After 90 years, McClures are still going strong

WASHINGTON - Marvin and Pat McClure are far from an ordinary couple. For one thing, they were born on the exact same day, having both turned 90 on March 16. For another, they’ve gone without a dishwasher, cable TV, or internet in their home for their whole life.

The two remain in excellent health, with a respectable roster of things to do every day, alongside the occasional blood drive or trip to donate books at the Washington Public Library.

"I have a hard time sitting in the house, all day, every day, watching TV,“ Marvin said. ”There aren’t very many days that we sit in the house and do nothing.“

Their secret to wellness, they say, boils down to two things: a little bit of luck, and a habit of staying active.

Marvin still mows his own lawn and shovels his own sidewalk, rides an exercise bike 35 minutes a day, six days a week, and has taken up a hobby disassembling broken equipment for scrap metal. Pat, meanwhile, regularly bakes and cooks, and uses a treadmill, although not as religiously as her husband uses the exercise bike.

“They say if you don’t move, and you retire and go and sit in a chair, your muscles tighten up, and you just don’t last very long,” Pat said.

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That’s not to say it’s always easy. Marvin has had both knees replaced, as well as a heart valve. He failed his physical for the armed forces in 1953 due to a hearing problem. Pat has had a bypass surgery herself.

Both said they stayed healthy not from any grand ambitions about wellness, but out of sheer force of habit.

“It’s just the fact that it keeps me occupied,” Marvin said. “That and nobody bothers me out there (in the garage).”

The same is true of their preference for everyday appliances. Neither uses a smart phone, or is interested in a car built recently enough to have a back-up camera, again, largely because they’re simply not in the habit of using those things.

“We were just brought up that way, and choose not to get into all that,” Pat said. “And when something goes wrong, it’s more complicated to have it worked on ... why get one of these new cars that we’re not real happy with ... with all the knobs that you don’t know how to run? I don’t know, we’re just used to old things?”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com