At 100 years old, Vic Whetzel has outlived his parents, eight of his nine siblings, two wives and even the town where he was born.
That’s a century of losses, but also a century of love, laughter and life.

“I never considered age,” Whetzel said. “If I needed or wanted to do it, I tried it.”

That included scaling part of the Great Wall of China with his son, Ron, when Whetzel was 92 years old.

“He’s a man who loves life, and life has been good to him,” said Ron Whetzel, 78.

The elder Whetzel hasn’t been on such a long trek since, but he takes an exercise class three days a week and uses treadmills and other equipment available to him and fellow residents of Valley View retirement center in Boise.

He doesn’t need a history book on the Great Depression. He lived it. But his nimble mind doesn’t live in the past. He has strong opinionsabout war (bullets won’t win the day) and the U.S. clawing its way out of an economic sinkhole (next generation will pay the tab), among other things.

He carries a cane, which he said is mainly for show. The management at Valley View told him to use it for stability, he said. He wears glassesand hearing aids, as do many younger seniors. He has good skin and all his own teeth. In 100 years, he has spent only one night in a hospital — and that was just for observation, he said. “I am a healthy person, and I’ve always been a healthy person.”

So what’s the secret? One good thing piled atop another: good genes; a childhood with large amounts of healthy — and inexpensive — produce from the family’s garden; meaningful work; play; an active retirement; no cigarettes and no alcohol.

Over a lunch of half a ham and turkey sandwich, a cup of chicken noodle soup and a dish of tapioca pudding, Whetzel shared his life story.
Whetzel has lived at Valley View since he was 83 and has made good friends. One of them, Harry Woolum, stops by Whetzel’s table at lunch, a smile on his face.

The two joke about their respective roles taking care of a large, pretty fountain and fish pond near the center’s entrance. The pond, with its live fish and decoy ducks, plays an important role in entertaining children who come to visit. So do the Tootsie Pops Woolum keeps handy for the purpose. “You can win a lot of kids’ friendship with Tootsie Pops.”

Whetzel was born Dec. 21, 1908. The town where he was born no longer exists. “There’s no such thing as Winona, Wash., anymore.”

It was a railroad stop, but the tracks long since have been torn up and taken away, he said. His family grew up on fresh fruits and vegetables stored through the winter in a basement with a dirt floor. No one did studies back then on whole foods or nutrition, but “we ate a lot of food that today would be called health food.”

His father died young of peritonitis, an inflammation of the membrane of the abdomen, a medical emergency that can be cured now, but couldn’t then. His mother lived to age 95, and most of his siblings lived into their late 80s or into their 90s. The family is of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. Of his siblings, only the baby of the family, now 91 years old, is still alive. She lives in Portland and is a member of the Red Hat Society, a group of women of a certain age who don red hats and purple clothing to take on life with humor and verve.

Whetzel worked 34 years for J.C. Penney, meeting and growing to admire the store’s namesake. To work there, he had to vow he did not smoke or drink. That was easy.

He left his job for four years during World War II to join the Navy, which sent him to the Harvard School of Business. Eventually, he returned to Penney’s but retired at age 55 to dedicate 16 years of his life to OC International, a ministry that reaches out to the world through every avenue from sports to medicine. Whetzel and his wife, Dorothy, traveled the globe with the nonprofit organization.

One more secret to a long life? Nutmeg. Put it on your tapioca pudding. It tastes really good that way.