Charlie’s Longevity Secrets

When we last encountered Charlie a few weeks ago, I told you that, at 105 years of age, he had slipped on the ice while shoveling his front walk, broken his ankle, and driven himself to the hospital. I heard that piece of the story from others, and like many good stories, it was slightly exaggerated. When I visited Charlie recently, I got the real version. Plus a lot more fascinating stuff.

He did slip on his icy front walk, but it was before he had actually started shoveling. He didn’t drive himself to the hospital, his daughter did. Charlie does, however, still have a license, and up until the injury he was still driving. (There’s a classic 1967 Mustang convertible in his garage. He bought it new.)

The part about Charlie dating actor Chris Cooper’s mother is true. They get together frequently for dinner. As I wrote previously, he showed me a photo of the two of them with Santa last Christmas. Sweet couple.

The part about him playing the sax is also true. How he became a sax player is a giant clue to his makeup.

When Charlie was eight, in 1913, his minister father died in a bizarre elevator accident. The elevator operator turned the crank before his father was completely aboard, causing the elevator to knock him down, crush his chest, and push him into the shaft where he fell nine floors.

Charlie, his mother, and four sisters were left without much of an income. Charlie figured that if he learned how to play the sax he might be able to make some money. On the third floor of their house he could pick up a weekly live broadcast of a local swing band on his little crystal radio set. He taught himself how to play by listening to the broadcast and playing along with the band. Later, when he found out he’d have to be able to actually read music to get any gigs, he taught himself how to do that, too.

Charlie made money playing in dance bands all through college at Missouri, and medical school at Northwestern. (In the mid-1920s!) While at med school in Chicago, his band had a chance for a two month summer gig on a ship bound for Asia. But the audition was in Seattle, and the train ticket was expensive. He heard about a man who needed a transfusion, so Charlie went down to sell his blood. Amazingly, the man turned out to be one of Al Capone’s lieutenants. After the transfusion, the mobster’s wife approached Charlie with a big roll of bills and asked him how much he charged for his blood. Charlie knew the going rate was $35, but the ticket to Seattle was $120. So he somewhat nervously told her $120. She peeled off the bills “like it was nothing.”

After 105 years of living a remarkable life, Charlie has a lot of great stories. I saw pictures of him surfing in Hawaii (in the mid-1920s!), and he showed me a slot machine one local illegal-gambling-house owner used to pay off some medical bills. (It still works. I lost a few nickels in it.) He was reluctant to play the sax for me because his dentures were acting up, but he did play me a reel-to-reel tape of him improvising some melodies. It was beautiful. The man has honest-to-God talent.

I could ramble on about all the adventures he shared in two hours, but let’s get to the possible reasons for his lengthy lifespan.

Charlie has a birthday coming up next month and the family’s planned a big celebration. I asked him if he ever thought he’d live to be 105, and he seemed both surprised and philosophical about it. The broken leg, although completely healed, has slowed him down a bit. He doesn’t want to fall again, and especially doesn’t want to go through physical rehab again. (Who could blame him?) He also has some macular degeneration in one eye and has decided to quit driving. He jokingly says his kids are fighting over that 1967 Mustang.

I wanted to know how he’s done it, so I asked him what he’s done to take care of himself. I pointed out that in all the pictures he showed me, he always looked fit and trim. Did he exercise a lot or eat any special way? Not really, he said. He walked a lot, but that was about it.

Charlie thinks his longevity is a genetic gift. His mother lived into her late 90s, and one sister lived to 102. And none of his sisters or mother (or himself) ever had any kind of cancer. So we’re talking about some strong genes here.

But a couple of other things stood out. I asked him how he spent the last 35 years since retiring from medicine. To put it mildly, Charlie stayed busy. He played a lot of golf, traveled the world fishing, and especially loved photography. (Among other things, he gave me a tour of his darkroom.) He also owned 10 acres of land with several horses. Both the land and the horses took a lot of work.

That acreage, as it happens, was in the middle of what now is a very wealthy suburb. He sold it some years back to a developer. I observed that if he still had it now, it would be worth millions.

“I don’t care about that,” he said. “I never think about it.”

“Really?” I asked. “Not a bit?”

“No regrets,” he said. If you’re living, never have regrets.*”

* Do you think that might have been a factor?

* That, and as Kate Jackson (wife of rockabilly hero Roddy Jackson) suggested: playing the saxophone!

© 2010 Greg Tamblyn