When Peggy Price greets me at her Coronado condo, she wears a matching set, her white bob perfectly styled and a huge smile on her face.
“You would have had wild horses drag me out of California,” Price says.
That strive for independence has followed her for more than a century. Born in December 1922, Price grew up in Garden City, Long Island, after her family moved there when she was 5-years-old. Despite the Great Depression, she said her family was relatively comfortable. Her mother was extremely thrifty, raising chickens and preserving food.
In 1941, she attended Stanford University, arriving in California at 18.
“My father said, ‘Don’t be so independent,’” Price said when she talked about moving away from home.
Shortly after the United States entered World War II – following the attack on Pearl Harbor – many of the men at Stanford left for military service.
“By my junior year, there were no men at the college,” she said. While in school there, she rolled bandages and picked crops, helping fill the labor shortage created by the war. She remembers Dec. 7, when there were loudspeakers in the quad and President Roosevelt delivered a radio address declaring that the Japanese attack would be recorded as “a day of infamy.”
Price described herself as “kind of naive” during this time, and said the war years were an awakening for her.
Despite her parents’ entreaties to come home to New York, Price was devoted to staying on the West Coast to finish school.
“I liked being away from home that far,” she said, explaining that some of her peers were brought home by their families during this time.
After finishing at Stanford and receiving her master’s degree in education, Price taught for three years in New York before moving West again. While teaching in Monterey, she met her husband, Arthur W. Price Jr., a career Navy officer and Pearl Harbor survivor. Her father had a saying about the man she was marrying.
“You married an institution,” he told her.
She said he was right. The Navy came first, but she described Art as a devoted family man.
Price raised her children while moving around the country – and while her husband served in the Navy.
Her love for the outdoors really sparked as a volunteer with the Girl Scouts. She said she belonged to a group called “Backpack Buddies.” They would take roughly 10-day backpacking trips, including treks around Yosemite in the High Sierras. Eventually, she and a friend would go on their own when the rest of the group wasn’t interested in going as far.
After explaining that she ate a lot of dried food, she said, “So when you come out, you’d kill for a hamburger, something juicy.”
She spent a lifetime traveling the world, often with her husband. She trekked in Nepal’s Annapurna region, took bicycle trips through France, including the Dordogne Valley, and hiked across northern England from the North Sea. She also traveled through Cornwall, which she described as gorgeous.
She became increasingly involved in running, fitness and track and field, eventually becoming a certified track-and-field official and working in the sport for about 20 years. She also ran half marathons and 5Ks often, starting when she was in her late 40s.
In 2007, at 85, her husband passed away. In the decades after, Price continued to spend time with her five children and grandchildren.
Into her 100s, her love of independence continued. When I asked Price’s eldest son, Jim, if he was her caretaker, he said:
“Oh no, she doesn’t need a caretaker.”
He went on to jokingly explain that he had to convince his mom that he needed her help so that he had permission to move in with her.
She has an 8-month-old great-granddaughter, and she often worries about the world she will grow up in.
Price admits feeling overwhelmed by modern technology and changes in the world.
“Right now, sometimes, you feel like you’re living in a nightmare, you know, because so much is happening so fast and (the world has) changed so fast that there’s nearly not time to absorb it.”
Although she has not yet used AI, Price says she’s learned to text and is active on Facebook to keep up with her family.
When her son Jimmy sends her text messages while he is out running errands, she reminds him, “Don’t worry about it, I can text you.”
