Edna Weinel has called Columbia home for her entire life of 88 years.

She’s seen families grow from generation to generation and the town itself expand to nearly what the population of Monroe County was in 1930 when she was little.

Weinel has lived in the same house most of her life — a house her parents built just a few years after she was born in 1926.

“I’ve been here for 85 years,” she said. “We moved here when I was 3 from a house just a few blocks down.”

The house, at 407 N. Main Street, is a 3,000-square-foot brick home with yellow trim that sits back off the street.

Weinel said Main Street itself has changed a lot, as have the businesses that are housed along it.

She remembers a butcher shop, a dry goods store, beauty parlors, a department store and even a movie theater.

“I helped run the popcorn machine,” she said. “It was 25 cents for a matinee and 50 cents for an evening movie.”

Weinel was a nurse and studied at Washington University in St. Louis and earned her master’s at University of Michigan.

When her mother grew older and needed more care in the 1960s, Weinel came back to the house on Main Street.

“I thought I would move to a smaller house, but here I am: 88 and still here,” she said with a laugh. “I like Columbia. I was born and raised here.”

While the house might not be instantly noticeable from the road because it sits a ways back, an aspect of Weinel’s property is.

Out on the sidewalk sits a bowl and a sign reading “water for your dog.” Weinel is known for this sign, which has been in place for seven years.

Her niece lived with her for about a year, and Edna would take her dog for walks.

“The dog would see a mud puddle and get a drink out of it,” she said. “I thought about it, and realized how many dogs go by my house.”

She put water out, but no dogs stopped to drink from the bowl. She had a small yard sign made, but it was stolen shortly after she put it up.

Weinel found out from a fellow parishioner that her grandchildren had made a replacement sign for her yard.

Brett, Luke and Caleb Volmert made the original sign when they were little, but the weather has worn it down over the years.

“The kids said they were shooting for 10 years,” Weinel said. “But I don’t think it’s going to make it that long.”

She said they plan to make her a new sign this summer.

“A fair number of dogs do

drink from it,” she said. “Some people are leery of letting their dogs drink after other dogs, but I always wash it out thoroughly and fill it with water from the sink.”

Over the years the water has been out in the yard, Weinel said dog-walkers have been grateful for the refreshment for their dogs — especially on hot summer days.

“If I’m out in the garden, they’ll stop and talk and I’ll get to pet the dog,” she said with a smile.