and waved, her bracelets and rings reflecting the sunshine.

''If you stand on your tiptoes, you can see her, '' a woman said.

The Kenmore festival continues from 1 to 7 p.m. today at Prentiss Park, 1135 Battles Ave.

After the parade, Carol Zeh drove her mother to her childhood home, pulled in the driveway and sat for awhile.

Decades ago, excited neighborhood children would gather outside to get a peek at one of the first televisions in the neighborhood. To accommodate the excited youngsters, the Cherrys often turned the television toward the window.

The memories put a smile on Zeh's face, and a sparkle in her Bette Davis eyes.