Despite reaching his milestone centenary last Sunday, there is very little about Reid Calder that is slowing down.
Reid Calder with a fistful of 100-year birthday cards from luminaries near and far. Photo: Viv Posselt
He’s up early each day, hitting the iPad to catch the latest online news. Technology is no barrier here. He’s always in search of robust conversation, plays the piano daily (mostly at happy hour), and wouldn’t mind having more to do at times.
“There are days it can be a bit quiet in here,” he said, referring to the Arvida Lauriston Park unit that has been home for the past 18 months. “I need to find things to do. I’m used to being busy.”
Reid’s birthday celebrations began days earlier when numerous fellow residents spread out across a giant 1-0-0 marked out on the lawn to salute him as he was driven up in a flash 1967 Ford Mercury, owned by resident Ian Cunningham. Capturing it all from above was drone photographer and Arvida project manager, Gane Heslop.
“It was good of them all to turn up like that,” a grateful Reid said.
Days later, he demonstrated his prowess with numbers and crackerjack memory as he walked The News through the decades.
“I think I’d prefer to think of having lived 36,500 days than 100 years … that sounds a lot younger, doesn’t it,” he chuckled. “And no, I didn’t need a calculator for that. Just worked it out in my head … 365 days times 100, put two zeros on the end of 365 and you have it. Just old-fashioned maths.”
He was born in Matamata … 11.10am on a Monday, he said, the middle of three boys and the only one still here. He milked cows, left home at 23 to juggle three different sharemilking jobs. He bought a farm at Tokoroa then sold it after five years, taking 20.2ha (50 acres) as part payment. He sold that after a year, purchased 33.5ha (83 acres) at Karāpiro, sold that and bought 56.6ha (140 acres) at Roto-o-Rangi.
“It was all flat with two houses. I farmed there for 29 years.”
After milking cows for 30 years, he went into real estate for the next 20, with a sharemilker on the farm. Then he retired and became a Europecar driver for 13 years.
“My grandson was doing it and asked me if I would like to … so I did. I retired from that at 91 and have done bugger all since. I miss the work.”
Not that Reid let the grass grow beneath his feet. He purchased a motorhome at age 91, joined the Freewheelers for four years and sold it when he was 96.
“I’d take it all over the place, beaches mostly, and we had a rally each month. I loved that.”
Reid met Marie at the Victory Ball at Matamata town hall at the end of World War II.
“She was dancing with another girl, and I was there with a friend. I said to him ‘you take the blonde, and I’ll take the brunette’. Well, I married the brunette … he didn’t marry the blonde.”
Reid Calder in the fancy 1967 Ford Mercury being welcomed by fellow Arvida Lauriston Park residents. Photo: Gane Heslop
