Biker chick Peggy gingerly readies herself for her first bike ride in 100 years, riding pillion with a guy who ain't got no shins. |
Six reasons to visit Pietermaritzburg
The Anniversaries Office at Buckingham Palace has confirmed it has mailed a 100th card on behalf of the Queen, but unlike Prince Phillip, who overturned his car at age 93 last week, Peggy stopped driving her beloved Hillman last year."Once, the licence officer asked the plate number, and I said '89'. He said 'not your age'. I said 'that is
the number — NR 89!'”
Peggy said many Howickians wanted to buy the rare plate, but the Hillman ''is over the hill'' and now good only for Cars in Park.
When you turn 100, you do as they say the Spaghetti Westerns: "We ride". |
In her 41 years in Howick she "worked in most of the shops, but when Pick n Pay took over Knowles supermarket, they told me I was too old at 73."
She continued working the busy till at Grapevine coffe shop and then volunteered at the hospice until last year, when she eventually retired at 99 and now reads ‘murder books’.
Ironically the book on her bedside table is The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. Impressively, the book is in fine print, which Peggy reads with one eye closed,after having had a cataract removed "a few years ago".
Always the charmer, McKelvey asked his oldest pillion rider yet what her secret is to ageing so elegantly?
‘Hard work! I’m living proof that hard work never killed anyone,’ Peggy said with a twinkle in her eye.
Asked if she’ll bungee jump for her 101st, she had one word: ‘Aikona!’.And as for what "aikona" means, check out the Hyundai Kona.