Born in Waipawa, Mr Foulds spent his first years in Otane before moving to Hastings in 1924, where he attended Central School.
George Foulds (left) and his son Charles Foulds of Hastings looking at the family photo board. Photo / Warren Buckland
It was here that an 11-year-old George Foulds experienced the 1931 Napier earthquake. His speaks about his memory of the day, particularly a woman called Molly.
"Molly used to live across the street. Around 9am when we were going to school at Central, she was going to work and we just waved from the house to one another.
"After the earthquake, the school kids had gone home, and then about 2 in the afternoon Molly hasn't come home for lunch and as the evening wore on [people were saying] 'Molly hasn't come home tonight' and by nightfall, well, Molly was totally missing.
"And few days afterwards Molly was found," in the rubble.
Mr Foulds' only sibling, younger sister Elsie, died at the age of 94 in 2015.
In his youth his family had little income.
"It was mere survival, and this was heading into the earthquake era and that was in the middle of the depression and there was no money around," Mr Foulds said.
As a schoolboy Mr Foulds took on a milk run for a couple of years and a delivery job at a bakery, where he was paid a shilling for every day he managed to arrive on time.
His mother couldn't afford to send him to high school, so he left aged 15.
"The first job I had was pulling weeds in Oliphant Rd for a chap and he gave me 10 shillings a week for that, which was great money in those days, but made me very miserable."
A few months later he became a grocery assistant, earning enough to help his mother buy groceries and clothing.
He got his driver's licence when he was 15, but lost his job when he asked for a wage rise in keeping with union advice.
George Foulds looks at a photo board covering his 100-year history. Photo / Warren Buckland
Just after his 21st birthday, George was called up to serve in World War II and he spent two years in the Western Desert, North Africa, Egypt and Italy with the New Zealand 4th Field Artillery before arriving home in 1945.
Following the war years, George married Rose and they had two children, Janice and Charles.
They ran the Duke St Grocery and Dairy for 18 years, spent another 10 running the Flaxmere Post Shop and then in semi-retirement, George worked seasonally for the Apple and Pear Board.
In retirement, George has developed and maintained a strong interest in genealogy and is also a member of the Founders Club. Six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren have also come along over the years.
He is a creature of habit and still wakes up every morning at 7am and reads the paper. Lately his favourite pastime is to go right to the obituaries to see who has died - "hatched and dispatched", as he says of the births and deaths columns.
