Q and A with a 100 Year Old Man

a reply to: SargonThrall

Your post made me realize something interesting - depending on the questioner and the question, I sometimes answer with the '20 year old me', or the 30, 60, 100 year old me - the way I understood things at a certain time and in matters like religion, what was 'expected of me' by the greater society at large. I generally don't want to step on toes, especially seemingly innocent ones, but certain topics obviously hold a large emotional charge due to the amount of time I wasted figuring them out.

Thanks for asking the question. I learned something new today.

What advice can you give on raising children? Thank you for doing this, reading your replies is delightful

a reply to: SentientCentenarian

Who is/was your favorite:

• Baseball player
  
  
• Musician
  
  
• Actor/actress
  
  
• President/politician
  
  
• Author

a reply to: SentientCentenarian

Ah! There is so much joy in your expression! I can see that youngster peering out of your eyes with sheer delight. No wonder you've lived so long, the fountain of youth resides within.

Thank you for sharing this! It made me smile with some of that reflected joy...

As you get older, do people seem to treat you like a child? If so, do you find it annoying?

originally posted by: tikbalang
Please let this post continue..

Could you tell me the story about your first love, and what it means to you now?

Good morning, everyone

Ah, my lady Fern.

I fell in love the first moment I saw her. A very sweet face and a sweeter personality (like a cupcake!)

She wanted nothing to do with me, which probably accelerated my interest a tad. After about a year of being ignored, I finally asked her friend Dorothy to introduce us (that was the way it was done in those days, you couldn't just go up to a girl and start talking for some reason...) I've explained what happened next, demands were made to 'see my report card'. It was awful, most likely B-, Cs and the occasional D. Spent the next year buckling down to prove I could do it. Good thing there was still time left in school.

I bought the Model A in 1930 brand new off the lot, on time... and I was one of the few guys with a car. Imagine them selling a brand new car to a snot-nosed 15 year old kid without a job? All I had were odd jobs here and there! But I never missed a payment! It was the beginning of the Depression and 'ol Henry Ford needed to sell those things! There was dances in Des Moines at the YMCA and I started bringing girls to the dances, stuffed into the backseat and the rumble seat (Fern made all the trips with me, which meant I got to spend that much more time with her and I wasn't going to let her be at the dance alone with all the other boys!); I was quite popular with all the other boys, because I was bringing all these girls to the dances for them! Then after the dance was over, if a boy took a liking to a certain girl, sometimes they'd ask me if they could take her home. Nothing doing! I brought her, I took her home safe and sound. If you wanted to take her out, you had to ask her father first and do it proper!

I'm presuming things aren't done that way now... :-/

The other big thing to do was go out for ice cream after school, or sledding. Clear Lake was nearby and they had a big auditorium that brought in big acts from all over, bigger than anything that could be held in Des Moines (Clear Lake was famously where the Big Bopper's plane took off from and crashed, taking Buddy Holly and Richie Valens too - 'the day the music died').

Besides having kids and the interruption of the war and me spending two years in Japan, on vacations we went rock hounding and shell hunting, camping out with the kids. We saw every state in the union including Alaska and Hawaii. Towards the middle of the 70s, my mother and all my sisters and brother moved out to California (they were all golfers) and we all moved into the same mobile home park. I'm the last one left now of all of them.

originally posted by: ValentineWiggin
What advice can you give on raising children? Thank you for doing this, reading your replies is delightful

Expose them to everything! All the sciences, all the different cultures, travel as much as you can afford. Books, books, books!

My son especially loved astronomy. We built a homemade telescope and that kid would stay up late and sometimes never sleep, looking at the stars. He became a college professor who can teach a whole bunch of subjects.

Let them learn about religion on their own, when they're much older. Let them decide for themselves and don't scare them with talk of hell (that's awful and child abuse, in my mind).

Instead of a bunch of toys at Christmas, get them something new (and educational) every once and a while throughout the year, as you can afford it. Make it clear that if money is tight, that's a reality, don't go into debt to buy anything but especially not Christmas presents. Read to them. Never, ever, spank. It will only make them resent you. Even a small child can understand a respectful discussion about 'why you shouldn't do that'. If they throw a temper tantrum in public, walk away. They'll only pull that once, and they're probably just overtired anyway.

Be careful with those vaccination schedules - they do way too many now and I don't think they're safe, especially now that they're getting 'mandated'.

Homeschool if you can. Schools are indoctrination warehouses run by the government.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: SentientCentenarian

Who is/was your favorite:

• Baseball player
  
  
• Musician
  
  
• Actor/actress
  
  
• President/politician
  
  
• Author

Babe Ruth

Hank Williams

Marilyn Monroe

Franklin D Roosevelt

Author? Hmmm.... I used to read almost entirely nonfiction, so no favorite there.

Do you still get laid ?

originally posted by: angeldoll
As you get older, do people seem to treat you like a child? If so, do you find it annoying?

This one is interesting - and something I've noticed. The incurious... the people who don't have a lot of spark to them, do treat me like a child. There's a definite sense of being 'patted on the head' and told how cute I am and how amazing that I'm 100 or whatever. But they don't go beyond that to ask questions. Which means they miss an opportunity to learn something.

It's like the world is divided up between people who are curious (about everything!) and people who are not. I find that odd and wonder where it comes from.

My companion/car driver/helper is one of the curious ones - when we first met, they started asking me questions and we talked for hours - still do. It's helped me remember things I otherwise would have forgotten all about and I'm glad I'm having the opportunity to pass along the history.

originally posted by: kibric
Do you still get laid ?

Let me put it this way - If Marilyn Monroe came back to life and danced naked around me, all I could do is sit back and enjoy the show...

What was the sadness moment in your life? And what did you do to overcome it?

Great thread by the way! Reading some of your responses made me remember my grandmother.

Here's Fern:

originally posted by: RetsuUnohana
What was the sadness moment in your life? And what did you do to overcome it?

Great thread by the way! Reading some of your responses made me remember my grandmother.

When Fern died

Finally getting the hang of this; I'm having to convert files from my emails;

This is our first (?) trip to California; all our worldly goods are in that trailer and trunk

Don't know the date on this one, maybe age 25?

Just noticed your location as "entrance to the lighted tunnel".

lol.

You are a piece of work!

I'm loving all the pictures! Thank you, you were indeed a handsome man, zipping through American skies.

Another question -- Did you ever have a close call when flying? When you thought your plane might go down?

originally posted by: SentientCentenarian

originally posted by: RetsuUnohana
What was the sadness moment in your life? And what did you do to overcome it?

Great thread by the way! Reading some of your responses made me remember my grandmother.

When Fern died

1918 Iowa