Three good meals a day and working hard are the secrets to a long life. That’s what Peter Houtman thinks anyway, and having just turned 100, he’s a bit of an expert.
Sitting inside his home — once a garage that was transformed into a suite so he could live in close quarters to one of his sons and daughter-in-law — Houtman chuckles as he points to a picture of himself on the wall.
“That was me at 85 and I look the same. I looked the same as when I was 75. People ask me, how?” he said with a smile breaking across his face.
“I always tell them — three meals a day and working hard,” he said.
Houtman is certainly no slouch — born in Holland on Oct. 1 in 1912, he moved to Canada with his family in 1954 to work on a farm. In Holland, he was known as a jack-of-all-trades, working as an electrician, plumber and welder.
After the Second World War, Houtman said things were “not so good” in Holland so he decided to emigrate to Canada. He was able to come here after receiving sponsorship from a farmer in Three Hills who was sick and needed help.
Houtman may have been good at a lot of things, but working on a farm wasn’t one of his specialties.
“I remember, I went to a friend’s house before I left and said, I need to learn to milk a cow,” he said, adding his friend just laughed at him initially. But the training paid off because it was one of the first things he was asked to do when arriving in Alberta.
After a year on the farm, Houtman left to work as a mechanic, a profession he was better suited for.
He built a home in Three Hills where he lived with his wife and five children before eventually moving to Trochu and building a house there as well. For the last 14 years, he’s lived in Balzac with his son, Bill. He has 15 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.
Just two years ago, at 98, he handed in his driver’s license.
“I like driving but I felt I should quit,” he said. “I just didn’t feel 100 per cent safe.”
Houtman also continued taking trips to his native country of Holland, stopping only two years ago. He said he visited the country to visit a friend 21 times between 2000 and 2010.
Now, Houtman wakes up in the morning and fixes himself breakfast and lunch. He even makes himself bread in his breadmaker. He passes the time reading books or playing word games and sometimes plays the organ. In the summer, he grows tomatoes. But what he enjoys the most is making toys in his woodworking shop, located outside his house.
“The first one I made was for my daughter when she was little, and she’s over 50 now,” he said, laughing.
Houtman started by making wooden animal shapes and putting them on a base with wheels. He would paint them and attach a rope to the toy so children could pull them around.
He used to sell them at craft fairs with his wife Gertrude. When he retired he started giving the proceeds of his toys to different charities. Now he gives his toys away to the Mustard Seed in Calgary.
In his shop, Houtman has 39 different animal stencils to make toys with. He also makes dominos, tri dominos, puzzles, cars and piggy banks in the shape of grain elevators.
“My Dad has a strong faith in God and has always been content with his situation,” said Houtman’s son Bill. “He doesn’t complain he just does what’s in front of him.”
