South Cairos Bud Duncan to Celebrate 100 Years Young

SOUTH CAIRO―A loaf of bread cost around ten cents, Prohibition was in force, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were smacking homeruns for the Yankees, and V. Lamont Duncan, Jr. was born in South Cairo. The year was 1925. 

Duncan, who is known as Bud, will celebrate his 100th birthday on Tuesday, March 4. 

“I never moved very far,” Duncan said during an interview last year in the kitchen of his farmhouse on Route 23B. 

His mother passed away in childbirth and Duncan was raised by his aunts and grandparents. He lived in the house where the Alpine Pork Store is now and as a young boy attended the South Cairo schoolhouse next to the current post office. 

“Each morning two people would go down with a pail to get water,” Duncan recalled. “They carried it back on a stick. We had a ladle, and we all drank out of it. When I went to the big school, I couldn’t drink the water because it was chlorinated.” 

Winters were spent in Florida with his family making the trek right around Thanksgiving each year and returning in the spring. The superhighways of today didn’t exist and back then it took about three days to drive from New York to the Sunshine State, Duncan recalled.

 He would go on to graduate from Cairo High School and later from Cobleskill Agricultural College where he specialized in Fruit and Livestock Management. He was the president of his class. 

Out of school, Duncan worked a lot of different jobs, from taxiing people in his Model A to plowing fields for 30 cents an hour. Later, he was a substitute school bus driver. 

“He used to drive sheep from Rensselaerville down 145 to take them to Catskill to the train,” said his daughter, Helena Duncan.

 Duncan couldn’t recall exactly how many sheep he kept in line for the 30-mile journey, but there were a lot, he said. 

“He would do anything,” Helena Duncan said. “He has always been a hard worker.”

 “All the different jobs I did, I enjoyed them,” Duncan said. “I didn’t feel like I was working.” 

But it wasn’t work that would change his life.

“I went square dancing over in Coeymans Hollow and saw this girl,” Duncan said.

That young lady was Eleanor Powell and on October 31, 1946 they were married at the Ravena Methodist Church Parsonage. 

Together, Bud and Eleanor Duncan would raise three children―Helena, Edward, and Doug―and build what would become a local landmark for more than 55 years: Duncan’s Fruit Stand.

 “This was all apple orchards when I was a kid,” said Helena Duncan, looking out the kitchen window behind the farmhouse. 

The Duncans grew an assortment of fruit, vegetables, pumpkins, and became known for some of the best pressed cider in the region. 

“I loved to make cider and I loved to make hay,” said Duncan. 

On Halloween weekend in 1962, tragedy struck when their huge barn burned to the ground. 

“It was a gorgeous barn,” said Helena Duncan. “If you look out the back of the fruit stand you can see where it was.” 

A newspaper article at the time of the fire noted that the Duncans lost 8,000 bales of hay, but thankfully all of the livestock was out in the pasture.

 A few years later the farm was hit with another blow. This time from New York State when they ran the Route 23 bypass right through the middle of Duncan’s fields. 

“The state didn’t care that was his retirement there in those fields,” said Helena Duncan.

 “Plums and pears were over there where the bypass was,” Duncan recalled. “All wiped out.”

 But fruit and hay weren’t the only things the family grew. 

“I planted 5,000 Christmas trees,” Duncan said.

 “On his hands and knees,” Helena Duncan added.

 Duncan also made kissing balls for many years, while his wife made wreaths and customers traveled for miles each holiday season to get their tree in South Cairo. Today, most of the trees are giants―20 feet tall or higher―and popular among businesses. 

“If I had known I was going to live this long I would have planted more,” Duncan smiled. 

When the family wasn’t working on the farm or at the stand, they often piled in the car for fishing trips. 

“He loves his fishing,” said Helena Duncan. 

In 2002, following his hip replacement surgery, Duncan took on a new hobby: making lures. 

“I would sit and make fishing lures while I was recuperating,” he said “If you can catch a fish on a homemade lure, it is even better.” 

And while he is now retired, Duncan still loves to plant and garden, growing sunflowers, marigolds, morning glories, and an abundance of tomatoes.

“His health is very good,” said Helena Duncan. “He takes very few medications. He keeps active.”

Duncan also eats the same breakfast every day: prunes, Cheerios, a pastry, and orange juice. Lunch is routine, too: a sandwich, small cupcake, and Tang. He skips snacks, except for one single Reece’s peanut butter cup after dinner each night.

 “The whole bowl could be sitting there, and he only eats one,” Helena Duncan said

Duncan’s grandparents both lived to nearly 100, so good genes run in the family. But he has a few other secrets, too.

 “I never got into smoking or drinks,” he said. “Good old hard work. I played hard and worked hard.” 

“I don’t worry about anything,” he added. “I don’t have time for worry.”

 Eleanor Duncan passed away on September 4, 2016, just six weeks shy of their 70th wedding anniversary. 

“Love and forgive,” said Duncan. “That is the secret to that.” 

His son, Doug, passed away in 2023, and he stays close with Helena, Edward, and Doug’s wife Rene. 

“Enjoy life while you are young,” he says. “Go fishing whenever you have time―make time.” 

For anyone who would like to wish Duncan a happy birthday, cards and phone calls are appreciated at 2697 Route 23B, South Cairo, NY 12482 or 518-622-9301. A birthday celebration is being planned for this spring.