September 25, 2024 • 16 mins
JoCleta Wilson is almost 100 years old and still working. She said she is the oldest Home Depot employee in the country. She talks about her career as a dancer in the 1940s, retiring three times and "hating it every time," and the secrets to a long life...
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dude, you're like forty years old. There's no way you're
ninety nine years old.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, they're making an awful of it to do about it,
I don't know, it's just.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
But you know, the triple digits for crawling up on
you and you're like, I don't care. I love your attitude.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah yeah, I mean you look.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Like you could wrestle a bear right now and win.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Where is he.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hilarious? All right? Now? First off, Shannon Cogan sent me
some info about you, and she said that you were
the longest serf, no, not longest serving, the oldest home
depot employee in America.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
That's what they tell me.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, what do you do at home depot? I am
a cashier, so you don't carry lumber around.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Or nah, not of a half to.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, you're a little bitty thing, so they're not going
to make you pick up lumber or anything like that. Right,
operator to do that, operate a hydraulic lift. But why
did you decide to go back and start working again?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Oh I've done. I've retired three times, and each time
it was ten years. I retired for ten years each time,
and I could not stand it any longer. That's all I.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Mean, there's only so many news stories.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The dog couldn't answer me, you know, and that was
about it. My friends were going, really, I lost a
lot of my friends.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But you are obviously completely clearheaded and you're physically able
to do whatever you want. You're a dancer for a
lot of your life. So is that part of the
secret to success?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I don't think that's the thing of it is is
what I learned as far as things like posture and
determination and things like that. You learn a lot more
than just dance, And that's that's kind of where I'm
coming from. You know, that type of thing, determination, a
lot of it. Governess, don't give in if it hurts,
(01:59):
just keep going.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
You've raised four kids, right, and you know obviously there's
two of your daughters are here now. There's a lot
of love for mom. We all get that. But you
were telling me off are that your mom was pretty
cut and dried about things, and she got you a
manager because you were such a good dancer. As what
how old were you?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Then she got me an agent. I was eighteen and
right after before that I worked at the seal Back
Hotel for a year with the dancing Darlings.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So that was a live show that went on right there.
That was that's like two hundred.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yards where we're right in the plantation room at the
Seal Bike.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
And so people will come in and have dinner and
you guys are put on like dances.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
They would have well it was like cocktails and I think, yeah,
it was dinner. They would have dinner. Also, it was
very nice.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
We're talking about the nineteen forties ron there. Yes, so
World War two is probably raging. I'm guessing we're trying
to keep.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Our spirits up right, and we didn't. Now, my dad was,
let's see, I don't know exactly what you're about. Forty
three possibly around there, and so yeah, that's there were
all the men were in uniform.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That's what I was wondering right there. There couldn't have
been that many guys, younger guys around.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Them when they were there, not in civilian clothes.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
No, they were on leave or whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
The civilian clothes. You just kind of, you know, you
backed off.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I'm not even gonna normally my instincts are to mine
that source of information. I'm gonna I'm gonna let that
go because I think I know where it's going to go.
And we're both being.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Trouble, right, we don't want that.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So what happened? Then you have this agent, this agent
who's who's supposed to find you work? And then what
happens next?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, I worked all around Louisville, Chicago, Cincinnati, and my
mother went with me, and and then I got the
contract for June Taylor to be in New York.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
The June Taylor dancers, right, And this is like rhythmic
tap is that we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It was like floor show work. Actually when I first started,
it was in the theater and twenty six girls. There
were fifteen or sixteen show girls, beautiful orchestra. Show girls
are beautiful, but they can't dance. Dancers are not as pretty,
(04:33):
but they got the rhythm, you know, So the combination
makes for a real nice show.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I'm loving these quotes. I don't know which poll quote
we're gonna use for this interview, but that was a
good one too.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So it was always interesting.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, and then what happens if the one dancer is
not able to go, well, you always have a spare part.
Is that what's going on?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I was what they call a swing dancer, and the
swing dancer has to know everybody's position, everybody's step, and
is able to throw it to be thrown into the
group whenever somebody doesn't make it.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
When you said swing dancer, I thought we're going back
to civilian clothes.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
No, they had to know everything, all the positions, all
the cues, everything and all the steps. That makes you
more valuable though, Oh, I don't know about tad.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, but if you can fill it anywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, you had to fill in anywhere.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And then what sort of a rigid schedule are we
talking about where they have you work it every night.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, certainly, yeah, and if you weren't working, you were rehearsing. Yeah,
and we changed the shows every week.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Right, learn all that new stuff. Right is when your
leg's hurt to.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Go on anyway, that's tough. Yeah, Like they say in
the army, you.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Know, are you going to use a phrase I'm going
to have to take off of our delay system? No, Okay,
she's making hand gesture stuff. Uh so do they give
you uh tail and all or something? They just say,
stuck it up, get out there and do it.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, you just don't even talk about it. You don't
talk about you, just the rest of the people there
know the rest of on the show. You know, your
immediate group, they know, but you know they're hurting to someplace,
you know, a broken toe.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Or but that has to be thrilling though, to be
part of these magnificent shows. And like you and I
just watched a clip of Anne Miller from the fifties
and it was just fantastic, just the coordination and rhythm,
the whole blocking of the shots. The camera's moving and
(06:53):
there's you know, clarinets and saxophone players and you're dancing
in between them.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And as we were passing was we were coming here?
We came to the Madrid. It used to be a
nightclub up on the second floor at the Madrid and
I worked there with Tommy Darcy's band with the Buddy Berrigan.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And the street. It was unfortunately it was at.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
The Madrid Club Madrid, Yeah, on Third Street, Third and Guthrie, okay,
and I worked there. That's one of the places where
I was booked to work.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
And then would they push cash into your hand at
the end of that or would you actually get a check?
Do you remember it was a cash business, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
No? You got to catch oh you got a check?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I figured that was one of those things where people
would just do they paid money at the box office,
let the proceeds.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No, your agent, you got to You got a check
and then you gave your agent fifteen percent. And I
think it's just about the same now the agents usually
get fifteen.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's how that works. Yeah, your agent. You outlived your agent, right.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I think I did.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, you get out of that relationship.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
They don't like I didn't need her anymore. I was.
I was under contract, so I didn't need her anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So you've done these shows over all these decades, and
then you had what the Louisville Dance Studio.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Then I had the Loyvill Dance Academy.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yes, and then and then you bring big dufuses like
me in there and try to teach them how to
step around.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And then that's the difficult part.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Exactly what do you say to someone like me who
can't put their feet together. He just said, you just
keep doing your day job. Buddy.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
This isn't maybe this isn't cut out for you. You know.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Do you ever watch that dancing show on TV of
Dancing with the Stars. Yes, are they They seem like
they're not very critical of obvious mistakes.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
They well, they're they're in other professions though, I mean
they're like God, I don't know if they're newspeople some
of them, some of them are entertainers, some of some
of our comedians, right, But you should.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Always pick the athlete, I think, and when they announced
the cast or those things, instead of some obscure person
who was on Melrose Place or whatever, you would take
someone who's an athlete because they're they're easier to teach,
are they not.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I don't know you did well. I know I did
teach jockeys. I taught jockeys. I taught football players, yeah,
and the jockeys would say it made made them better coordinated.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You know that stay nimble?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I actually took some ballet classes on a there.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Maybe you were three years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
It could have been, and I thought the flexibility you
get out of that, yes, is incredible.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And it's it's so demanding of your body, really it is.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So with this one hundred birthday approaching, I got to
ask you a couple obvious questions. What do you eat,
do you drink alcohol, those types of things, because people
always want to know how in the world did you
live when my friend I ate forty two or whatever.
You know, So what do you eat?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You weight?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I can tell you weigh forty pounds, So what are
you eating?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I eat as far as I had a very high
count cholesterol count. So I went to a nutritionist for
three years, every three every three months, and I learned
a lot from her. I was able to cut my
portions down what I needed no more than six ounces
(10:32):
of beef or protein. And they say all the time,
you know, you should eat chicken and fish. So I
tried it for three months. I ate just chicken and vegetables.
My cholesterols take the thing. Next time I tried fish,
(10:54):
cholesterol stayed the sink. Then I tried beef and it
came away there. That's true now.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Not Hamburger, right, But what cuts of beef?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Any steak like steak cuts? Yeah, flat iron steaks regular
better than that, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Do you have a glass of wine every day or not?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Every day? I have and I don't have a glass.
I have about an inch of wine in the glass
and about two inches of water on that spring water
that you pour into the wine into the wine.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Cut the wine you diluted.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I do, and then I put ice in it.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That's even more water. That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So wine water, okay, and it's good. I like it.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
You smoke a little marijuana down again.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Not at all. I never did. It was always there,
but it was always in the drummer's drum case.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Is that all they entered?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
They all had it?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, they watch you watch those old movies and they
always act like they have pill and all these mysterious
drugs do well.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
See, they can smoke and do all of those little
shenanigans and still play. Dancers are limited. You can't drink
and dance. Are smoking dance? You can't do that. I
mean I smoke cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Well, they're all dead now too. You can't. It's just
tough to do that, that's right. Sure, But your your
initial point, I think is the most valuable of all
this attitudinal advancement in life. Isn't it really a lot
about how your brain and your heart connect and think positively?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Well it should be, because you can't. You can't sweat
the small stuff, you know. I've had cancer three times,
copd emphysema, and I still have I wear I have
a pacemaker, and and I can't worry things like that
(13:01):
I'm too busy.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, when you walked up in the studio a little
while ago, I was thinking, well, that must be your daughter.
Where is she? It's like it cracks me up. You're
ninety nine. You'll be one hundred next week, right, and
it's like that's not a thing.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Well, you know they're making such a big deal out
of it.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
You'll be one hundred and fifty. I mean, you look
like you got the infrastructure to go another buck and
a half.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Well, I'll go for that.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
There you go. Yeah, I like this sound to that. Well, listen,
this is great to meet you. And do you care
if we people know which home depot it is where
you're not.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
At all, not at all. But listen, what I want
to tell you this. There are so many things that
people could do to keep from falling, to keep for
if they if they did fall, how to keep from
staying on the floor, how to get up from the floor.
And those are exercises I do.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Is it core strength or what are you talking?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
It's just it's just keeping in mind that you got
to keep You've got to develop the muscles needed for
whatever you're going to do. If it means the movement,
it takes for your feet to correct yourself if you trip,
and I do that by walking very fast. Even if
(14:18):
I'm hanging on to the cabinets in my kitchen, I
move my feet very fast.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That's a natural instinct for you.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
What that does? What that does if you trip, You've
got the foot movement to keep yourself vertical.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
And the other thing about twice a month, I get
down when one of my daughters are there. I get
down on the floor and get up by myself. The
reason because if I can't get up, then they're there
to help me. But you know what's still but exercise
it If older people and by that I guess seventy
(14:58):
eighty you know around there, would do those exercises, they could,
they could help themselves if they should trip. And that's
that's big important things, all right?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Good?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So what else do you want to know?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I want to Are you spiritual? You think there's you
and your daughters are all going to be together?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And I don't know about that part, but I do
know that it seems like I've had a helping hand
all my life, making decisions and helping, you know, guiding
me one way or another. I just have that feeling.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
So you've had a run that most people won't know,
so it's pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I guess that's what they tell me.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
All right, Well, I'm gonna look for you on a
Smucker's Jar next week on Al Roker Show, and then
we'll see where we go from there. Will you promise
you'll come back here in fifty years when you're one
hundred and fifty?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I will do that. Definitely.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Much love to you, Joe Cleina, you are else your
character and inspiration for all there she is. She'll be
one hundred a week from Friday, October fourth? Is that
right right there? Okay? Outstanding Joe Cleida Wilson. No, you're
not trapped. No, we'll take care of that here in
a second. She's pretty amazing. You are on news Radio
(16:21):
eight forty wha s
Dude, you're like forty years old. There's no way you're
ninety nine years old.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, they're making an awful of it to do about it,
I don't know, it's just.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
But you know, the triple digits for crawling up on
you and you're like, I don't care. I love your attitude.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah yeah, I mean you look.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Like you could wrestle a bear right now and win.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Where is he.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hilarious? All right? Now? First off, Shannon Cogan sent me
some info about you, and she said that you were
the longest serf, no, not longest serving, the oldest home
depot employee in America.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
That's what they tell me.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, what do you do at home depot? I am
a cashier, so you don't carry lumber around.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Or nah, not of a half to.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, you're a little bitty thing, so they're not going
to make you pick up lumber or anything like that. Right,
operator to do that, operate a hydraulic lift. But why
did you decide to go back and start working again?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Oh I've done. I've retired three times, and each time
it was ten years. I retired for ten years each time,
and I could not stand it any longer. That's all I.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Mean, there's only so many news stories.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The dog couldn't answer me, you know, and that was
about it. My friends were going, really, I lost a
lot of my friends.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But you are obviously completely clearheaded and you're physically able
to do whatever you want. You're a dancer for a
lot of your life. So is that part of the
secret to success?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I don't think that's the thing of it is is
what I learned as far as things like posture and
determination and things like that. You learn a lot more
than just dance, And that's that's kind of where I'm
coming from. You know, that type of thing, determination, a
lot of it. Governess, don't give in if it hurts,
(01:59):
just keep going.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
You've raised four kids, right, and you know obviously there's
two of your daughters are here now. There's a lot
of love for mom. We all get that. But you
were telling me off are that your mom was pretty
cut and dried about things, and she got you a
manager because you were such a good dancer. As what
how old were you?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Then she got me an agent. I was eighteen and
right after before that I worked at the seal Back
Hotel for a year with the dancing Darlings.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So that was a live show that went on right there.
That was that's like two hundred.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yards where we're right in the plantation room at the
Seal Bike.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
And so people will come in and have dinner and
you guys are put on like dances.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
They would have well it was like cocktails and I think, yeah,
it was dinner. They would have dinner. Also, it was
very nice.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
We're talking about the nineteen forties ron there. Yes, so
World War two is probably raging. I'm guessing we're trying
to keep.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Our spirits up right, and we didn't. Now, my dad was,
let's see, I don't know exactly what you're about. Forty
three possibly around there, and so yeah, that's there were
all the men were in uniform.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That's what I was wondering right there. There couldn't have
been that many guys, younger guys around.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Them when they were there, not in civilian clothes.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
No, they were on leave or whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
The civilian clothes. You just kind of, you know, you
backed off.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I'm not even gonna normally my instincts are to mine
that source of information. I'm gonna I'm gonna let that
go because I think I know where it's going to go.
And we're both being.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Trouble, right, we don't want that.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So what happened? Then you have this agent, this agent
who's who's supposed to find you work? And then what
happens next?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, I worked all around Louisville, Chicago, Cincinnati, and my
mother went with me, and and then I got the
contract for June Taylor to be in New York.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
The June Taylor dancers, right, And this is like rhythmic
tap is that we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It was like floor show work. Actually when I first started,
it was in the theater and twenty six girls. There
were fifteen or sixteen show girls, beautiful orchestra. Show girls
are beautiful, but they can't dance. Dancers are not as pretty,
(04:33):
but they got the rhythm, you know, So the combination
makes for a real nice show.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I'm loving these quotes. I don't know which poll quote
we're gonna use for this interview, but that was a
good one too.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So it was always interesting.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, and then what happens if the one dancer is
not able to go, well, you always have a spare part.
Is that what's going on?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I was what they call a swing dancer, and the
swing dancer has to know everybody's position, everybody's step, and
is able to throw it to be thrown into the
group whenever somebody doesn't make it.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
When you said swing dancer, I thought we're going back
to civilian clothes.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
No, they had to know everything, all the positions, all
the cues, everything and all the steps. That makes you
more valuable though, Oh, I don't know about tad.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, but if you can fill it anywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, you had to fill in anywhere.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And then what sort of a rigid schedule are we
talking about where they have you work it every night.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, certainly, yeah, and if you weren't working, you were rehearsing. Yeah,
and we changed the shows every week.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Right, learn all that new stuff. Right is when your
leg's hurt to.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Go on anyway, that's tough. Yeah, Like they say in
the army, you.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Know, are you going to use a phrase I'm going
to have to take off of our delay system? No, Okay,
she's making hand gesture stuff. Uh so do they give
you uh tail and all or something? They just say,
stuck it up, get out there and do it.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, you just don't even talk about it. You don't
talk about you, just the rest of the people there
know the rest of on the show. You know, your
immediate group, they know, but you know they're hurting to someplace,
you know, a broken toe.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Or but that has to be thrilling though, to be
part of these magnificent shows. And like you and I
just watched a clip of Anne Miller from the fifties
and it was just fantastic, just the coordination and rhythm,
the whole blocking of the shots. The camera's moving and
(06:53):
there's you know, clarinets and saxophone players and you're dancing
in between them.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And as we were passing was we were coming here?
We came to the Madrid. It used to be a
nightclub up on the second floor at the Madrid and
I worked there with Tommy Darcy's band with the Buddy Berrigan.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And the street. It was unfortunately it was at.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
The Madrid Club Madrid, Yeah, on Third Street, Third and Guthrie, okay,
and I worked there. That's one of the places where
I was booked to work.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
And then would they push cash into your hand at
the end of that or would you actually get a check?
Do you remember it was a cash business, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
No? You got to catch oh you got a check?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I figured that was one of those things where people
would just do they paid money at the box office,
let the proceeds.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No, your agent, you got to You got a check
and then you gave your agent fifteen percent. And I
think it's just about the same now the agents usually
get fifteen.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's how that works. Yeah, your agent. You outlived your agent, right.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I think I did.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, you get out of that relationship.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
They don't like I didn't need her anymore. I was.
I was under contract, so I didn't need her anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So you've done these shows over all these decades, and
then you had what the Louisville Dance Studio.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Then I had the Loyvill Dance Academy.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yes, and then and then you bring big dufuses like
me in there and try to teach them how to
step around.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And then that's the difficult part.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Exactly what do you say to someone like me who
can't put their feet together. He just said, you just
keep doing your day job. Buddy.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
This isn't maybe this isn't cut out for you. You know.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Do you ever watch that dancing show on TV of
Dancing with the Stars. Yes, are they They seem like
they're not very critical of obvious mistakes.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
They well, they're they're in other professions though, I mean
they're like God, I don't know if they're newspeople some
of them, some of them are entertainers, some of some
of our comedians, right, But you should.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Always pick the athlete, I think, and when they announced
the cast or those things, instead of some obscure person
who was on Melrose Place or whatever, you would take
someone who's an athlete because they're they're easier to teach,
are they not.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I don't know you did well. I know I did
teach jockeys. I taught jockeys. I taught football players, yeah,
and the jockeys would say it made made them better coordinated.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You know that stay nimble?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I actually took some ballet classes on a there.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Maybe you were three years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
It could have been, and I thought the flexibility you
get out of that, yes, is incredible.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And it's it's so demanding of your body, really it is.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So with this one hundred birthday approaching, I got to
ask you a couple obvious questions. What do you eat,
do you drink alcohol, those types of things, because people
always want to know how in the world did you
live when my friend I ate forty two or whatever.
You know, So what do you eat?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You weight?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I can tell you weigh forty pounds, So what are
you eating?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I eat as far as I had a very high
count cholesterol count. So I went to a nutritionist for
three years, every three every three months, and I learned
a lot from her. I was able to cut my
portions down what I needed no more than six ounces
(10:32):
of beef or protein. And they say all the time,
you know, you should eat chicken and fish. So I
tried it for three months. I ate just chicken and vegetables.
My cholesterols take the thing. Next time I tried fish,
(10:54):
cholesterol stayed the sink. Then I tried beef and it
came away there. That's true now.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Not Hamburger, right, But what cuts of beef?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Any steak like steak cuts? Yeah, flat iron steaks regular
better than that, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Do you have a glass of wine every day or not?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Every day? I have and I don't have a glass.
I have about an inch of wine in the glass
and about two inches of water on that spring water
that you pour into the wine into the wine.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Cut the wine you diluted.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I do, and then I put ice in it.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That's even more water. That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So wine water, okay, and it's good. I like it.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
You smoke a little marijuana down again.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Not at all. I never did. It was always there,
but it was always in the drummer's drum case.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Is that all they entered?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
They all had it?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, they watch you watch those old movies and they
always act like they have pill and all these mysterious
drugs do well.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
See, they can smoke and do all of those little
shenanigans and still play. Dancers are limited. You can't drink
and dance. Are smoking dance? You can't do that. I
mean I smoke cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Well, they're all dead now too. You can't. It's just
tough to do that, that's right. Sure, But your your
initial point, I think is the most valuable of all
this attitudinal advancement in life. Isn't it really a lot
about how your brain and your heart connect and think positively?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Well it should be, because you can't. You can't sweat
the small stuff, you know. I've had cancer three times,
copd emphysema, and I still have I wear I have
a pacemaker, and and I can't worry things like that
(13:01):
I'm too busy.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, when you walked up in the studio a little
while ago, I was thinking, well, that must be your daughter.
Where is she? It's like it cracks me up. You're
ninety nine. You'll be one hundred next week, right, and
it's like that's not a thing.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Well, you know they're making such a big deal out
of it.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
You'll be one hundred and fifty. I mean, you look
like you got the infrastructure to go another buck and
a half.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Well, I'll go for that.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
There you go. Yeah, I like this sound to that. Well, listen,
this is great to meet you. And do you care
if we people know which home depot it is where
you're not.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
At all, not at all. But listen, what I want
to tell you this. There are so many things that
people could do to keep from falling, to keep for
if they if they did fall, how to keep from
staying on the floor, how to get up from the floor.
And those are exercises I do.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Is it core strength or what are you talking?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
It's just it's just keeping in mind that you got
to keep You've got to develop the muscles needed for
whatever you're going to do. If it means the movement,
it takes for your feet to correct yourself if you trip,
and I do that by walking very fast. Even if
(14:18):
I'm hanging on to the cabinets in my kitchen, I
move my feet very fast.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That's a natural instinct for you.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
What that does? What that does if you trip, You've
got the foot movement to keep yourself vertical.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
And the other thing about twice a month, I get
down when one of my daughters are there. I get
down on the floor and get up by myself. The
reason because if I can't get up, then they're there
to help me. But you know what's still but exercise
it If older people and by that I guess seventy
(14:58):
eighty you know around there, would do those exercises, they could,
they could help themselves if they should trip. And that's
that's big important things, all right?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Good?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So what else do you want to know?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I want to Are you spiritual? You think there's you
and your daughters are all going to be together?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And I don't know about that part, but I do
know that it seems like I've had a helping hand
all my life, making decisions and helping, you know, guiding
me one way or another. I just have that feeling.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
So you've had a run that most people won't know,
so it's pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I guess that's what they tell me.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
All right, Well, I'm gonna look for you on a
Smucker's Jar next week on Al Roker Show, and then
we'll see where we go from there. Will you promise
you'll come back here in fifty years when you're one
hundred and fifty?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I will do that. Definitely.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Much love to you, Joe Cleina, you are else your
character and inspiration for all there she is. She'll be
one hundred a week from Friday, October fourth? Is that
right right there? Okay? Outstanding Joe Cleida Wilson. No, you're
not trapped. No, we'll take care of that here in
a second. She's pretty amazing. You are on news Radio
(16:21):
eight forty wha s
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