T&T's oldest man, Elbert Redvers Blades, of Cumuto, turned 109 yesterday. Born on April 7, 1902 in Belmont, Blades has been declared by the Division of Ageing Statistics as the country's oldest man and one of over 300 people who have crossed the age of 100. The T&T Guardian met Blades on his sprawling 30-acre farm in good health and good spirits on his birthday, recounting details of life in the early 1900s with photographic recall. Apart from the loss of his sight only two years ago, Blades has no other major health problems.
He has outlived his wife, Muriel, whom he married when he was 41 and she 21. Muriel died at age 82.
Asked the secret of his long life, he replied: "I suppose a good, honest life, the teaching I grew up with...love God, your parents, your neighbour and forgive your enemies. "Sunday school and Bible classes kept us on the right path," Blades, an Anglican, added. Asked if he had any special diet, he replied cheekily: "I eat anything I get." On second thought, he said he steered clear of all "scavenger" meats, like shrimp, shark, manicou. Pork is out, too, because its feed comprises "nasty dead chickens," he said.
On a more philosophical note, Blades said he believed he was still alive because of God. He added: "The Bible says God has a plan for everyone, so if I am alive at this age my plan has not been completed. "So I am still living and feeling good, too. When God's plans for my life are completed that's the end of my journey." And how does Blades, very active on the family animal farm only a few years ago, now spends his day? "Sit down. Take a walk in the yard now and then," he said. He lives on the family's Cumuto farm on land leased to him by the State with three of his six children. Asked how many grandchildren he has, he said: "I can't count them. I made six children and they grew up and all had barrels of children."
His daughter, Deborah, said Blades has ten grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. Blades was the first secretary general of the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) and served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy when T&T was under British rule. Although he was trained as a pilot he never got his licence because he was black, he said. He recalled going on reconnaissance flights with other pilots to Caribbean islands during World War II and being shot at by Germans. "The plane came limping back home," Blades said. He was a close comrade of former trade unionists, Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler and Adrian Cola Rienzi, who led workers to strike against oppressive employers during the colonial era of the 1930s and 1940s.
Blades told of being a part of a bicycle brigade that set off from Oropouche to Port-of-Spain to meet Captain Arthur Andrew Cipriani, then governor of T&T, and being stopped by the police in San Juan and beaten. He has been the recipient of the Humming Bird Medal and several other awards for his contribution to the labour movement. He said he was a former Guardian writer and even recalled when the newspaper was first produced in 1917 it sold for two cents.