Okay, so what does one ask a 102-year-old man who has been written about before especially when he reached the centennial mark two years ago?
But there is something different, special about Leslie J. Munro. I think that special trait is that there’s not a whole lot difference between Les and most other people.
He lives in Ocean Pines in a beautifully decorated house with a tree-shaded back yard. When he needs to, he hops into his Buick and drives to the grocery store, the doctor’s office and especially to Atlantic United Methodist Church.
Here I am interviewing him again when in June, 2012, we wrote a cover piece about his life, starting from his youth in Winnepeg, Manitoba to his family’s moves through the U.S. to suburban Washington, D.C.
He was the son of a stone mason, and Les had an amazing opportunity to be part of a crew that washed all 555 feet, five inches of the Washington Monument.
Les would go on to be become a career life insurance salesman for the Lincoln Acacia Mutual Company. He retired from that company in 1976. Now when most of usretire, we’re thinking that we’re going to be around a good 25 years or so. Well Les has been in retirement for about 38 years. He should get a gold watch for the number of years he’s not been working.
So getting back to being 102. Les did say he felt defined by his age, but that might have something to do with people always asking him the same questions, like “what is it like to be 102?” Or “do you have a special diet?”
“I don’t know what the answer is to that question about why I’ve lived so long,” he said. “If I knew the answer, I’d bottle it up and sell it.”
And as far as the food is concerned, Les said he pretty much eats whatever it is we all eat, but he does make sure to have a salad.
Faith.
I’m certainly no expert. But during my short time with Les, I knew I was with a man with a tremendous connection to God.
“I thank him for getting me through the night when I wake up in the morning,” he said.
When he was newly married and living in Washington, D.C., young men were being sent to fight WWII in Europe and the Pacific. Because he had a child and was a little older than most recruits, he was assigned the important task of air raid warden. It was especially vital in Washington, D.C. that when the air raid drills or sirens themselves would blare, he’d go to houses and apartments and make sure windows were covered with black out materials. He could fine people if they didn’t comply.
He also grew in the D.C. area quite a sports fan, rooting then for the Washington Redskins when they played at the old Griffith Stadium. He is still a Redskins fan and he loves to watch the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles Major League Baseball teams on television. Many of us do. He was also looking forward during this interview at watching the U.S. Open Tennis championship.
“Tennis was my sport,” he said.
When he said that, I was wondering what we didn’t have in common besides the 42 years he’s lived longer than I have.
Les and his wife came to Ocean Pines in 1974. It was, he said, all woods with streets cut through. He remembers looking with Kathryn for their land on Sloop Lane. Speaking of Kathryn, he took care of her faithfully until she died in 2006. The couple was married for 67 years.
And yes, there is a child, Paul. He’s only 75 years old, and he lives in Indian Head, Md. He bought his father a cellphone for Christmas, and Les still isn’t sure how to work it.
These kids today.
Les also doesn’t have a computer in the house
“I think we overly communicate,” he said. “I don’t have a computer, because they scare me. People can find out things about other people that should be private. I don’t want that.”
He is a Masonic past master of Lodge Potomac 5 D.C. This is a lodge that has in its possession an actual gavel used by President George Washington. The group gave Les a beautiful gavel with an ivory carved head for his services as a Mason.
What bothers him about the contemporary world?
“What I deplore the most is that in the past when we spoke of our forefathers, they were essentially religious men,” he said. “They always had a bible on the table. I have no faith in our Congress and Senate. They are all in it for themselves and damn us.”
Getting back to God, Les does attend a weekly Bible study, and he is at church every Sunday.
But he admits he worries that he’s losing his energy. Just then his landline telephone rang, and before it hit the second ring, Les was up immediately and across one room and into the living room to answer it. “Losing his energy?”
So one more time, I had to ask him again where he gets his life’s energy from.
“The grace of God is as good an answer as I can give anyone,” he said. “I went for my semi-annual checkup. Everything is good.
“But he concluded, I never thought about living this long.”
Bible study is coming up in a few days, so he said he’ll be ready for that. And he loves choral religious music which explains his years of singing in the church choir.
Forgot to add on the food front that he said “I do eat sensibly, and I always do my own cooking here…not too much beef.”
Amazing.
I was almost tempted to challenge him to a set of tennis.
But….beaten by a 102-year-old wouldn’t feel so good.
It’s not 102 and counting with Les. “It’s 102 and what’s on the schedule?”
But there is something different, special about Leslie J. Munro. I think that special trait is that there’s not a whole lot difference between Les and most other people.
He lives in Ocean Pines in a beautifully decorated house with a tree-shaded back yard. When he needs to, he hops into his Buick and drives to the grocery store, the doctor’s office and especially to Atlantic United Methodist Church.
Here I am interviewing him again when in June, 2012, we wrote a cover piece about his life, starting from his youth in Winnepeg, Manitoba to his family’s moves through the U.S. to suburban Washington, D.C.
He was the son of a stone mason, and Les had an amazing opportunity to be part of a crew that washed all 555 feet, five inches of the Washington Monument.
Les would go on to be become a career life insurance salesman for the Lincoln Acacia Mutual Company. He retired from that company in 1976. Now when most of usretire, we’re thinking that we’re going to be around a good 25 years or so. Well Les has been in retirement for about 38 years. He should get a gold watch for the number of years he’s not been working.
So getting back to being 102. Les did say he felt defined by his age, but that might have something to do with people always asking him the same questions, like “what is it like to be 102?” Or “do you have a special diet?”
“I don’t know what the answer is to that question about why I’ve lived so long,” he said. “If I knew the answer, I’d bottle it up and sell it.”
And as far as the food is concerned, Les said he pretty much eats whatever it is we all eat, but he does make sure to have a salad.
Faith.
I’m certainly no expert. But during my short time with Les, I knew I was with a man with a tremendous connection to God.
“I thank him for getting me through the night when I wake up in the morning,” he said.
When he was newly married and living in Washington, D.C., young men were being sent to fight WWII in Europe and the Pacific. Because he had a child and was a little older than most recruits, he was assigned the important task of air raid warden. It was especially vital in Washington, D.C. that when the air raid drills or sirens themselves would blare, he’d go to houses and apartments and make sure windows were covered with black out materials. He could fine people if they didn’t comply.
He also grew in the D.C. area quite a sports fan, rooting then for the Washington Redskins when they played at the old Griffith Stadium. He is still a Redskins fan and he loves to watch the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles Major League Baseball teams on television. Many of us do. He was also looking forward during this interview at watching the U.S. Open Tennis championship.
“Tennis was my sport,” he said.
When he said that, I was wondering what we didn’t have in common besides the 42 years he’s lived longer than I have.
Les and his wife came to Ocean Pines in 1974. It was, he said, all woods with streets cut through. He remembers looking with Kathryn for their land on Sloop Lane. Speaking of Kathryn, he took care of her faithfully until she died in 2006. The couple was married for 67 years.
And yes, there is a child, Paul. He’s only 75 years old, and he lives in Indian Head, Md. He bought his father a cellphone for Christmas, and Les still isn’t sure how to work it.
These kids today.
Les also doesn’t have a computer in the house
“I think we overly communicate,” he said. “I don’t have a computer, because they scare me. People can find out things about other people that should be private. I don’t want that.”
He is a Masonic past master of Lodge Potomac 5 D.C. This is a lodge that has in its possession an actual gavel used by President George Washington. The group gave Les a beautiful gavel with an ivory carved head for his services as a Mason.
What bothers him about the contemporary world?
“What I deplore the most is that in the past when we spoke of our forefathers, they were essentially religious men,” he said. “They always had a bible on the table. I have no faith in our Congress and Senate. They are all in it for themselves and damn us.”
Getting back to God, Les does attend a weekly Bible study, and he is at church every Sunday.
But he admits he worries that he’s losing his energy. Just then his landline telephone rang, and before it hit the second ring, Les was up immediately and across one room and into the living room to answer it. “Losing his energy?”
So one more time, I had to ask him again where he gets his life’s energy from.
“The grace of God is as good an answer as I can give anyone,” he said. “I went for my semi-annual checkup. Everything is good.
“But he concluded, I never thought about living this long.”
Bible study is coming up in a few days, so he said he’ll be ready for that. And he loves choral religious music which explains his years of singing in the church choir.
Forgot to add on the food front that he said “I do eat sensibly, and I always do my own cooking here…not too much beef.”
Amazing.
I was almost tempted to challenge him to a set of tennis.
But….beaten by a 102-year-old wouldn’t feel so good.
It’s not 102 and counting with Les. “It’s 102 and what’s on the schedule?”