There I was sufferingthrough another visit to Wal-Mart when I bumped into my old buddy Charlie Barcio and his lovely wife Dorie. When I say my old buddy, I really mean my “old” buddy.

Charlie is a chipper 105 years young, and he can do twice as much as folks a third his age. I’m sixty years old on August 15, 2009 and I’ve decided who I want to be when I grow up…. I want to be Charlie Barcio!

Centenarians are just not that uncommon nowadays. In 1950, there were reportedly 350,000 people 100 or older worldwide, with the US and Canada leading the way. Their numbers are projected to grow at more than 20 times the rates of the total population by 2050. It’s estimated that there could be as many as six million people worldwide who are 100 or older. The last official census in 2004 estimated about 65,000 centenarians in the US alone.

Of the folks who have reached age 85, only 44% of them are men. That answers the age old question about who is driving who into a grave.

Interestingly, the population of older people is about to surpass that of children, which means we’ll have more people riding in the cart than we’ll have pulling the cart. The good news is we’re living longer. The bad news is we’re living longer. Thanks to medical science, life expectancy is increasing at drastic levels.

It’s estimated that Florida’s leads the country in people over 65 with 17% of our population. Geezers are at about 3 million and counting in the sunshine state.

Charlie Barcio was born March 22, 1904. He was too young to partake in World War I and too old by the time World War II rolled around. His dad died when he was but three years old so he was raised by loving grandparents in his native Erie, Pennsylvania.

“I went to 17 different schools,” said Barcio as I interviewed him recently before 10:00 a.m. Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St. Cloud, Florida. His goal was to pursue Electrical Engineering but life deals you different cards and they don’t always fall like you want them.

Charlie and his first wife had three kids and more grandkids than he can count. “It’s easier to keep up with the great-great grandchildren,” chuckles Barcio. “I only have two of those.”

Charlie’s second wife, Dorie, was a widow who was married to one of Charlie’s closest friends. The pair knew one another for some 26 years before they married in 1990. They are dedicated servants to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church.

Charlie was the custodian at the church from 1992-2002 until he got “canned” when the church’s insurance company caught him changing light bulbs on a ladder at age 98. The bulbs are nearly 40 feet above the floor. “It broke my heart to lose that job,” says Charlie.

Charlie is in remarkable shape. I accused him of speeding as he was pushing a cart around in Wal-mart. When asked how he stays in such great shape, the charming Barcio shrugged his shoulders as if to say “there’s nothing to it.”

He rides his bike six days a week for up to 15 miles per day. When I asked him about his favorite meal and he quickly said, “Put it on the table and I’ll eat it.”

In addition to his daily bike ride, Charlie mows most of his one acre lawn. “My neighbor has been feeling a bit sorry for me,” explained Charlie. “For the past few months, he’s been mowing my front yard, but I still do the back.”

A Fourth Degree Member of the Knights of Columbus since 1944, Charlie still goes to council meetings each month and even sells tootsie rolls during the spring of the year to raise money for the mentally challenged.

His proudest achievement took place back in Erie, Pennsylvania. For some 32 years, Charlie narrated weekly Mass on WLEU Radio in Erie.

Charlie called back in 2004 to complain that another insurance company was forcing him to take the payout of his policy. Turns out it matured at age 100 and the cash value and death benefit are the same. That’s the kind of thing that happens to you when you outlive the actuarial tables.

His bride, Dorie, is the love of Charlie’s life. While she’s 23 years his junior, one has to take into account that the pickins’ had to be kind of slim for women his own age. “I married an angel,” quips Barcio, “and I’m in no hurry to leave.”

Yeah, I’m sure of it… I want to be just like Charlie Barcio when I grow up!