Elwell Leach, 99, of Newcastle, says he owes his longevity to fruit.
“I eat a banana a day,” Leach said during a Jan. 30 interview at his Pleasant Street home.
After suffering a series of dizzy spells some years ago, Leach went to a doctor and, despite his age and spotty memory, he remembers the doctor’s advice well.
“He said, ‘I can cure you. You eat a banana a day, you won’t have any more trouble.'”
“I haven’t had any since,” Leach said.
Leach will celebrate his 100th birthday Friday.
Elwell Parker Leach was born Feb. 3, 1912 in Orland, the fourth of eight children. During his childhood, he attended school and worked on the family farm during the summer.
“I never went to high school,” he said. Instead, he worked at a nearby mill owned by Central Maine Power “up ’til the war came along,” he said. “The war took care of that.”
Leach joined the U.S. Navy and, after radar school, served as a radar operator in Guadalcanal, Japan and Pearl Harbor during World War II.
Seaman 1st Class Leach was watching a movie in Pearl Harbor when “they got the word that the war was over,” he said.
“They shut the movies down,” he said. The hundreds of ships in the harbor started firing flares and ammunition, creating an impromptu fireworks display. “Next morning a lot of them didn’t have a damn thing on there,” he said.
“I came out of [the war] in better health than when I went in,” Leach said.
He moved to Bucksport, where he worked at a CMP power plant. He later transferred to Wiscasset, but he would stay a CMP employee until his retirement.
He married for the first time at the age of 50.
After his retirement from CMP, Leach worked as a carpenter and painter for a local contractor.
A hard-working man his whole life, only the frailness of advanced age (“I can’t do too much”) and a poor job market keeps him at home today. “Nobody will hire me,” he complained, straight-faced.
Leach has been a Freemason most of his adult life. A framed picture of a ceremony recognizing his 65 years of service stands in his living room. He also enjoyed hunting and other outdoor pursuits in his younger days. He still carries his original Social Security card, with the issue date 1936 – the year after the introduction of the program – in his wallet.
His wife of almost 30 years died in 1991 and six of his siblings have predeceased him. Only a younger sister, Gildred Kinne, is still living.
Leach vividly remembers the heart attack that almost killed him some years ago.
“I died once,” he said. “My heart stopped beating.”
A heart surgeon at Maine Medical Center “saved my life,” Leach said. “He said to me afterwards, ‘You are going to live a long, long, long time,’ and by God, I guess he was right.”
A lifelong teetotaler, Leach offers the following advice – perhaps more central to his longevity than the bananas – from his lifetime of experience.
“Don’t drink,” he said. “I never drank in my life. I never smoked.”