Feisty, fun, and 100 years old

by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

The party was on at Claremont Manor, as Fred Williams turned 100 on Wednesday.

Sure, he gets around a little slower these days, but Williams is still doing it on his own, without a walker or a cane. And above all he is as charismatic and engaging as anyone half his age. He smiled broadly Wednesday, greeting everyone by name as manor residents, staff, family and friends approached his table, hugged him, shook his hand, and wished him a happy birthday.

Williams was born June 25, 1925 in Niagara Falls, New York. Raised in England, he was 10 when his mechanical engineer father took a job at the then second largest gold mine in the world, in Morro Velho, Nova Lima, Brazil.

“We went from dirt poor in England to living high on the hog in Brazil,” he said. “And they paid for everything except the food and the servants.”

Claremont Manor resident Fred Williams at his 100th birthday party on Wednesday. Courier photo/Mick Rhodes

Williams said eating sensibly and exercise have aided in his longevity. “There were no cars in England. Couldn’t afford them,” he said. “You either took a trolley car if you had the money, which we didn’t. Or you rode a bicycle if you had one, which I didn’t. Or you walked. So we walked everywhere. And I was a natural athlete, a really good runner and a swimmer.” He credits being brought up in the clean air of northwest England’s Lake District as another factor. He also gave up smoking in the 1970s, and as such breathes unassisted at 100.

“I’m hale and hearty,” Williams said.

I asked him how it felt to join the estimated 722,000 centenarians living today. “I’m glad I’m here,” he said with a grin. “I put it down to having good genes from my parents.” His father lived to be 93, and his mother was in her 70s when she died from cancer that had been misdiagnosed.

Many of “the greatest generation” didn’t make it past 21, let alone to 100. World War II was raging in Europe when Williams turned 18 in 1943. He’d served in England’s Royal Air Force Air Cadets and was eager for the real thing.

“All my buddies that I worked with were going into the English Navy. You know, I thought I was English,” he said. “So I went trotting along with them.” Though he passed all the Navy’s physical and cognitive tests, he was rejected. So, he tried the Royal Air Force, where again, he passed every test but was turned down. “So, as a last resort I tried the English Army, which would take everyone … except me.”

It turned out his American birth certificate had precluded him from serving England. So, he walked into the American consul and spoke to an enlistment man about joining the U.S. Army.

“He chewed my butt out royally,” Williams said. “I was supposed to have gone when I was 18. I was almost 18 and-a-half.”

He ended up being assigned to a mobile refrigeration company, which brought frozen perishables to the front line troops in Europe.

“It was really a great company,” Williams said. “They taught me how to drive, how to park trailers. And that came in handy in civilian life when we bought a trailer. I could park it on a dime.”

He returned to the U.S. after the war and met his future wife, Gloria, in Cleveland, Ohio. They were married on August 25, 1951. “And we spent 73 years of a great life, with the ups and downs,” Williams said.

Gloria died last September at 97.

“I still feel it,” Williams said. He took a pause, holding back tears. “But, here I am, healthy and hearty.”

As if on cue, a fussy five-month old baby girl, squirming in the arms of a young mother,  approached Williams’ table. “Here’s my great-granddaughter. That’s Riley Ray,” he said, beaming. There were four generations of Williams’ in the room.

The steady stream of well-wishers continued. Again, he knew everyone’s name.

“I’m surprised I got this far,” he said to one admirer.

As the pizza lunch was served, Williams’ daughter Lorelei Rimpau stood in front of three oversized gold mylar balloons — a one and two zeros — and thanked the crowd for coming out for her father’s party. Then, unexpectedly, the guest of honor rose to speak.

“Thanks everyone,” Williams said. “And now, I’m working on one,” referencing his upcoming 101st birthday. The crowd erupted in laughter. “Oh, you start over now?” Lorelei said. Now she was beaming.

Immigration crackdown reaches Claremont

I’d planned to write today about Job Garcia, a 37-year-old doctoral student at Claremont Graduate University who was arrested violently by Trump immigration enforcement goons after he confronted them June 19 in a Home Depot parking lot in Hollywood.

But, by the time I reached Garcia on Monday he’d been advised by his lawyers not to talk to the press. It’s a bummer for Courier readers, but understandable under the circumstances.

Prior to being arrested, he was filming federal agents with his phone as one used a baton to break the passenger window of a box truck to get at a man inside the vehicle, the Los Angeles Times reported. As they were pulling the man out the door, other agents tackled Garcia, shouting obscenities at him as they forced him to the ground, handcuffed him, and pinned him on the asphalt, causing him to have difficulty breathing. He told the Times that he feared for his death.

Nobody asked Garcia if he was a U.S. citizen. Nobody asked him for ID. The agents just assumed he was in the country illegally, he told the Times.

Just another day in Trump’s America, where masked, anonymous thugs are violently pulling people off the streets, from their workplaces and homes, tossing them into unmarked vehicles and taking them to detention facilities, where reports have circulated of overcrowded and “inhumane” conditions, with detainees going without food or medical treatment.

This isn’t an America I recognize.

America has a long and ongoing history of undemocratic misadventures, both here and abroad, under both Republican and Democratic administrations. But the executive branch, Congress, and the courts have for the most part tolerated the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to redress complaints through protest. That’s no longer the case.

Speaking up for Palestine? You’re risking arrest. Questioning officials about the masked quasi-secret police terrorizing and brutalizing brown people? You’re going to jail. With some notable exceptions, the courts have failed as the backstop to Trump’s unprecedented authoritarian overreach.

Mark my words: one of these anonymous immigration enforcement officers is going to shoot and kill someone before Trump’s cruel and chaotic crackdown is through. They’re already pulling out their weapons and pointing them at folks who question them. It’s only a matter of time before one of them opens fire.

Garcia was released from a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles on June 20, with no charges filed.

This isn’t an America I recognize.

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