Connecticut Up Close: New Haven native, veteran still dancing into his 100s

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — July 11, 1924.

Calvin Coolidge was our president, a stamp would only set you back two cents and a gallon of gas for your Ford “Model T” cost about 14 cents a gallon.

But that day was also when Milton Collins came into the world.

The man who is known to family members and friends as “uncle” and is a proud military veteran is still going as strong as ever.

Good luck keeping up with him walking around the block or breaking it down on the dance floor.

Impressive stuff, especially for a man who just turned 100!

Raised in New Haven, Collins was a talented tap dancer as a young man, good enough in fact to work professionally.

“Before the army, when I was a kid coming up, I dance all up and down the eastern seaboard in clubs and thing,” he said.

Collins also served the nation in the army during World War II.

He was part of legendary General George Patton’s “Red Ball Express,” supplying gas to tanks on the front lines on battlefields in Germany and France.

“Patton was so fast, they got out so far they ran out of gas, so they created the Red Ball Express- and all of these companies that brought up the gasoline,” Collins said.

Through the years, he said there have been so many happy memories- a loving marriage and being a proud father and friend to hundreds, who refer to him lovingly simply as “uncle.”

He’s still as stylish as ever as he embarks on his second century.

Earlier this month, a huge birthday bash was held for Collins, a celebration of an incredible life that shows no sign of slowing down.

News 8’s big question for Collins- and likely one that you have also been pondering- how in the world does he do it?

“Beans and franks, that’s all I know every Saturday night for dinner,” he said. Since he was 9 or 10-years-old.

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