Paul Joslen celebrates his 100th birthday with friends and family at Turning Point Church on Tuesday.
Jayden Kennett | Daily Journal
This was certainly an occasion for dancing.
For years, Paul Joslen had been a ballroom dancer. The way his daughter tells it, he and his wife could really “cut a rug,” she said.
And what better time for a dance than in celebrating a 100th birthday.
Joslen, a Franklin resident, joined with family and friends this week to recognize his centennial. Although his birthday isn’t until Nov. 6, Paul Joslen and his friends at the Franklin Active Adult Center celebrated his 100th birthday on Tuesday.
Joslen celebrated by visiting the site of the future Franklin Active Adult Center to see the progress in the morning and eating cake with friends in the afternoon. Joslen was surprised to see so many people show up for the party, he said.
“It’s quite a day,”Joslen said. “These people have made it a special day.”
Joslen used to play horseshoes and saw a lot of his old horseshoe-pitching friends. Many of them came from out of town, so it was exhilarating to see many people show up to celebrate, he said.
Turning 100 feels like just another birthday, he said, before adding jokingly that the only difference was so many people showed up for the 100th birthday party.
Joslen is a World War II veteran, serving in the Pacific Theater. He remembers one day when the ship was stopped for maintenance. His sergeant threw a rope ladder over the side of the ship, and he and his friends jumped into the ocean.
“Never gave a thought about sharks, never gave a thought about how deep it was,” Joslen said.
Joslen also remembers the bomber planes come and go from the base he was stationed at. That’s something he will never forget, he said.
“We watched a lot of big four-engine bombers fly out with a bomb and bomb Japan and then we’d see them coming back the next morning, some they were just crawling,” he said.
Joslen was stationed in Japan when he received word he was shipping home, leaving on New Year’s Day 1946. He recalls coming back from Japan and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge as he arrived. The first thing he did when he was back was “hit the streets” and buy an ice cream.
“Then you knew we were home,” Joslen said. “That was quite a thrill.”
As he contemplated his 100 years, Joslen’s advice for others is to stay healthy. Joslen said he’s stayed healthy by not smoking or drinking, and up until the COVID-19 pandemic, Joslen was still active in ballroom dancing, pitching horseshoes and playing golf.
Joslen is also a mean card player, his friends said.
