95 Yr Old's Longevity Tips + Food History

hey it's Whitney from eco vegan gal comm and in today's video I have a very special guest with me this is my grandfather and I wanted to talk with him today about his experience with food over his lifetime because he has seen a lot what year were you born in grandpa I was born 1919 so that makes you how old now ninety five and a half ninety five and a half it's pretty incredible so you've lived almost a hundred years I can't believe it I can't believe it either it's amazing them I'm so lucky to have you so many people always tell me that I'm very lucky to have a grandfather and great health and he is such a great memory and I love talking with him about his life experiences he remembers almost every detail from his life do you remember what you ate as a young boy as a young boy let's go back to maybe when I was say six to ten that would be in the 1920s and the economy wasn't bad yeah and the food was pretty good variety we would have oatmeal for breakfast and we couldn't afford right to milk we would use carnation milk with a little bit of water in it and a spoonful of sugar the food was plentiful but food at that time was prepared at home mm-hmm today you could walk into a supermarket yes and it's already prepared for you so what is that the difference if the difference to me was the smell of the food cooking in the kitchen yes yeah that's that's what makes two all the difference in the oil yeah so your mom would make the food oh yes my mom will make the food a lot of casseroles lot of casseroles with macaroni and top with cheese and baked and baked not an automatic oven or anything and a coal stove was a big cast-iron range almost every home had one and on the side was a coal fire and that that produced the heat too do the cooking or the baking because the heat would travel around the oven and then up the chimney oh wow so that would keep the house warm too dad that was the only source of headon in the house at that time yes so you probably liked being in the kitchen for the food we and for the heat we were not only in the kitchen for the food we were probably in the kitchen for just about everything doing our homework or gathering that was the gathering place yes kitchen so lots of good memories in it oh yes yes I can close my eyes I can see it right now what did it look like well we had a red house and we didn't have anything real fancy most people did not have anything fancy you have it was neither you had a table yet cheered we each had a chair that was important yep and and how many you have lots of brothers and sisters though I have I had I should say nine brothers and sisters well people see you twelve chairs in this kitchen yes and that's where you would gather to eat yes spend your time with each other so you had the stove and you had a refrigerator no no no no no refrigerator we had an icebox icebox yes an ice box was a beautiful camlock had to work very nice on one side the vertical door and you would put your food on the left side upper part a piece of ice would be placed well underneath it was a pan to catch the water as it melted from the ice Wow but it didn't cool down as a refrigerator does today we usually didn't have anything too much left over to put in there because you eat is used up water preferred food would be used up at the mealtime but you would put things in it before the meal yeah yeah yeah I can't remember too much of anything ever being in there and then to jump forward a little bit we go into the 1930s the Depression years we didn't have anything to put her in because everything we ate we ate it that meal there was nothing left over to keep cool yeah in fact at that time we and other people as well started selling their possessions just to have enough money to pay the rent or to buy food so what type of things would you sell well we sold the icebox you sold the icebox yes and then I thought I remember we we got $5.00 for it five dollars Whitney was an awful lot of money at that time during the Depression years we as well as many other people at eight very simple food we've bred for number one and fresh bread then was not sliced mmm-hmm you've won a loaf of bread it was a loaf of bread you had to slice it so you had to buy the bread your mom wouldn't make the bread no no we would buy the bread but we would not buy the fresh bread we would buy the bread from yesterday or the day before because instead of paying 10 cents a loaf we could get two or maybe three loaves of bread for the 10 cents Wow and with ten kids three loaves of bread would just like that yeah so what bread was for like what would you use the bread for that was that was the part of the meal okay like for lunch mentioned lunch coming home from school many times we would have oatmeal for lunch but very often most of the time would be a slice of bread my mother would slice it about an inch wide with apple butter and there was no such thing as a having a glass of milk with it with half of a glass of water with it yeah that would be the lunch time and that was a pretty regular during the Depression years my mother would always ration the food she'd put it in the dish and give us the dish you know that was it and you couldn't go and have a snack you had you just know that don't eat like we would get in the cabinet we had one draw it was built for bread and it was line and the bread the crust was always cut off both ends no one wanted it when you get the fresh pressure no pressure so that went into the drawn and when I got to be about 8 o'clock in the evening one or two of us would always say mom can I have a piece of bread and she say look well I don't have too much how about if there's a crust in her can we take it so we go in and we take the hard crust would eat that Wow so nothing nothing I wasted you told me the story how you would borrow money from the neighbor sometimes oh yes that would be at different times it would be late in the afternoon late was four o'clock and there's no money and it's near suppertime so my brother would say would you go to see mrs. nor that was a neighborhood next block and ask her dallona's 50 cents and my brother Bob would always go he'd borrowed the 50 cent and then on Friday he would go back over to see mrs. Noah and pay her back to 50 Cent's but the interesting thing is she had opened the door take the 50 cents and later on a window ledge and next week when he came back to borrow 50 cents again she take it off give him the 50 cents and then he'd take the 50 cents what he paid it back put it back on a window Wow so she was governing if we could have gotten 50s as ahead we should have been free of doing that yeah well would the 50 cents by Oh what would I buy well of course for ten says you'd get three loaves of bread yeah pea beans which is what he called Navy B's or PB three pounds for 10 cents potatoes were only about three cents a pound potatoes were down so much the government tried to hold the price by paying the farmers to destroy piles and piles and piles of potatoes with a spring with kerosene no way I have seen it I seen it yes I see knees while hay in a farmer's field nor covered with care well it just to keep well it was down to three cents a pound and if I had gone any lower it cost him more for seed that they could get back and they weren't in growth so the gun was trying to hold that price Wow potatoes were a staple in our house I mentioned bread yep potatoes beans and beans but everything was prepared at home almost all over not not only in my home but all over what about other vegetables did you have a garden no I wanted a garden but the soil in the yard it was gravel and sand normally though in my early days I gave up gardening when did you start gardening cuz you have a nice garden well yes and in my later years I started gardening maybe I would guess 50 or 55 years ago yeah at your home in New Jersey yeah yeah because by then I learned how to prepare the soil and the soil world we live now it's four different than would be in the original town where I live the original towers neighbor was south amboy yep South Amboy New Jersey just to tell you a little story I'll move ahead a few years I was probably separate about seventeen I was working were with the nya the nya was the National Youth administration and I was allowed to work three days every two weeks and for that I get paid $19 a month my mother would give me a sandwich to put in my pocket for my lunch I remember those days so well did people have illnesses from food because right now a lot of people get sick because if they're not eating very well were people what were people dying from in the 20s and 30s and 40s um well there were the more major diseases that I would hear about it would be a heart attack would be cancer my father his background he was Danish descent and the Danes like pork mm-hmm and they don't waste anything on the port that the fat grease and all they love it I do too but I knew it was not good for me yeah but my father he was a heavy eater of fatty foods and he died suddenly at age 45 I'm a heart attack Wow and I was told after that passed away that his arteries were clogged with chloral we didn't even know anything about cholesterol that time that was a major killer with a lot of people Wow even back then interesting do people have diabetes back then yes yeah but I didn't know too much about it said now the work there were people that would lose a foot yeah and they would say someone would say it was from diabetes and we knew that was too much sugar or the insulin in the person's body was not regulated properly we would know that much that that was all next we don't have the amount of knowledge about ELQ as is so much available today yeah I I would say the person living order including myself is because the improvements in health and the education that's there to let you know what did it use and what not to use yes and I'll give you an example when I was about oh I'd say 35 years old I was getting chest pains and I went to my doctor dr. Cipolla and he said Norman he said cut down on fatty food cut down on gravies and I believed him and I took his advice and from that time on I did I still eat it the legionary but nothing to the extent that I did at that time no preservatives you didn't have a lot of preserved food right packaged foods No so door there was no none that when did that stop I fish food we bought for bird blood yeah with macaroni in it yes something like yes drop that's dried by cross just one ingredient not a bunch of different no not at all do you remember when like fast I remember you told me about McDonald's the first McDonald's you heard of men do you member like frozen meals coming after the war and all of that yeah what did you think well first of all I thought that this is unusual I'd still want fresh cooked food you know yeah and but people gradually felt the same time and hey everything's right there with you and little by little you get you get into it yes and and maybe you don't want to but that's what was it available for you you know at that time were you with Grandma when that was coming that came on or was that before you met her no that was after after grandmama and I were married and your dad was a little boy so did she start using frozen food or was she not only not too much no we never did even up until recently when she passed away we we would use it once in a while maybe for some reason were she was rushed a little bit I would say a frozen dinner maybe it would occur once in three weeks so she would make it all very much Oh she'd always make a fresh meal she'd make should make a salad every day lettuce and onion she knew I loved onions yeah I said have onions tomato better and and addressing their what goes with it yeah then we'd have a main meal and it would be a protein hood food or meat food you know but a small mom and the wouldn't be a lot of fat on it wouldn't be any other probably and usually I always like potatoes to be serving normal serving I just thought it'd happen and she'd always have at least one green vegetable on the plate yeah always so this is ever since when you were all right I would say ever for your grandma and I were married for 65 years and I would say was for 65 years sure cuz what about fast food did you guys eat out that much cuz I know I know you like no diners some times well I I do i I like you that a diner for breakfast okay how come because I like eggs and again I like fried potatoes and I usually have sausage with it or bacon with it and I oh if I have bacon I tell them I want it well done it's done to the point where breaks like a clapper so most of the grease is gone from it what supermarket start has changed too cuz when your mom was making food for the home she would get it from a farmer and the bake shop right you don't get the bread from the baker where would she get themes from well beans we would get from the general store okay see there were at that time the supermarket didn't exist right that there was a baker shop a butcher shop a grocery store and he would have bushel baskets with tomatoes and beans as you mentioned yeah other than when they're in season mm-hmm and that's where you would get them okay so how did you feel when the supermarket started kind of popping up well like everyone else with the supermarket was all one place and they were able also to sell it just a little cheaper and of course people drifted to that and a lot of these mom-and-pop stores then lost business yeah how did you feel about that well we didn't think too much we like most people we did we would go where we can get the best price yes so price and time were important that's yes yeah yes grandma used to stockpile the basement yes she loved coupons yes and she loves she would take advantage of all the bargains yes where did that come from when did she start doing that I I would think but probably if maybe after we were married about ten years we bought a freezer chest what year was that that would be well we were married 1930 47b in the late 1950s okay mm-hmm so she bought the big chest big chest big freezer chest which you put in a basement yeah and she had all those cupboards there many people were doing that they would go to these days bakery outlets were they had yesterday's bakery and it wasn't being sold they'd sold for half price and they couldn't eat ten loaves of bread in one day they put the freezer mm-hmm so they were doing it for the same reason hmm economic reasons so it was easier to get and cheaper to get it all once you would save time and you save money yes she loved a coupon - yes oh yeah coupons become big yeah it's far back as actually four I think from day one you want some kind of a coupon even in the depression there were nothing no nothing but there were gimmicks always gimmicks and one was what they call green stamps okay you ever heard of green stem mm-hmm for every so much money you would spend you get you get a green stem and if they give it but you paste it in and if once your book was filled the word articles you could get in exchange for it maybe it would cause it we have a book maple across five books but people were crazy about saving those green stamps so we still have things like that because you can you get a punch card and how many stamps your punches you get you get a discount hey my dear Wow hey Marc how about like when the coupon cuz grandma had the coupon books yeah she would go through the magazines and she loved all of that yes so she was doing that from the 1950s on oh yes yes Wow yeah she and sometimes she would just buy things to keep them and give away I would say half of it was for that reason why is that like well she was very charitable that way she she would if you needed something and she knew it she couldn't rest until she did her gave it to you after she passed away it was she passed away of Christmas morning two to nineteen years ago well 20 yeah I sorted we saw it I shouldn't say I but we started trying to unload the freezer and it took one full year to use something we had to throw away cuz it was outdated yeah but it took a full year to empty the freezer just the freezer just not the cabinets and the cabinets that were still a lot of food with all the coupons she probably got a lot of that for free or so discounted I used to kid her I used to tell her well if chef ROC runs out of food they know where they can stock up again it's true but that's amazing that it could last a whole year you wouldn't even have to go shopping I did well the other the staples you still have to go yeah yes and then you have your garden yeah oh yeah and in a garden why four years one till she got a little older and I got a little older we used to freeze a lot of the food yeah and I used to grow a lot of lima beans I love lima beans and she would Sheldon and she'd blanched them and then immediately freeze them in small packages yeah it would be those fresh lima beans all winter what keeps you so mentally sharp at 95 that's a good question yeah I I often ask myself that I am very interested in everything I think and that may have be a part of it I very often if I go to bed at night night I don't feel sleepy I can't get to sleep maybe something's on my mind I'll turn my mind towards building something or repairing something and while I'm thinking of the various ways to do this and visualizing it I fall asleep ah it relaxes me I see the fixing problems yeah he likes us me that way I wonder what's out there besides the Stars and the moon and the Sun maybe sighs yep yeah your dad and I often discuss that so keeping your mind active as though it is helpful to you right I think so I think it's got a lot to do with it yes and you still do a lot of reading but you listen to audio but yes I can't I can't read I even with a magnifier my my vision is 2,800 that's that's when you can't see the bigger you on the chart no more how you kept yourself healthy all these years what's your secret well as I mentioned before about the chest pain I think to me that was a turning point I ate much less of a fatty food yes very much so I ate a lot of vegetable I start eating more vegetables and I smoked I smoked a pipe after dinner or supper I would smoke white pipe a couple of times when I change from being a workers being a supervisor I had so much on my mind I said I'm gonna make another change I'm gonna quit smoking and I quit cold just like that Wow but what helped me a lot was I did not inhale when you inhale you getting it down your lungs then you get the taste for it and it's hard to get rid of it yeah I didn't inhale I never did oh I spoke as a as a nervous habit oh you might settle down yeah so I was I would say about 46 and I haven't haven't spoke to a big wow so no smoking uh less fat less fatty food the other thing was a lot of X is not a lot of walking you still walk today which is okay walk around as you can walking is difficult today because my focus due to my poor eyesight I lose confidence of what where I'm walking no you do a good job though well it's a lot much guesswork wouldn't yes but you're doing is there a hole there is your something is that a shadow or is that a step but I walk around inside the house and I walk the equivalent of about a half a mile to a mile every day you drink coffee yes not much and alcohol I have a glut had four glass of wine every how often right before dinner I didn't know that whoa was that a doctor's recommendation yes Axl I have a friend his son is the pathologist and the fact he's the state pathologist down New Jersey he said red wine would be very beneficial to the heart Wow but I like it tastes good yeah and it's good before bad so I drink a Cabernet and every night red wine how about sugary foods I don't have a taste for sugar yeah I'm lucky that way then very little sugar I very seldom use any sugar and salt do you don't eat much salt so same thing I gave that up oh when I was much much younger why is that well for that again they said it raises the blood pressure mm-hmm my I saw my doctor last week Whitney and it still amazes me and a lot of people comment or until my blood pressure is 120 over 70 that's the blood pressure I have when I was 21 years old Wow Wow that's amazing you know and how about oil how do you feel do you watch oil and take or anything for fat vinegar and oil in salad mm-hmm yeah a little bit I like that yeah not overdone just little but fried foods do you watch them I'm like right do you like to eat them yeah yeah I do eat fried food yes yeah but do you have no I don't know I don't overdo with them how do you make sure that you don't feel depressed how do you stay happy well how do I show you happy you know you spend a lot of time alone and Grandma well yes but I think I'm getting a little more used to it but what I like I don't have to have somebody at my side unless I'm out on the street then I need an escort my vision but at home if someone just passed through and said hi norm or just pass through and say oh it's raining outside or it's a beautiful day maybe a couple times door today or phone rings a couple times a day it's enough but if I have a day when no phone calls come and I don't see anyone it kind of drags a little bit what I do in those days I I listen to my digital books for one thing and I listen to the news but I I tried not to keep at the news because they keep repeating it yeah and I passed my day that way and I prepare from what what Norma Jean put my daughter Norma Jean it puts it on the right shelf in the refrigerator I prepare that for my lunch that takes a little time in the mornings the first thing I have it to our routine takes me two hours to get up up to speed yeah taking medications that I take for blood pressure another thing at taking eyedrops I take three eyedrops in the morning and I separate them a half-an-hour piece and then wash the dishes and maybe clean up a little bit so two hours goodbye just like that yeah and then then I started maybe our nice weather I'll go outside and see what I can do around the garden but I can't do as much as I used to because when I look at a plant I don't see it the detail of it I see more of a shadow yeah but I know it's tomato or a eggplant or its peppers or what it's something else that's amazing that you can still be out in the garden well it's yeah I can't see I'm just determined stubborn stubborn but determination probably helps you a lot to you and it does enjoy in life yeah but with the Lawson I saw your confidence decreases what Martin when my eyesight was good good my feeling was I don't care what it is I can handle it yeah anything you're still like that though your your voice probably I'm an incompetent it's probably part of to happen I guess yes that's a good habit to have though yeah okay well do you have any final words for living healthy or living a long life I I'd say living a long life that what I would say eat healthy food don't overdo it get enough exercise and most important is keep your attitude positive there be setbacks they'll be hardships everyone has them but do the best you can with it accept it if you can't get anything else done and move on and move on even even if you move a quarter of an inch forward just keep going forward that's very good advice okay one last thing some people have said why would I want to live to a hundred years old that life is not good you know my life is too bad to live that long or they don't want to live that long are you glad that you have lived ninety five years yeah I I would say yes I don't I don't know where it went to but there's so many wonderful things yet to be seen unknown and just talking about the advancement in electronics which was in my field anyway we're advancing so fast we're advancing X potentially that I believe not in my lifetime but probably in yours you're going to see things that were unbelievable well you've probably seen plenty of unbelievable things from what I was it yes cuz you saw the cars were I started when I was 14 years old gathering parts from people's trash taking them apart and building small radios that's where I was 14 yeah and there wasn't anything else like that and televisions move all the was like no I know about it it was being developed but it wasn't available wrong you've seen so much so for you you wanna you you enjoy being alive and I've seen a good part of the world and it was a free tour - yeah uncle sandpaper haha when you're in the war yeah yeah yeah but now you know even though you can't see you're here as well you still find joy in life and yes most of the time I I do I admittedly I do have times when I feel the loss of your grandmother you know mm-hmm and still it just doesn't that can't be that just can't be you know I feel that way you know yeah but there most of the time yes I would say I I do feel pretty good that's good that's very inspiring because there's a lot of people that a lot of people have much worse problem that I have but there are a lot of people that don't you know that have so many things like you know their vision and their hearing and youth and many things and they are upset about it don't don't give up as I mentioned move ahead even though it's a fracture of an inch maybe it's not a foot if even a fraction is just keep moving to another direction yep don't turn around give up that's great Thank You grandpa I'm sure that you inspired a lot of people today oh I don't know I hope so I could talk to you for hours and invite you people are gonna have a lot of questions so we might have to adieu another one of these to answer all the questions we're gonna watch I'll be available okay well thank you everyone for watching today I hope you enjoyed this and we can't wait to hear from you and in the comments and whatever questions you have and anything you want to share about maybe your grandfather and and relatives of yours and things that you've learned wisdom and anything that you've know if you know anybody that's been around as long as he has I'd love to hear about you know your conversations about what their lives were like and what did you learn from them and whatever else you want to share thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next video let's wave goodbye thank you Thank You grandpa thank you like it wouldn't

Channel: Eco-Vegan Gal

Views: 31,953

Rating: 4.9341087 out of 5

Keywords: ecovegangal, coal stove, 1920s kitchen, 1920s life, great depression, food costs, ice box, longevity, live to 100, 100 year old, happiness, depression, grandpa, grandfather, grandparent, interview, centenarian, 1930s, 1940s, food history

Id: IcLf_R3VxE8

Length: 32min 22sec (1942 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2015