At the culmination of their year of study, Lehigh Valley Academy Charter School second graders received a firsthand account of life nearly a century ago, as local resident Allan Fink told them of his experiences with their study subjects.

Fink, born in Allentown and raised in Macungie during the early 20th century, will see his 100th birthday July 3. Amid youngsters who've never known life without Wifi and touchscreen tablet devices, Fink described life without a telephone, without automobiles, without an indoor bathroom or electricity.

Fink took an hour of a rainy day to tell the kids about his one-room, stove-heated schoolhouse, how he dropped out of school after eighth grade to help his sick mother and his Army service in Japan at the end of World War II.

Fink also took some time to answer students' questions about where he's lived, ("I've always lived in the United States of America, and I'm proud of it,") and the first time he used a telephone (When he moved to a farm near a local "party line" at age 10).

Most poignant was when one young man asked, "How did you live this long?"

Fink smiled. "There are many reasons. I have faith in God and in his son Jesus; My mother had a slow heartbeat and was told she wouldn't live long – she lived to be 100 years old and 10 months. So I inherited that slow heartbeat.

"I am patient. I don't get angry. I think positive and I eat fruit and vegetables even if I don't like them very much."