Active Elks Lodge member celebrates 95th birthday

Ken Ingram says there’s a secret to his longevity.

“I never drank,” said Ingram Monday, celebrating his 95^th birthday at the Elks Lodge with about 20 of his closest friends.

Of course he might have been fibbing just a little.

Ingram has been a member at the Elks Lodge since 1952, and stops by almost every day to chat for a couple of hours and hoist a couple of draft beers to wile away the afternoon.

One of the club’s most active members, even as he passes into the second half of his 10th decade of existence, Ingram said he got the surprise of his life on Monday when he was greeted with a Family Day party, complete with the obligatory birthday cake, a proclamation from the city and a hearty singing of Happy Birthday to boot.

“I expected to spend some time with my buddies, but not like this, no,” he said, still hale and hearty after these years.

“It’s just another day as far as I’m concerned. It’s just another day for me.”

Ingram said he joined the lodge at a time when everyone joined. He just never left.”

“Some of the guys I was working with were going to join, so I went along with them,” said Ingram, born in 1916 during the height of the First World War.

“They’re friendly and I’ve never had a bad day here, of all the time I’ve been here.”
He certainly never thought he’d be sitting here in 2011 being feted on his birthday.
“No way, I thought I’d be long gone,” he said.

“I should be dead really. I’ve had lots of troubles. My doctor said to me one day, I guess all your friends are dead. But I said no, I made new ones.”

Stacey Lyght, who supervises the lounge on the lower level of the lodge, said there’s a brotherhood at the lodge that keeps people like Ingram around well into their golden years.
She said she couldn’t let an important milestone pass without some recognition.

“We appreciate Ken and his devotion throughout the years with the hockey and the children’s trust fund that we have. He’s done a lot. He’s 95 and he’s still here and if he’s able to put in that effort to help out, he still will – which is rare.

“You don’t see too many dedicated members for their community,” Lyghts said, “especially for their lodge.”