Posted on 08/26/2008 6:43:34 PM PDT by Ron Jeremy
Jaunty Jack Priestly is celebrating reaching 100 - despite smoking like a chimney since he was nine and knocking back vast amounts of whisky.
Jack, a retired baker, started on what was to swiftly become a 40-a-day cigarette habit as a nine-year-old, switching to 10 cigars every day in 1966 because he thought it was healthier.
And from the age of 24 he has kicked off each day with a shot of whisky in his morning tea.
It means widower Jack has puffed more than 153,000 cigars and 715,400 cigarettes in the last 91 years and put away around 925 bottles of whisky.
Jack, of Pinchbeck, Lincs, said: "I love my cigars. I wouldn't be without them. I don't care about the brand - a cigar is a cigar. But the bigger, the better."
He began smoking by pinching ciggies from his dad - but was soon buying them himself from cash he earned as a bread delivery boy.
Jack gave up the ciggies at the age of 58 when a nurse advised him to quit - and for a while smoked a pipe instead. But it did not last. Jack said: "My doctor wasn't a pipe fan.
He advised me to smoke cigars instead. And who am I to ignore doctor's orders?"
Jack's routine of a whisky for breakfast came from his mother-in-law.
He said: "She said the best thing for a woman was to drink whisky before she does anything, every day. I thought if it was good for a woman, it should be good for a man so I started and never stopped. It's the best advice anyone ever gave me."
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Incredibly, Jack said he has never suffered any serious health problems related to his drinking and smoking.
He said: "I've been operated on from toe to head but I've still got a good set of lungs. There's nothing wrong with them."
Jack, whose wife Louise died of cancer in 1993 aged 83, celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday surrounded by family.
He still keeps active by going shopping, gardening and keeping chickens.
Jack stopped driving two months ago and now gets about on a motorised scooter.
He said: "I don't feel my age. I've still the mind of a young man. But if I had the company of a good woman, I'm sure I'd feel 40 years younger in a flash."
Lucky genes...
Wonder if the wife died from lung cancer...
I hope Rush lights up a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel when he reads this, and inhales deeply. Oh wait.. he doesn’t inhale..
He needs to meet my 102- year old aunt - she claims to feel no older than 50.
That’s right. The “secret” is your genetics. You can live like a lazy, libertine pig and live to 100 or eat sprouts and exercise every day and drop dead of a heart attack at 50. You’re going to die when your genes say you are going to die and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.
He’s doing well despite his smoking. Bless his heart.
Three of my grandparents smoked or dipped into their mid 90’s. The 4th died back in the 50’s from some post-op infection. I don’t smoke nor do my parents. Mom lived a clean and healthy life, but died of lung cancer at 49 years of age.
There is technology being developed right now that will change that for everyone within the next 10 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_interference
http://nextbigfuture.com/search/label/RNA%20interference
My dad smoked a pack a day, drank every day and died at 80 of a heart attack while framing a roof with my brothers. His whole family lived to ripe old ages, enjoyed good health and died doing what they wanted. Its genetics, not lifestyle.
At least his “secret” to a long life is more family friendly than Ernest Borgnine’s.
This man could have lived for TWO hundred years if not for the wayward ways that shortened his life.........
“Lucky genes...”
This says it all. There are secrets locked in our genes that we haven’t even thought of yet. Only time and research will reveal them.
Perhaps one of the most important truths of life is that so much of who we are is determined by the genetic roll of the dice at conception.
And yes, from the article, his wife DID die of lung cancer.
There’s a saying among the Amish (if I recall correctly): “in der blut” (in the blood). They know, too.
- John
My uncle smoked and spent the last 15 years of his life on oxygen in bed with emphysema and his wife cared for him all that time. His mind was sharp - except for when he got hypoxic and confused from now and then. A prisoner in his own body and bed.
No need to inhale double ligeros. Pure nicotine with a little bit of leaf.
I thought so too, until just last night. The Nova program on PBS convinced me that mapping the human genome was only the beginning of genetic research. The implications to me were staggering. Now, it appears that the environment and nuture may have more effect than once believed - even a multi-generational impact. If the program is rebroadcast, you should watch it.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/
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