At their own threshold

“Fairy tales can come true — it can happen to you — if you’re young at heart,” sang 101-year-old Bill Tapia, strumming along on the ukulele.

Thought to be the world’s oldest professional touring musician, Tapia recently returned from a nine-concert, sellout tour in Japan.

He was just in time to join other centenarians (and those who are just months away from the 100-year milestone) in Fountain Valley on Wednesday.

Eight special guests representing more than 800 years of history and experience gathered for a luncheon at the Talbert Medical Group’s Fountain Valley location.

The group of eight, ranging in age from 99 to 101, were the founding members of the medical group’s Century Club, created for its patients who are 85 and older.

Inaugurated today, the club inducted 60 members from around the state. One of the new club members, Wilhelmina Vanderwijck, is 105.

Members get perks like preferred parking and an annual luncheon, and a wall at each of the group’s centers will depict the centenarians.

Patients who reach 99 are inducted into the club’s Gold Circle; other members will be part of the Silver Circle.

Tapia performed several tunes for the assembled patients, their families and friends, and civic and medical officials.

Another Century Club Gold Circle inductee, 101-year-old Octavio Orduno, quoted poetry at his table: a verse from the famous anonymous poem, “On the Threshold.”

“I am standing on the threshold of eternity at last, As reckless of the future as I have been of the past,” he recited.

When asked his age, he told the doctor hosting the luncheon that he was “about 25.”

The attendees said regular habits and good nutrition, as well as busyness, keep them going strong.

Despite medical difficulties and a hard upbringing, Tapia said he’s never missed a show.

“I keep on going,” Tapia said. “I don’t let anything get me down.”

He will go touring in the Pacific Northwest and Las Vegas later this fall, and to Europe in the spring.

“This is all I do with my life,” he said.

Tapia’s mother and wife both fed him nutritious, regular meals, he said, and he exercised daily, well into his 80s.

Tapia said the one bad habit he ever had was smoking one and a half or two packs of cigarettes a day, a habit he started when he was 11 and finally broke — with difficulty — when he was 87.

He said his doctor asked him, “Do you want a long life or a short life?”

Tapia vividly remembers throwing his box of cigarettes in the trash outside the medical center.

“People say they can’t quit,” Tapia said. “They can.”

Tapia overcame a rough upbringing to become a beloved worldwide figure of longevity.

After his father abandoned his family, Tapia got his start performing in vaudeville acts.

He moved from his native Honolulu to California, and eventually worked his way up to performing with some of the biggest acts in the world, like Bing Crosby.

He still performs around the world; one of the shows in his recent Japanese tour packed 22,000 people in to see him.

“And if you should survive to 105, look at all you’ll derive out of being alive,” Tapia sang.

The centenarians beamed.

Their Secrets to Longevity

Bill Tapia, 101: Wholesome food and exercise

Octavio Orduno, 101: Daily bicycle riding

Florence Milloy, 99: Keeping busy and having good genes

A Lifetime of Events

 The sinking of the Titanic

 The discovery of penicillin

 The 1906 San Francisco earthquake

 The Great Depression

 Two World Wars

 The first man on the moon

 The Russian Revolution