For the Ages

John Babcock, the last Canadian World War I veteran passed away the other day at his home in Spokane Washington. He was 109.

When someone attains an age as advanced as that the natural question is what has kept them alive so long. "What do you attribute your living so long to?"

There are no real answers to this kind of question. Certainly you can have a chance to live that long if you avoid gunfire. But Mr. Babcock was in the Canadian Army as an underage recruit who didn't get assigned to combat, but who nonetheless left Canada after the war and joined the American Army. He didn't seem to duck much.

I like to think his name had something to do with his longevity. His full name is so strong you could drive traffic over it: John Henry Foster Babcock. The name John Henry alone connotes strength. The mythical "steel-driving man" was named John Henry. The real-life horse John Henry raced until he was 9, lived till he was 32, and won nearly every major race there was for older horses. For years and years he was the leading ranked money-winner, until the larger pursed Dubai races came into being.

In John Irving's Cider House Rules one of the nurses frets over the fact that doctor Wilbur Larch has such a strong last name, but a weak first name. A larch tree is a hardwood. A Wilbur is not. (Quite oddly enough, when Mr. Babcock was 5 his father was killed when a tree fell on him. No record of what kind of tree.)

Definitely the name. At least four more solid names can be made from John Babcock's full name. John Henry, Henry Babcock, John Foster, Henry Foster. Names like that are short, and strong, and when strung together resemble spaced girders and trusses holding up a bridge. Cs and Ks contribute to strong words. Babcock. And Mr. Babcock had a name with four short, simple, strong words.

The character named Babcock wouldn't open the train door to allow Buth Cassidy to rob it. Butch blows the mail car up with enough dynamite to create a Grand Canyon, but Babcock survives.

Despite the sometimes steep exchange rate differences between Canadian and U.S. currency, 109 years Canadian is still 109 years.

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