The Lake Macquarie resident has worked and lived across much of the state, but Morpeth has worked its way under his skin.

“I’ve never seen so many vegetables,” he said. 

“It was vegetables as far as the eye could see.”

Mr Pearsall and his daughter Janelle enjoyed a birthday lunch at the Campbell’s Store on Thursday.

“Janelle was a baby in our arms back then,” he said.

A carpenter by trade Mr Pearsall took up work in Morpeth in the vegetable dehydration ­factory. The produce was canned and shipped to World War II ­servicemen.

While Mr Pearsall was raised on a farm at  Yass he said Morpeth was something else.

“All across the river was vegetable farms,” he said.

“They used to say the soil is so rich here you could grow babies.”

Mr Pearsall was soon seconded to the civil construction corp in Lithgow. After the war he worked in civil construction at Dubbo.

He lost his wife in 2002 after they had retired to Port Macquarie.

Mr Pearsall now maintains a house at Bonnells Bay, where he cooks and cleans for himself.

He turned 100 on July 17 and still has a driver’s licence.

Mr Pearsall played golf three times a week at Morisset Golf Club until April.

“About every five or six weeks come back to Morpeth,” Mr Pearsall said.

“We really like the staff.”