Centenarians have stories to tell

When Athol Barrett "A.B." Blake, 104, first began working in the automobile industry in 1918, cars were a rarity, not a necessity.

Blake was among 42 people age 100 or older who gathered for the governor's annual Centenarians Day Party on Friday. The centenarians, along with friends and family, filled a reception room at the state Fairpark where they ate sandwiches and brownies and talked about their memories of the past hundred or more years.

Blake said that when he was a young man, companies only made about three or four cars at a time, and they were generally too expensive for the average consumer to buy. Then Ford developed a car that cost less than $1,000, and the industry began to change.

Blake said the parts of the cars he worked with, like the people who bought them, have changed.

"Now I see parts that I don't know what they're for," he said. "I have to trace my finger along the engine to know what it is."

He said he has seen many changes over his long life — almost too many to keep track of.

"The newspaper changes every day," he said. "Sometimes I just give up."

Blake is the second-oldest man in the state and the oldest man who attended the celebration Friday. The state's oldest person, Rhea Barnett, 108, also attended. Utah's oldest man is Russell B. Clark, 105, who was in California on vacation.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. addressed the group of old-timers Friday and spoke about significant events that happened a hundred years ago, including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the adoption of SOS as a distress signal for ships and the development of an immunization for tuberculosis.

The centenarians had many explanations for their longevity.

Ivy Brooks, 106, the second-oldest woman in the state, is now in a wheelchair, but she credits walking when she was younger for her long life. When she moved to the United States from Great Britain at the age of 23, she said she had never been in a car before.

"I walked my legs off," she joked.

Brooks' niece thinks a good sense of humor also has something to do with her aunt's long life.

Blake said he has lived so long because he was athletic and "didn't do the things (he) was told not to do."

"I didn't drink, smoke or carouse at night," he said. "That's the only body you'll ever have, so take care of it."

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E-mail: dgardiner@desnews.com