THE GOOD OLD DAYS

HOUSTON — Vernon Ross is a simple man who lives in the moment — and there have been a lot of moments.

Ross celebrated his 100th birthday Saturday, a day that was as good as any he could remember, at least until the next day came along.

“Right now is as good a time as I’ll ever remember,” Ross said from his Houston home. Although he joined an exclusive club by breaking into triple digits with his age, Ross looks much younger than his 100 years and is as animated as ever when talking and joking about what he’s seen over the decades. When asked about the good old days, he’s quick to respond.

“Well, what happened today?” he said. “We don’t worry about tomorrow. It’ll take care of itself. … Boy, the first day of May 1910, that’s a long time ago, isn’t it?”

Ross is a true Alaska pioneer. The 11th of 12 children, Ross was born in Ohio on May 1, 1910. He recalls spending time in Colorado and Mississippi during his childhood, then answered the call of the North in 1935. Two brothers were already in Alaska, and Ross came to the Last Frontier to join them.

“I had two brothers up here, but one had already passed away before I came,” Ross said. “He was a trapper. He was on a trap line and got appendicitis and they didn’t get to him in time and it burst on him.”

It didn’t take long for Ross to settle into a rugged lifestyle. He was a trapper, then a commercial fisherman, a job he performed for 55 years until he retired in 2000 at the age of 90.

“I did enough fishing so I could buy an outfit and go trapping,” Ross said about his early years in Alaska. “Well, then I did enough trapping to by another outfit to go back fishing. In the mean time, I raised a family of four children.”

He also practiced a subsistence lifestyle at times. “Nobody ever went hungry,” he said. “If we were, I’d go out and get another moose. That was subsistence.”

He chuckles when contemplating what some people today consider a subsistence lifestyle.

“Somebody in town can have a nice, big motor home and go out with that and say they’re (living subsistence),” he said. “No. I don’t call that subsistence. They don’t have to do that to subside. … If some fellow doesn’t have any money or can’t do anything, he can get a moose and eat. I like that, that’s what they’re there for.”

Ross clearly recalls parts of the state are now “crowded” compared to when he first arrived. It used to take three days to get from his home to the nearest town, and “there were seven men for every woman.”

Changing times

As the years passed, the world around Ross changed. He was born during the presidency of William Howard Taft and has seen 17 other presidents take the nation’s highest office.

He also remembers first learning about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

“(Dec. 7) is one of my brothers’ birthdays,” Ross said. “I got up in the morning and (thought), ‘Well, what’s happening?’ And I turned on the radio. They just bombed Pearl Harbor. … Certain little things like that you remember them as long as you live. That morning I was just wondering what was happening.”

He was compelled to turn on the radio even though the station normally didn’t broadcast at that time.

“We never had it on that time of the day at any time,” he recalled.

He also remembers driving through Canada and turning on the radio to learn President John F. Kennedy had been shot.

But not all his memories are of war or death. Ross also recalls learning in 1969 a man had finally stepped out onto the surface of the moon.

“Oh yea, that’s pretty dramatic,” he said, adding the world “is getting to be a smaller place. How far is out there? There’s no end to it.”

Ross also suppresses a laugh recalling a saying his mother used when he was a boy.

“Well, I remember years ago my mom would say, ‘You can’t no more do that than fly to the moon,’” he said. “I remember my mother saying that. And we finally did it, … but that was impossible back then, to fly to the moon.”

While advances in technology, medicine and communications revolutionized the 20th century, Ross feels people today are no worse off or better off than they were 100 years ago.

“Better? I don’t think so,” he said. “If everybody’s happy the way it is, that’s good enough. That’s all it takes. … It’s no better now than it was 100 years ago. A hundred years ago, people were as happy as they are now. It’s what you do with it. Now is as good a time as any other.”

For those who want to learn Ross’ secret to longevity, there isn’t one.

“If you keep on breathing, you’ll be OK,” he said. “There ain’t no secret to it. You just live one day at a time. Do the best you can, be nice to the people around you, make them happy. If you make people happy, then you can be happy. If you make people sad, you’re not going to be happy about that. Well, some people are, but there’s something wrong with them people.”

He also has a hard time explaining how it feels to be 100.

“I have no idea how you’re supposed to feel when you’re 100 years old,” he said. “Are you supposed to feel any different? I don’t. I look in the mirror and say, ‘My God, you grew old.’”

All Ross wants is to visit with his neighbors and to make them smile, and if you ask him about the good old days, he’s quick to respond. “These are the good old days. You’re damn right. What’s wrong with today?”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.