LA GRANDE — A pair of La Grande brothers continued an American tradition that dates back to 1918.

Sherman Hawkins and his brother, Bill, on Sunday, March 10, turned their clocks and watches an hour ahead after Daylight Savings Time took effect. The process was a paradoxical one for two men who are more comfortable turning back the hands of time.

Bill Hawkins, 106, and Sherman Hawkins, 101, are centenarians who are part one of the United States’s fastest growing age groups. Like many individuals they enjoy reflecting on the past, and unlike many, they appear to have escaped much of Father Time’s often daunting grip.

Indeed, their health, considering their triple-digit ages, is such that they appear to be the winners of the genetic lottery.

For proof look no further than Bill Hawkins’ daily routine, which includes a workout with handheld 5-pound barbells in his room at Grande Ronde Retirement Residence. Bill Hawkins also reads print editions of the Wall Street Journal and The Observer regularly and walks through GRRR, where his brother, Sherman, also lives, with the assistance of only a cane.

Sherman Hawkins is also active, reading the Wall Street Journal, following the stock market discussing agriculture and his World War II experiences.

“He enjoys discussing everything about farming,” his son, Fred Hawkins, of Union, said.

The brothers both grew up on a farm near Hot Lake on Hawkins Lane, a roadway named after their father. Sherman Hawkins worked on the farm for many years and later bought a farm near it. He operated it for many years until he was 95, raising cattle and wheat.

Fred Hawkins has vivid memories of the work his father did to raise cattle.

“He conducted cattle drives through Union and into the Catherine Creek area for years,” he said.

Fred Hawkins said Sherman and his mother, Hazel, were married 73 years before she died in 2017. Ironically, Hazel died on the day of the annual Eastern Livestock Show Dance, which was where the couple met more than 73 years earlier.

Farming was also an important part of Bill Hawkins’ life but to a lesser extent than it was for his brother. Bill Hawkins attended college after high school, first enrolling at Eastern Oregon University, before transferring to Brigham Young University where he majored in political science. He intended to enter law school after graduating from BYU but did not because World War II had just started, according to his daughter, Claire Averett, of La Grande.

Bill Hawkins instead took a job with Union Pacific Railroad, where he worked during the transition from steam to diesel engines. He speaks today with a sense of remorse regarding the switch.

”I never had any problems with steam engines,” Bill Hawkins said.

He later became a representative of the railroad’s employee union. His skills in labor negotiations were so highly regarded that he took a leave of absence from the railroad to work for the United States government and teach people in Germany, Iran and Lebanon  about organizng unions.

He returned to Union County in the early 1960s where he got his old job back with the railroad and worked at a farm he had purchased. He worked for Union Pacific until  he was 70, and then continued working on his farm until he was 100.

When asked about the secret to their longevity, Bill and Sherman Hawkins do not profess to know it. Fred Hawkins said his father and uncle have lived their lives in moderation. He noted that both rarely drink alcohol and then they do it in small amounts. Bill Hawkins has never smoked but Fred Hawkins said his father did for many years until he was about 50.

Averett, one of three children born to Bill and Camille Hawkins said her father used to go on long hikes in mountain areas and does have one unusual habit.

“He likes to eat a raw onion each day. He eats it like an apple and puts salt on it,” she said.

Bill Hawkins and his wife, Camille, were married for 791/2 years. Camille died about four years ago — just six days short of her 100th birthday, Fred Hawkins said. The couple had one daughter and two sons. Trudy Wilcox, a concierge at Grande Ronde Retirement, senses that the Hawkins brothers have a strong bond.

“They are very much brothers,” she said. “They love life and they love each other.”

Dixon added that they are fun to be around when they are together.

“They’ve got the stories to tell,” she said.