Stretched out in a row, the combined years of the people feted Thursday at Green Pond County Club would take you back 4,500 years or so, to when Egypt’s Great Pyramid was new.
Being in a room full of centenarians makes you think of things like that, but even on an individual level, great longevity can be jarring to consider. Robert Bergren, for instance, born in Staten Island, New York, in August 1925, predates the advent of television by a year.
The World War II Navy veteran spent years at SI Handling in Easton, retiring as a vice president. He advised an interviewer on the best way to reach a hearty 101 years.
“Avoid stress,” he said. “There are people who are nervous all the time. Forget it. Enjoy life.”
Those words were tonic for strange times, and not the only advice for a long life doled out in the room by the 40-plus centenarians who attended the 12th annual Centenarian Luncheon sponsored by the Northampton County Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council.
Dorothea Butler, 103, recommended a more literal tonic — a glass of wine or brandy with dinner — while Millie Seager, elegant in a silver tiara marking her 100th year, insisted that happiness, deliberately chosen, fuels the engine of longevity.
So, too, does exercise.
“I went to [Wilson Area High School] on a bicycle,” she said. “We didn’t have our parents driving us.”
Marilyn Achey, 101, offered the most pragmatic advice: Have good genetics.
Genes are, of course, part of the secret, but Lori Metz, vice president of the county agency’s advisory council, said one of the common threads among centenarians is that they have strong support from family and friends.
“It’s times they’ve had with children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren,” she said.
Sure enough, the attendees were accompanied by lots of relatives, in some cases four generations’ worth.
“She’s the best grandma ever,” said Seth Seager, Millie Seager’s grandson, reminiscing about childhood vacations at his grandparents’ campground at Otter Lake in the Poconos.
The oldest person on the guest list, Edith Flick, couldn’t attend. She is 108, born in 1918 to an Italian family with 13 children. She worked at Bethlehem Steel and at the Millcrest Factory in Fountain Hill, a silk mill that would one day become the borough municipal complex.
Flick’s absence made Jean Dunham the oldest in the room, at 106. The Easton native was one of many veterans on hand. During World War II, after the death of her first husband, she joined the women’s branch of the Naval Reserve. Members were called WAVES — Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.
Dunham worked for several officers and continued her government service after the war. She also discovered the formula of a long life — a Bloody Mary at lunch and a glass of wine at dinner.
Northampton is one of the only counties in Pennsylvania that holds annual celebrations of its centenarians. Metz said the event is modeled after one in Delaware County.
It was a high-spirited affair. Attendees were greeted by the pleasing vocals of Massimo Brutto, a Reading crooner who sounds like he’s been seasoned by years on the nightclub circuit but looks even younger than his 31 years.
Northampton County Executive Tara Zrinski and state Rep. Steve Samuelson took turns recognizing the guests, whose photos, old and new, were beamed on an overhead screen.
The Rev. Michael Bobick, chaplain at Gracedale, the Northampton County nursing home, delivered the invocation and found just the right bit of Scripture for the occasion, citing the Book of Proverbs on the blessings of a long life.
“Gray hair,” he said, “is the splendor of old age.”
Daniel Patrick Sheehan is a freelance writer.