AT 92, Philemon Fredricks is the oldest resident of Tapakuma, Essequibo Coast, Region Two, and perhaps he is the oldest farmer in Guyana. Despite his age, he walks around unaided, can robustly push a wheelbarrow, and tends to his one-acre farm daily.On November 24, this coming Thursday, the father of eight will turn 93, and he is hoping that, God spare life, he would attain the magical score of 100 in good health.

A jovial Fredricks told the Guyana Chronicle that he has always “played it safe”. He credits his longevity to consumption of ground provisions, vegetables, cassava bread, fish and meat.

“I never embrace modern foods (foods in tins and cans); I never liked it, and I don’t believe they are healthy. In my younger days I tried to stay away from rum, but I still used to drink one (or) two times,” he said with a smile.

According to Fredricks, he first drank rum when he was 26, and he did not like the taste. And besides, it “burn” his “belly bottom”. But, he said, he developed an acceptance for rum after a priest who was his friend told him that nothing was wrong with drinking. So he developed an acceptance of rum by looking at the religious man drink.

“I was surprise the man telling me to drink, and he drink a glass of rum in one gulp; and I tried to beat that, but I failed. I don’t know what kind of priest he was, but I don’t think I would have ever been able to match his skills,” Fredricks related, as he erupted in laughter and had to steady himself to avoid falling off his bench.

He also related that when a person is sober, he is hardly inclined to pick a fight, but as soon as he gets “sweet” (intoxicated), things begin to get “sour” (bad).

“I used to fight, but not a lot, you know. I used to win some of the fights, but I also lost some and got a good cut-tail. These fights had clear results: it’s either win or lose; none of them ended in a draw,” a jovial Fredricks said.

CANE JUICE BETTER
“That is the evil of alcohol,” he warned, contending that “because of this, I always preferred cane juice, corn juice and piwari”.

Even at his advanced age, Fredricks can be seen every day tending to the banana, plantain, pineapple, sweet potato and yam plants on his farm.
He told this publication that he has been a farmer since his early days in school, and had since made a decision to follow his father’s footsteps and become a farmer.

“When you are a farmer, you cannot go wrong. You always have food to eat, you have things to sell and provisions to give away, and the job keeps you very active,” said Fredricks, who suffers from no known illnesses. “In this life, you have to do simple thing that make you happy,” he said, pointing out that being an ‘earthly person’, he was married twice, and has eight children. All of his children are from his first marriage, and two have since died.

When his first wife died, he had just attained 70, and instead of just waiting to die, he remarried at the ripe age of 72, to a woman 20 years his junior.

“I thought it was a good decision, because when you old you cannot marry someone who is also old. None of you would be able to help each other; and when both of you get knee pain and back pain, all two of you will die together,” he said, as he laughed heartily.

Philemon Fredricks is well respected in Tapakuma, and has won several awards in honour of outstanding farmers in Region Two. He believes that education and agriculture are the two ways out of poverty.