At 99, rey baumel shares his good life secrets | members only

WOULD YOU SAY THE SAME THING TO YOUR 50-YEAR-OLD SELF? Yeah, pretty much. "Enjoy life, be good to people …" I would say this to my 99-year-old self, too. WHAT’S YOUR EXERCISE

ROUTINE? A: Unfortunately, this summer was so hot that I didn't do it, but I normally walk three days a week, an hour each time, a two-mile walk in the park, and it's just

beautiful. I really miss it, and I'll get back to it if the weather gets civilized. I still do chest flies with a two-pound weight in each hand, 80 each time. I haven’t done yoga in a

while, but I did, for 10 or more years. The liner notes from an album Baumel produced and recorded at Miami's Criteria Studios. He drew the caricatures of himself and wife Lynn.

Courtesy of Rey Baumel IS THERE ONE FOOD YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT? I don't know if you’d call it food. The product is called Kozy Shack, and it's chocolate pudding. When I was a

kid on Coney Island, I’d come home from school. I’d have spaghetti, which I love, and then my mother would give me chocolate pudding. It’s the exclamation point at the end of dinner.

WHAT'S THE MOST INTERESTING THING YOU’VE LEARNED LATELY? I think basically that there is still so much I don’t know. WHAT’S YOUR SOCIAL LIFE LIKE THESE DAYS? It’s not much because

I'm not out walking. When I’m walking there’s a little community out there, not including the squirrels and the birds. I meditate with a guru once a week. And then there’s the Mac

users' group. That’s a Zoom call once a month. I’ve been very active in my church community, but now I do it virtually every Sunday. I’ve been a member of the congregation for over 75

years. Oh, and there's a group that I’m a part of that’s been together, I think it’s got to be 15, 16 years. We share the fact of having lost a loved one to cancer … It’s called The

Merry Widows. (_Baumel’s wife, Lynn, died of cancer in 2008_.) After meeting just after World War II, Baumel and his wife Lynn performed together for many years. RIGHT TOP: Baumel as a

member of a Puerto Rican show orchestra called the Khaki Kaballeros in 1945; RIGHT BOTTOM: Lynn performing with Baumel's band in 1953 at Nippersink, a Wisconsin summer resort. Courtesy

of Rey Baumel YOU'RE HOSTING A DINNER PARTY FOR FOUR GUESTS. THEY COULD BE ANYONE LIVING OR DEAD. WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE? My wife of 59 years, because she was so much a part of me and

such a wonderful person. Not only beautiful to look at, but beautiful to talk to. Such a wonderful attitude. My brother (_the late violinist and conductor Herbert Baumel_). He was my mentor.

Another person would be a musician I never met, but was always fascinating, and happened to be a colleague of my brother’s when they went to the Curtis Institute of Music together: Lenny

Bernstein. He was an amazing talent. And finally, somebody I really to this day enjoy and was privileged to follow at the Chicago Playboy Club as well: George Carlin. I mean, you look at a

George Carlin special and boy, it’s like he gave it today. That quartet sitting at dinner would be sort of chaotic but, hey, chaos is so nice every once in a while.