There’s 76-year-old Leo Smith who was still going strong on the football pitch, Queenie Bennett who was a model at 73, and 80 year old milkman Fred Newton.
Bill Smith, 91, was putting people to shame with his computer skills and Florence Islip was still doing a paper round at 81.
Then there’s the oldest of them all Dorothy Ovenden who was 107 when she met the future King.
To enjoy more, visit the retro section of the Sunderland Echo website.
1. Hats off to Queenie
Queenie Bennett was modelling women's wear at the Demonstration Fair in Joplings Sunderland store in 1961 - when she was 73. | se Photo: se
2. Fred was going strong at 80
Here's Fred Newton, a Sunderland milkman who was still delivering on his 80th birthday in 1983. | se
3. Joe's just amazing
Joe Welch was showing no signs of slowing down as a runner at 73 years old in 1993. Most mornings, he went for a seven or eight-mile training session. He ran his first London Marathon at the age of 68, after he retired from his printing job in Watford to return to his native Sunderland. | se
4. Oliver in the 1993 news
War veteran Oliver Trenholme was awarded a gong - 50 years after earning it. The 80-year-old from Pallion was a former RAF sergeant who served on Malta from 1940 to 1943, while the Germans tried to starve and bomb the population into submission. But the plucky Maltese, backed by British and Allied troops, kept the enemy at bay until the island was relieved. | se