[manaboutown]

Well, my father, born in 1898, drank bourbon and beer. After he retired he drank a fruit juice glass of Jim Beam, the old fashioned 4 oz - I think - size at ten, two and four, just like stated in the Dr. Pepper ad. He smoked a pipe (Sir Walter Raleigh in the big can), never cigarettes, until he developed emphysema. At breakfast he had prunes, toast with butter and jam, eggs, bacon and oatmeal with cream from the top of the unhomogenized bottles of milk delivered to us. I never saw him exercise but he worked in the yard on weekends. He had the Spanish Flu in 1918, lived through both world wars and the Great Depression. He developed Parkinson's disease and lived with it for years. He almost made 94 before he passed away. My mother predeceased him by five years at her age of 81 and I don't believe he wanted to live another day after she died, but he did. She suffered through rheumatic fever as a child which had affected her heart.

You just never know...