ANDERSON – A local Waffle House served up a 100th birthday special for a longtime customer who has eaten breakfast there nearly every day for 27 years.

And, at 100 now, Herman Gardner still drives from his small farm to the restaurant, 1931 E. 60th St.

Gardner has been coming to Waffle House for so long that waitresses shout out “A Herman Special” when he walks in.

Saturday, the staff added a cake, balloons and friends to the order. A sing-along version of “Happy Birthday” played on the jukebox.

“It’s something; it’s a surprise to me,” said Gardner, who sat in a nonsmoking booth with his grandson and granddaughter-in-law, Todd and Maria Gardner.

“His mind is alert,” Maria Gardner said. “He never repeats the same story twice. You know how some folks keep repeating the same stories, but he’s got new ones all the time.”

Gardner joked that he didn’t feel any older than he did when he was 80. “I’m pretty good for an old, old man.”

What surprises staff and customers is that Gardner drives to the restaurant from the small farm where he has lived since 1950.

“He doesn’t come in here with a walker,” said regular customer Chris Burk, of Pendleton. “He drives in here by himself. It’s pretty amazing.”

Gardner said his eyesight was perfect. His only vision problem previously was with the development of cataracts, which were removed. He drives the speed limit. His only ticket was issued in the Midwestern speed trap known as Cincinnati.

And he has qualms about elderly drivers.

As a defense, he offered, “There’s some teenagers who shouldn’t be driving.”

Gardner, who lives on County Road 500 South, worked 40 years at Guide, retiring in 1968.

Raised on a farm near Lexington. Ky., Gardner recalled on Saturday his youth and attending a one-room schoolhouse. He preferred running to school instead of taking a bus. Kids on the bus would point and laugh at him as they passed by.

Well, who’s laughing now?