Sel Appa
06-09-2007, 18:14
This guy is hard core. I just saw my 97-year old first cousin twice-removed or something like that and she looks older
Link (http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/NEWS01/709040311)
Fair's Mr. Fix-it to be honored as nations oldest worker
Published: Tuesday, September 4, 2007
By Matt Ryan
Free Press Staff Writer
Pic (http://cmsimg.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=BT&Date=20070904&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=709040311&Ref=AR&Title=2&BgColor=eeeeee&RcRadius=20&MaxW=300&Q=80)
ESSEX JUNCTION -- Last summer, Ray Jenkins turned 100 years old and became the oldest worker in Vermont.
He said he would retire. He said 30 years in the Champlain Valley Exposition's maintenance department was enough.
Then again, maybe not.
When the 2007 fair opened 10 days ago, Jenkins was at his post -- a feat that will win him a national award in October as the oldest worker in the country.
Jenkins doesn't understand what all the fuss is about.
"I think they could have found someone else," he said.
Jenkins, wearing a cap, gray jumpsuit and jacket, stood hunched over a shelf organizing tools last week. He works out of a supply closet in the H.F. "Ray" Jenkins Maintenance Facility, a 40-by-60-foot warehouse named in his honor. He arranges quarts of oil, cords, wires and plugs; organizes tool boxes; and keeps records of equipment maintenance. He's also well trained in electronics and mechanics, and is the go-to guy for help with some of the older equipment.
"I can't sit quiet and do nothing," Jenkins said. "I've got to keep going. Keeps your mind occupied. If you don't keep busy, forget it."
For the past several years he's worked summers at the fair with his son Bob Jenkins, 63, and daughter Carole Jenkins, who's in her 60s.
Carole Jenkins, a retired elementary school teacher in Brighton, Mich., lives with her father during the summer and drives him to work. Bob Jenkins, the fairground's maintenance department supervisor and interim director of operations, lives across the street from his father year-round.
Ray has been married to his wife, Edna, 95, for 70 years. Last January the family had to move Edna, who has Alzheimer's disease, to a nursing home.
"We had to decide what was best for us, and for her," Bob Jenkins said.
Bob Jenkins will accompany his father to Washington, D.C., Oct. 3 for a two-day awards ceremony. Experience Works, a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Va., that supports elderly workers, will present Ray Jenkins with the America's Oldest Worker award. Jenkins will meet congressional delegates and tour the capitol.
"He's apprehensive, but he's also proud that he's going," Bob Jenkins said.
"I don't know how I'm going to get out of it," Ray Jenkins said.
A century of work
Horatio "Ray" F. Jenkins was born July 18, 1906, in Amenia, N.Y. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1932 and worked as an engineer at General Electric during the 1940s. He worked as a mortician's assistant, chauffeur and policeman, ran a bake shop with Edna, and started work with IBM in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1952. He was transferred to the Essex Junction plant in 1957. In 1971, at the age of 65, he was forced to retire.
"He went kicking and screaming, but he went," Bob Jenkins said.
Bob Jenkins retired from IBM in 1994, began work at the fairgrounds and became his father's boss.
"He's worked five days a week until this year," Bob Jenkins said. "This year I put the clamps on him. I brought him down to three days a week, and he was pretty disgusted with me."
Ray Jenkins got to work the 10 days of the 2007 fair, which ended Monday. He keeps his building clean, the tools organized and the machines in working order.
"I don't like it messy," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said his co-workers are "a good bunch" and that "they're doing a little better this year," but he won't hesitate to reprimand them if necessary. He frequently posts notes and signs on equipment. One sign, created for Jenkins by a co-worker, shows a skull and crossbones and warns, "Not to use, per order of Ray Jenkins."
"He's not afraid to holler at people, especially his son," Bob Jenkins said. "He puts signs on my golf cart, you know, 'Check your oil.'"
Ray Jenkins remembers the days before golf carts, when horses were raced at the fairgrounds and the only transportation for workers was a trailer pulled by a tractor.
"Now they can't go anywhere without a golf cart, even the young people," Jenkins said.
"Young people" is a broad term for Jenkins. His son estimates the average age of the maintenance crew is 67, not including high school kids the department hires for the summer.
"He tells us, you know, 'We didn't have golf carts,'" said co-worker Clayton Barnes, about 70, of Georgia. "'You had to know to take the proper tools when you left, so you wouldn't have to make a couple trips.'"
Late to bed, early to rise
Jenkins wakes up at 4 a.m. during fair time, an hour earlier than usual. He worked most of the 10 days from 5:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. "He was an engineer, but he did a lot of mechanics," Carole Jenkins said. "Cars were first made when he was young, and they were simple. Golf carts have pretty simple engines."
Jenkins said she has grown to better appreciate her father's work ethic.
"I don't think anyone really knows their parents until they grow up and take on some of the same responsibilities. I can't say I honestly knew Dad until I was 30."
Jenkins, her father and a few co-workers go out for breakfast or lunch every day. Ray Jenkins likes blueberry pancakes.
"He won't get anything with gravy," said co-worker Ray Theoret, 63, of Essex. "If we get something with gravy, he'll make this face and shake his head."
Jenkins' children and co-workers said they'd be lucky to be alive, let alone working, at his age. Jenkins said he works to stay alive, and has not smoked or drunk alcohol since he was 35.
"I used to smoke cigars in college," Jenkins said. "Pipes were quite popular at that time, too, and I never did care much for cigarettes."
Last year Jenkins' family and friends threw him a centennial birthday bash. He said he would retire from the fair, but hasn't been able to stay away.
"He knows he can't do the things he could do when he was 95," Bob Jenkins said. "His mind is so damn sharp, but his body doesn't cooperate as much as he'd like it."
Ray Jenkins said it is too early to say whether he'll return next year.
"If I feel like I do now, and I'm still kicking around after being holed up for the winter, I suspect I should," he said.
Link (http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/NEWS01/709040311)
Fair's Mr. Fix-it to be honored as nations oldest worker
Published: Tuesday, September 4, 2007
By Matt Ryan
Free Press Staff Writer
Pic (http://cmsimg.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=BT&Date=20070904&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=709040311&Ref=AR&Title=2&BgColor=eeeeee&RcRadius=20&MaxW=300&Q=80)
ESSEX JUNCTION -- Last summer, Ray Jenkins turned 100 years old and became the oldest worker in Vermont.
He said he would retire. He said 30 years in the Champlain Valley Exposition's maintenance department was enough.
Then again, maybe not.
When the 2007 fair opened 10 days ago, Jenkins was at his post -- a feat that will win him a national award in October as the oldest worker in the country.
Jenkins doesn't understand what all the fuss is about.
"I think they could have found someone else," he said.
Jenkins, wearing a cap, gray jumpsuit and jacket, stood hunched over a shelf organizing tools last week. He works out of a supply closet in the H.F. "Ray" Jenkins Maintenance Facility, a 40-by-60-foot warehouse named in his honor. He arranges quarts of oil, cords, wires and plugs; organizes tool boxes; and keeps records of equipment maintenance. He's also well trained in electronics and mechanics, and is the go-to guy for help with some of the older equipment.
"I can't sit quiet and do nothing," Jenkins said. "I've got to keep going. Keeps your mind occupied. If you don't keep busy, forget it."
For the past several years he's worked summers at the fair with his son Bob Jenkins, 63, and daughter Carole Jenkins, who's in her 60s.
Carole Jenkins, a retired elementary school teacher in Brighton, Mich., lives with her father during the summer and drives him to work. Bob Jenkins, the fairground's maintenance department supervisor and interim director of operations, lives across the street from his father year-round.
Ray has been married to his wife, Edna, 95, for 70 years. Last January the family had to move Edna, who has Alzheimer's disease, to a nursing home.
"We had to decide what was best for us, and for her," Bob Jenkins said.
Bob Jenkins will accompany his father to Washington, D.C., Oct. 3 for a two-day awards ceremony. Experience Works, a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Va., that supports elderly workers, will present Ray Jenkins with the America's Oldest Worker award. Jenkins will meet congressional delegates and tour the capitol.
"He's apprehensive, but he's also proud that he's going," Bob Jenkins said.
"I don't know how I'm going to get out of it," Ray Jenkins said.
A century of work
Horatio "Ray" F. Jenkins was born July 18, 1906, in Amenia, N.Y. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1932 and worked as an engineer at General Electric during the 1940s. He worked as a mortician's assistant, chauffeur and policeman, ran a bake shop with Edna, and started work with IBM in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1952. He was transferred to the Essex Junction plant in 1957. In 1971, at the age of 65, he was forced to retire.
"He went kicking and screaming, but he went," Bob Jenkins said.
Bob Jenkins retired from IBM in 1994, began work at the fairgrounds and became his father's boss.
"He's worked five days a week until this year," Bob Jenkins said. "This year I put the clamps on him. I brought him down to three days a week, and he was pretty disgusted with me."
Ray Jenkins got to work the 10 days of the 2007 fair, which ended Monday. He keeps his building clean, the tools organized and the machines in working order.
"I don't like it messy," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said his co-workers are "a good bunch" and that "they're doing a little better this year," but he won't hesitate to reprimand them if necessary. He frequently posts notes and signs on equipment. One sign, created for Jenkins by a co-worker, shows a skull and crossbones and warns, "Not to use, per order of Ray Jenkins."
"He's not afraid to holler at people, especially his son," Bob Jenkins said. "He puts signs on my golf cart, you know, 'Check your oil.'"
Ray Jenkins remembers the days before golf carts, when horses were raced at the fairgrounds and the only transportation for workers was a trailer pulled by a tractor.
"Now they can't go anywhere without a golf cart, even the young people," Jenkins said.
"Young people" is a broad term for Jenkins. His son estimates the average age of the maintenance crew is 67, not including high school kids the department hires for the summer.
"He tells us, you know, 'We didn't have golf carts,'" said co-worker Clayton Barnes, about 70, of Georgia. "'You had to know to take the proper tools when you left, so you wouldn't have to make a couple trips.'"
Late to bed, early to rise
Jenkins wakes up at 4 a.m. during fair time, an hour earlier than usual. He worked most of the 10 days from 5:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. "He was an engineer, but he did a lot of mechanics," Carole Jenkins said. "Cars were first made when he was young, and they were simple. Golf carts have pretty simple engines."
Jenkins said she has grown to better appreciate her father's work ethic.
"I don't think anyone really knows their parents until they grow up and take on some of the same responsibilities. I can't say I honestly knew Dad until I was 30."
Jenkins, her father and a few co-workers go out for breakfast or lunch every day. Ray Jenkins likes blueberry pancakes.
"He won't get anything with gravy," said co-worker Ray Theoret, 63, of Essex. "If we get something with gravy, he'll make this face and shake his head."
Jenkins' children and co-workers said they'd be lucky to be alive, let alone working, at his age. Jenkins said he works to stay alive, and has not smoked or drunk alcohol since he was 35.
"I used to smoke cigars in college," Jenkins said. "Pipes were quite popular at that time, too, and I never did care much for cigarettes."
Last year Jenkins' family and friends threw him a centennial birthday bash. He said he would retire from the fair, but hasn't been able to stay away.
"He knows he can't do the things he could do when he was 95," Bob Jenkins said. "His mind is so damn sharp, but his body doesn't cooperate as much as he'd like it."
Ray Jenkins said it is too early to say whether he'll return next year.
"If I feel like I do now, and I'm still kicking around after being holed up for the winter, I suspect I should," he said.