The sprightly old man who came to subscribe to the Tribune sat down to rest for awhile before going back out into the cold air.
“Don't get around as good as I used to,” he said. Hasn't been too long ago when I walked to town and back … and I live three miles from here … but looks like I get tired easy since I got old.”
And when we wanted to know how old that was, he said: “I was 94 last July … that makes me in my 95th year.”
Speaking of July reminded P. H. Jones of something else. “I had my 50th wedding anniversary the [31st of July] … you ought to've come out and got a picture for your paper.” Whereupon we loaded up the camera and “shot” him to make up for the oversight. Incidentally, we got an invitation to take a picture next summer when the 51st anniversary celebration rolls around.
Mr. Jones is married to the former Lula Dix of Danville, and they have nine children … “all but one of them living, too.”
“I worked regular up until I was 85,” he volunteered. “Then I decided it was time for me to sit back and rest awhile.”
He was a carpenter, and said he helped to build a number of houses around town. “Dr. Bennett's, and Bose Yeatts's, Tom Seay's, and Glen Law's, down in Whittletown … I can't begin to call all of them, but I've worked on many a one.”
Since his belated retirement, he says he spends his time “just sitting around and doing nothing … like to read the papers and listen to the radio … but my hearing sort of failed too.”
He still enjoys living, though, and says his recipe for longevity is hard work. “Can't be happy unless you're working … at least, not till you get old enough to quit, like me.”
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Copyright © 2004 Patricia B. Mitchell.