He’s nearly 90, but don’t be surprised if Kenneth Simmons knocks on your door asking to mow your lawn.

He says he’s fit enough — and the extra cash comes in handy.

“Pensions don’t go very far,” he said. “I like to stay active and I don’t overdo it.”

Mr Simmons grew up on Broome Street, Sandys, the youngest of three children. His father, Alexander, worked as a chargeman in Dockyard, lifting heavy equipment.

“Sandys was a lot quieter and more peaceful then,” he said. “We used to swim in Harman’s Bay. Everyone looked out for one another.”

The 89-year-old still remembers when the Bermuda Railway went through Sandys for the first time, in 1931.

“It was a Thursday,” he said. “It came right past our house. I hadn’t even started school yet. The governor drove a spike into the ground at the end of the line where the buses turn around now [near Mangrove Bay]. It was a big deal in Sandys.”

Later, his father took him on a ride on the train from Broome Street to the end of the line.

“We were thrilled,” said Mr Simmons. “We walked home.”

He can also recall the first time he saw electricity.

Most people in Bermuda still lit their homes with kerosene lamps at the time.

“Some friends brought a battery-operated flashlight to school,” he said. “I was ten and absolutely fascinated.”

At 16 Mr Simmons joined the Royal Navy’s Dockyard apprenticeship programme to become an electrical fitter.

On his first day, he was expecting glamorous tools, but instead was handed a common hacksaw, coal chisel and hammer.

“For my first assignment, I had to cut a hunk of brass and make it into a perfectly squared one-inch cube,” he said. “I managed to do it. It was a test and you had to pass it before you could do anything else.”

Through the five-year apprenticeship he worked on submarines, carriers and destroyers that came into Dockyard for repairs.

“It was quite interesting,” he said.

He later opened a radio repair shop in Ely’s Harbour. It was immediately after the war. Radios were scarce and there was a high demand for their repair.

The business led to an unexpected hobby. Mr Simmons became an amateur short wave radio operator. He spends most evenings on the airwaves using the call name VP09 Bermuda Onion.

“Sometimes I get on and talk to high school students and sometimes I talk with older people,” he said. “I guess the furthest away I’ve talked to was Perth, Australia. In 1979, I knew Gina Swainson had won the Miss Universe contest before anyone here, because of a contact in Australia. It’s amazing how close and yet so far away you can be with people.”

Photography is another passion he discovered just after the war.

“My cousin showed me his camera,” said Mr Simmons. “Again, I was fascinated and I bought myself a Konica.”

Some of his scenic work appeared in local art shows in the 1960s. In the 1990s, three of his photos were featured in the American journal Best of Photography.

A few years ago he reluctantly switched to digital photography, but still grumbles about it.

“I don’t think the quality of the photo is as good with digital,” he said. “I prefer slides.”

His interest in technology ended with computers.

“I have one that I use to store my digital photos on,” he said. “That’s it. I don’t have e-mail or the internet.”

He and his wife Gloria are active in the Brighton Hill Church of Christ, and often help recruit new people to the church.

“My wife was a member of the church first,” he said. “Then someone came to my house and talked to me about Christ. I realised that was a pretty good way to live. I think my involvement with God is one of the reasons I have lived so long.”

The Simmons celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary this year. They have four children Sandra, Kenneth Jr, Constance and Wendell, five grandchildren and four great grandchildren.