Spry at 100

ROBERT CHARLES CELEBRATED his 100th birthday last month with his daughters Patti Krebs (left) and Mary Ellen Backes. (Lower photo) Robert Charles, 100, of Grafton has kept many of his items from serving in World War II. Photo by Sam Arendt
He’s got a couple of idols he calls “true Americans” in Henry Ford for the assembly line and Sam Walton for his business acumen. And he can recall in detail most everything about his time as a soldier during World War II.
Robert Charles of Grafton may be 100 years old, but he’s as spry as someone decades younger.
“I can remember everything about my service life,” he said.
Charles, who grew up in upstate New York in poverty, was born in Utica Aug. 22, 1924. He was drafted on March 18, 1943.
He took a train to Camp Sutton, N.C., for basic training, then a train to Plymouth, Calif. He boarded a troop ship carrying 5,000 people with its “destination unknown.”
Fifty-two days on the Pacific Ocean meant spending time on the deck only during daylight.
“At night, everything went dark,” he said. “We had sub chasers on both sides of us.”
Troops received two meals per day. “We had 30-foot tables. That’s how they fed us,” Charles said. “When you hit a swell, everybody’s mess kit would start going down the other way. You’re chasing your food.”
“It was an interesting time for a young boy at 18 years old. I didn’t know what was going on or what to expect.”
The ship landed in Bombay, India, which today is Mumbai. A 10-day train trip to where Charles started his service ensued.
He helped haul supplies in India and Burma to be flown over the Himalayan Mountains, known as the Hump among Allied pilots. The Chinese National Air Corps, made up of American and Chinese crews, delivered materials to soldiers fighting the Japanese.
Six days a week, Charles drove a 6-by-6 truck 50 miles one way carrying everything from bombs to gasoline and food and clothing that had been brought in by rail.
It was a British truck, so “I learned to shift with my left hand,” he said. “You had to double clutch those trucks.”
Trips weren’t easy for other reasons.
“We convoyed. No pavement. All mud. Many times we got stuck but we pulled each other out. We had winches on the trucks,” Charles said.
He said he worked “as many hours as you could, sometimes during monsoons and heat that reached 115 degrees.
“You never had dry clothes,” Charles said.
Entertainment at the rec hall included pool and table tennis. “That’s what we did for recreation. Drank beer, shot pool and played a lot of ping pong,” Charles said.
He ate C-rations, which included an iconic dish. “You got a lot of Spam,” he said with a laugh. “Spam was a favorite for everybody.”
Soldiers also killed their own chickens, which sometimes still ran around a little while after being beheaded, and they didn’t clean them well. That’s why Charles doesn’t eat fowl today. “Nothing with feathers,” he said.
Charles, whose rank was technician fifth grade (Tec 5) also served in Burma. He was supposed to come home after 24 months, but as the war wound down he stayed another six since the U.S. didn’t want to send in new troops.
Chinese troops drove some of the trucks on the dangerous Burma Road along a cliff, but they didn’t know how to handle the equipment and some died.
“They didn’t even go looking for them,” Charles said. “They were gone.”
“I couldn’t wait to get out, he said. ”I didn’t have a good military life. I was never in the barracks in my whole career, always in a tent.”
But he considers himself fortunate.
“I was born lucky. I didn’t get sent to Okinawa or Iwo Jima. I’ve been lucky all my life,” he said.
Charles grew up in poverty difficult to comprehend at 83 Railroad St. — he remembers the address — in Clayville, N.Y., a town of about 500.
“Clayville had two of everything. It had two mills, two churches, two cemeteries, two grocery stores,” he said.
And it had a freight railroad running through the middle of town — the now-defunct Delaware and Lackawanna line that he said passed less than 100 feet from Charles’ home.
He has two sisters, one of whom is alive today at 95. Their parents rented a five-room house with a utility room that had a toilet and a sink. They had no hot water, insulation, storm windows or closets.
“Why did they build a home with no closets? Nobody had any clothes. You were poor. Nobody had more than two outfits,” Charles said.
His father was an electrician at a woolen mill. Charles quit school in the 10th grade to work in a knitting mill. He worked his way from up from $5 per week to becoming a knitter at $9 per week. He knitted military blankets.
“Little did I know I would be using the product I was making,” he said.
He started smoking when he was 16 with Sunshine Cigarettes at 5 cents a pack. He later switched to Camel, then Lucky Strike, before quitting at 55.
After the service, Charles met his wife Betty on a blind date at a tavern with a jukebox. She was a friend of a friend.
“It was love at first sight,” he said. “I didn’t need to look anymore. I hadn’t seen a white woman in three years.”
The two dated for nine months and were married for 70. Betty died in 2016 at 90. They had two daughters who live in the area, and Charles has five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Charles worked in sales for Farberware, 15 years as a salesman and 19 as a sales manager. He traveled during the week and came home to Cedarburg on weekends. His clients included department store chains such as Kohl’s, Macy’s and Marshall Field’s. He got to meet famous chefs Julia Child, Burt Wolf and Victor Sen Young, who played Hop Sing on “Bonanza.”
He brought Sen Young to Milwaukee to cook with Farberware’s woks and took him to dinner at the Fox & Hounds in Hubertus.
Charles retired in 1988.
Today, he lives in a three-bedroom condo in Grafton.
“I don’t do anything for fun. I work. I clean. I make all my own meals from scratch,” he said. “I don’t live on a budget. I spend whatever I want.” He likes steak, pork and shrimp cocktails.
He passed his driver’s test shortly before turning 100. He’s limited to daytime driving and not on freeways. Charles likes to get new cars, and his 18-month old Ford Edge has less than 1,000 miles.
His eyesight is his only handicap.
“I remember names,” he said. Some things I shouldn’t remember.
“I never expected to live this long. I feel great for 100 years old.”
Halfway through the interview, Charles noticed the nature of the conversation.
“When you edit this, it will come out with mumbo jumbo because we’re jumping around,” he said.
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