WINNIPEG — Sam Baker has to wear hearing aids now and his knees are bothering him, but he is not complaining.

Sam Baker [Myron Love photo]

“I’m as healthy as a horse,” said Baker, who celebrated his 105th birthday with family on Dec. 19.

His son, Steven, credits his father’s longevity to a lot of walking. “Dad walked 1 1/2 miles a day until he was 95 or 96 and developed some back trouble. I remember one time when he was in his late 70s, he went for a walk and got caught in a thunderstorm. He called for a ride home. He had walked three miles.”

Sitting in the concourse at the Asper Jewish Community Centre prior to joining in the regular Tuesday Stay Young Seniors program, Baker greets well-wishers who stop to say hello.

Talking about himself, he said that he was born in Poland, the fifth son of Joe and Zlata Baker. The family came to Winnipeg in 1906, and two sisters were born there.

Baker grew up in West Kildonan in NorthWinnipeg. He attended local public schools until the age of 12, when he left school to work in his father’s tannery.

In the 1930s, he was involved in various business ventures in rural Saskatchewan with his brothers. In 1942, he bought Jo-Ann Shop, a lingerie store in Brandon, Man., which he converted into a ladies’ apparel shop. He later opened a second women’s apparel store, Joy’s Frocks, in Yorkton, Sask.

Those were busy times, he said. “I would often work 12-hour days. I would come home for supper then go back to the store to do some bookkeeping.”

In 1971, he moved his wife, Joan – they were married 62 years before she died in 2002 – and their three children to Winnipeg. He continued to run his store in Brandon, and came home to Winnipeg on the weekends, before he retired in the mid-1980s.

Currently, Baker lives in a condo with his son. He attends services at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue and participates in the Stay Young and Gwen Secter seniors programs.

“I don’t go out much in the evenings,” he  said. “I watch television and read the papers.”

He gave up driving six years ago. “That was hard. It was like losing my right hand.”

Up until last year, he was still travelling to visit his daughters, Michelle and Janice respectively, in Hamilton and Calgary. “I am finished travelling,” he  said. “My daughters and grandchildren” – he has grandsons in Dallas, Tex. and Toronto, and four great grandchildren – “will have to come here to see me.”

Sam Baker [Myron Love photo]