VIDALIA — Lots of teenagers lie about their age. Sometimes, it may make them feel older just to say they’re older. Others may do it to impress people.

But when 17-year-old Harry Roth did it, it started a 30-year-plus stretch as a member of the U.S. Army.

When The Dart landed near Roth’s house on Dogwood Street in Vidalia, he had been out of the military for a long time — he retired from the service in 1972 — but he still remembered signing up.

“I had an eight year older brother in the army,” Roth said. “He decided to do it, and I decided to follow him.”

It was then Roth decided to fib on his forms to be admitted into the armed forces.

That little white lie took Roth across the world, and during his time in the military he saw a lot of south Asia — in World War II he was assigned to the South Pacific theater of war, he served three times in the Korean conflict and did a tour in the Vietnam War.

He decided to retire when the Army wanted him to go back to Vietnam a second time, Roth said.

“They were going to send me back, and I said, ‘No,’” he said.

Now 84, Roth worked for Sanderson Farms and then Patton Scaffolding before retiring for good 15 years ago.

These days, Roth keeps busy by mixing his hobbies — woodworking and gardening.

In a large flowerbed in front of his house, he planted gladiolus, petunias, lilies and other bulbs.

But just in case those bulbs — which have just started to peek out of the ground into the mid-July heat — don’t make it, Roth has handcrafted wooden tulips planted in the garden as well.

“I just cut them out with a jigsaw and then I paint them,” he said. “I can make approximately 10 a day.”