Not that I have any chance but I have no desire to live that long. In the article it said the oldest person on record was 122 years and a bunch of days old when they died. WOW, that's really amazing.
Didn't read the whole article, but I think there's a woman who's a few years older. Just saying. ;)
Nick (LUCAS) Comstock wrote: Not that I have any chance but I have no desire to live that long. In the article it said the oldest person on record was 122 years and a bunch of days old when they died. WOW, that's really amazing.
I remember her quoted as saying the secret to longevity was to enjoy yourself and drink a couple glasses of wine every day. I liked her.
135 year-old Mary McDonald ...Not related to me....
135, 35 birthdays of absolutely zero drama or celebration as it's completely anticlimactic. That being said being able to tell other people at the home that you've got kids who are 100 and grandkids collecting social security.
I have a great aunt who's 96 and in fantastic shape mentally and physically. Talking to her is like being in a time machine. She says things like "let's skiddoo" and "we intend to serve at twelve;" she uses markedly different vocabulary and sentence construction compared to us "modern" people.
If you have relatives or neighbors from the WWII generation, please talk to them while they are still around. Their day is never ever coming back again.
JamesMcD wrote: If you have relatives or neighbors from the WWII generation, please talk to them while they are still around. Their day is never ever coming back again.
^This, and they are usually more then happy to talk to you
My parents would talk about the depression and rationing during WWII, but my father never talked about his war experiences. Neither did my two uncles that were in the Navy aboard carriers (the Cabot and Midway). My uncle that was in the Marines on Peleliu and other islands talked a lot.
Nick (LUCAS) Comstock wrote: Not that I have any chance but I have no desire to live that long.
I jokingly mentioned "I don't want to live past 80" to my father once.
He said "I bet if I ask you at 79 1/2 you'll have a different view". Point taken.
JamesMcD wrote: 135 year-old Mary McDonald ...Not related to me....
When I was looking for my ancestors slave masters I learned a few things. The consensus at the time only counted slaves who were 100 years or older (at least for some states (VA)), and that a lot of berkeleying slaves made it past 100 years old back then.
I guess we were better off under the white man's hand (whip). Terrible joke, don't let my black friends see that 
Speaking of traversing time and living a long time, the last Civil War Union Solider widow died in 2003.
yupididit wrote:JamesMcD wrote: 135 year-old Mary McDonald ...Not related to me....When I was looking for my ancestors slave masters I learned a few things. The consensus at the time only counted slaves who were 100 years or older (at least for some states (VA)), and that a lot of berkeleying slaves made it past 100 years old back then. I guess we were better off under the white man's hand (whip). Terrible joke, don't let my black friends see that
I wouldn't be surprised if the frequency of living past 100 was greater for all the types of people back then. The average age of death may have been younger than today, due to childhood diseases and people getting sucked into farm machinery and such, but barring early deaths and accidents I think people were a lot healthier and probably lived longer than today - I've been doing a lot of genealogy research lately, looking at old newspaper archives, and it sure seems like the most common types of deaths 100 years ago were early childhood deaths due to disease, terrible accidents of various sorts, and the elderly passing at 80 and up.
The crazy chemicals we are exposed to these days in our foods (which we hardly have any choice about), and all the people around us getting cancer left and right, both really scare me.
RossD wrote: Speaking of traversing time and living a long time, the last Civil War Union Solider widow died in 2003.
I went to high school (~1996) with a girl who's grandfather, unbelievably, was in the civil war. Both her grandfather and her father reproduced at 80+.
In reply to JamesMcD:
Just some numbers and some perspective: Say that girl you knew in high school was 16 years old in 1996. That means she was born in 1980. If her dad reproduced at 80+, he was born in 1900. If his dad reproduced in his 80s, then a probably birth date for him was 1820.
One of the first steam locomotive in the USA first moved under it's own power in 1829!
RossD wrote: In reply to JamesMcD: Just some numbers and some perspective: Say that girl you knew in high school was 16 years old in 1996. That means she was born in 1980. If her dad reproduced at 80+, he was born in 1900. If his dad reproduced in his 80s, then a probably birth date for him was 1820. One of the first steam locomotive in the USA first moved under it's own power in 1829!
Another way you could look at it: Her grandfather could have known people who were involved in the American revolution.
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