Arthur Winston, 100, worked for 72 years before he retired. At StoryCorps he shares with his great-grandnephew Eric Givens his secrets for a long life, and his plans during his retirement.
Originally aired March 31, 2006, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
Arthur Winston (AW) and Eric Givens (EG)
EG: What’s the secret to working so long and why do you do it?
AW: Well, I like my job. You can’t stay on any job 77 years if you don’t like it. So I got a perfect record. 1934 until today. Missed one day of work.
EG: That’s about 72 years.
AW: That’s right. I missed one working day.
EG: Now has your job changed a lot since…?
AW: It’s changed a lot. It’s changed a lot. Job has changed. Managers change. I still stay there.
EG: A lot of people wonder how a person lives to be 100 years old… what do you think you did that allowed you to live so long healthy?
AW: We livin’ too fast on junk food. Tastes good. But I don’t fool with it.
EG: A lot of people today try to do things to fight growing old and the last time I talked to you, you had made a comment about Viagra.
AW: Awww. No no.
EG: You were talking about Viagra.
AW: Hell. You don’t worry about things you can’t do. Don’t worry about it. And trouble of today people seem like they can’t get the… they go to the store and they’re on these talking phones all day and night trying to work and talk on them phones all the same time. Everybody. Kids got the little phones and they’re talkin’. I don’t have one. I don’t need nobody to keep up with me that tight all day and night and I don’t wanna keep up with no body all day and night.
EG: Right. What would you like to talk about?
AW: We goin’ to far in life with the credit card. Credit interest is killing ya. People don’t understand that. I don’t have all them credit cards. I don’t have to have all this luxury stuff, if I can’t afford it I don’t bother with it. I can do without it.
EG: What do you plan to do after you retire?
AW: You can’t wait till 99 to do hardly anything. See I did a lot of goin’ all the way up. I been all Europe, Asia and all around Hawaii and Bahamas and Puerto Rico and Tahiti and everywhere else. I rode the freight train farther than some people rode inside. Wasn’t scared to go nowhere.
EG: Uh huh. That’s amazing to be 100 years old, still working, still in good health, and still smart, bright.
AW: If I go to think about how old I am I won’t be able to get up in the morning and go to work.
EG: Right.
AW: I don’t worry about age. I don’t think about it. Moses and all them other people, a lot of people over there have lived 8,900 years. I think I’d go to live 900 like all the rest of em or something else.
EG: Well I know you’ve inspired me and I love you and I think what you have to say is important. You’ve lived in a time, in an era where so much has changed
AW: that’s right.
EG: and you’re still here to talk about it. So thank you very much uncle Arthur.
AW: Thank you.
EG: Love you.