Centenarian citizen ages to perfection

With a century of wisdom, Edward Baptiste, age 100, gives residents the following tips on successful aging:

€ Eat three square meals a day and at regular times. “Eating at 8 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. has worked well for almost a century for me,” he says.

€ Eat enough to satisfy hunger without overeating. Restaurants usually bring too much food, so share the meal with a friend.

€ Don't smoke. Be aware that second-hand smoke is almost as deadly.

€ Eat salads.

€ Sit up straight. Be aware of how you carry yourself and your good posture will keep you looking and feeling younger.

€ Keep your hands out of your pockets. Stay productive and keep busy.

€ Keep learning. “In high school I thought I knew everything. As I got older, I learned otherwise,” he says.

€ Take responsibility. If there's something you don't know, learn about it. If something needs to be done, take charge of getting the project completed.

€ Have fun. Find what you love to do and do it often.

€ Be flexible and willing to try new things.

€ Be disciplined and keep your commitment to healthy habits. Cleaning your own house and doing your laundry is good exercise.

€ Group exercise is fun. It helps you to stay committed to the program and to the friendships with fellow exercisers.

€ Be confident that you will succeed and you will.

€ See the big picture. Try to make your decisions based upon the “good of all.”

€ Stay connected with friends and family.

€ Pick your parents: Even though your daily living habits have much to do with how well you age, it helps if longevity runs in your family.

€ With some care and good luck, you can still have all your own teeth.

€ When you are confident and can prove that you still can see and have your wits about you, the DMV will still issue you a driver's license.

€ Keep smiling. Laugh often. Choose happiness (and it is a choice).

“I have no aches or pains. I feel so great that it scares me!”

-Ed Baptiste, centarian

Born in Sausalito, Calif., on Nov. 5, 1907, Baptiste grew up with a strong work ethic. He and his brothers worked with their father in construction and landscaping. Since there was no heavy machinery back then, all of the soil grading and building site preparations were done by hand, mainly with shovel and pick axe.

Baptiste described how there were no hoists back in those days, so heavy building materials had to be hand carried up the ladders onto the roof. His father who always said, “No hands in the pockets-keep going,” expected hard work.

Baptiste speculates that all of hard labor contributed to his overall health. “You may have heard that the third-born child was usually the neglected child, but that was not the case with me. We worked really hard, but had a good time.”

During his high school years, Baptiste played on the Sausalito High baseball team, and then played on the town of Sausalito team as a pitcher. Participation in this great American pastime kept him in great shape and enthusiastically involved with his community. To this day, he is an avid baseball fan and loves to play “armchair umpire” as a knowledgeable spectator of the sport.

When he graduated from high school in 1928, Baptiste obtained a job with the Independent Pressroom in San Francisco. He recalls his first day on the job as a new high school graduate, “I walked up to this huge building and I realized for the first time that maybe I didn't know everything after all. I had to be willing to learn, not just work hard, in order to succeed.”

He took pride in his new job as a pressman and ran “the fastest presses this side of Chicago.” He retired from his job as pressman after 44 years of service.

Although Baptiste and his wife lived in San Francisco in the heart of the city, they spent most weekends and vacations camping and enjoying a variety of outdoor recreation activities with their two children, and extended family and friends. “We always had such a good time boating, fishing, hiking and just being together. I also earned some medals in competition sailing.”

Baptiste and his family enjoyed their vacations at Clearlake so much that he built a vacation getaway home right on the waterfront. He also purchased several lots of land in Lake County where his son and family now resides.

Life in Rossmoor

Baptiste retired in 1973 and came to Rossmoor to visit friends. That one visit was all it took. Within a year of his retirement, he and his wife moved from the bustling city of San Francisco to the serene valley of Rossmoor.

In his 34 years of living in Rossmoor, Baptiste has been actively involved with the community. “Golf is a magical game,” he laughed as he shared the story of when he hit a “hole in one” after the ball first bounced through an oak tree, then rolled onto the green and miraculously into the hole.

As a long-time member of the Men's Exercise Group, he received a gift of over $500 recently to treat him to an overnight visit to San Francisco or his hometown of Sausalito, but upon reflection, Baptiste declined to make such a trip. Instead, he announced to the group that he would donate the money to the Rossmoor Scholarship Foundation. When asked why, he replied simply, “Because I like kids.”

Between golf tournaments and faithfully participating in the men's exercise program at the Fitness Center three mornings per week, he served as the governor of the Golden State Club and was the master of ceremonies for Fun Day.

Baptiste's zest for learning and staying involved in the community led him to the newly forming Ceramics Club. He knew nothing about ceramics and that was the main attraction. He found himself, once again, in the leadership role as president of the Ceramics Club.

Back in the earlier days of Rossmoor, there wasn't much of a ceramics facility, so Baptiste conducted a study of many of the ceramic facilities in California and designed the ceramics room for all of the Rossmoor residents to enjoy. The ceramics facility is still in operation today as a result of his leadership.

Baptiste also became vice president of the All State Federation Club, but had to step down to take care of his ailing wife.

New lease on love

Many years after his wife passed away, he started dating his longtime family friend and Rossmoor resident Maxine Turner, who lost her husband several years before.

Turner's late husband had been a friend of Baptiste's for many years, so he was actually too afraid to ask Turner out on a date for fear that it would seem disrespectful to her late husband's memory.

It was Turner who finally broke the ice when she asked Baptiste to accompany her to a dance in Rossmoor when her date cancelled at the last minute. She, too, was shy about inviting him, and was quick to say to Baptiste in her phone call, “I'd love for you to go with me to the dance, but please feel free to dance with whomever you like. I just don't want to go to the dance by myself.”

So they went to the dance and have danced every dance together ever since. That was five years ago. Although they each maintain separate households in Rossmoor, Baptiste and Turner enjoy their independence as well as their time together.

Of all the classes and events that they participate in, their favorite activity remains the ballroom dance events in Rossmoor offered through Penguin Club, the Cotillion, and the TGIF Club.

To the list of tips for successful aging, Turner added “Having love in your life may not add years to your journey, but it sure makes the trip worthwhile.”

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Centenarian citizen ages to perfection

With a century of wisdom, Edward Baptiste, age 100, gives residents the following tips on successful aging:

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Meeting Dates

BOARD, MUTUAL AND COMMITTEE

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