New York ? MacNeil Jordan was born in Barbados, 100 years ago on Christmas, to parents named Mary and Joseph. He believes in God, family and Cream of Wheat with cinnamon and nutmeg every morning.

He can recite pages of scripture and poetry, can tell you the name of the ship that brought him to Ellis Island, the street where he got his first job as a garment worker and a cafeteria where he ate 70 years ago.

A month before he turns 100, his family has taken Jordan to a studio to record everything he has to say on a spoken-word CD. His eight children, 23 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren are all getting copies.

Jordan, his horn-rimmed glasses perched on a nearly unlined face, speaks in short, simple sentences. His recipes for life and longevity are uncomplicated.

“I eat well. I sleep well. I walk quite a bit,” he said. And every week there’s church, where “I praise my God.”

Jordan was 21 when he came to New York on the Vauban, a ship that left Bridgeton, Saint Michael, Barbados on March 7, 1924, and arrived at Ellis Island seven days later.

Barry Moreno, Ellis Island’s historian, says it’s likely the ship stopped at Havana, Trinidad, Jamaica and other British colonies that shipped tens of thousands to New York in the early 1900s. Like Jordan, most came for economic opportunity.

“Things were very prosperous here,” said Jordan, “better than my island.”

He was most amazed by the buildings that soared high above New York streets and the subways deep underneath them, which cost 5 cents when he first came here.

“When they took me home, they took me underground. It was amazing to me that the trains were running underground,” he said.

He lived with a cousin in Brooklyn and got a job in Manhattan’s garment district, embroidering bedspreads, drapes and women’s clothing. He remembers the train he took to work :quot; “the G-G.” He remembers the streets he worked on, including a job he took at a candy store.

He married and had eight children. He has outlived his second wife and lives with one of his daughters in Brooklyn. His children range in age from 56 to 76.

Simple life

Ishbel Charles, 70, said her father ate Cream of Wheat with cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins, orange juice and “coffee light” every morning. He eats his vegetables, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink. Never broke a bone and went to the hospital once, years ago, with a urinary infection, she said. He takes a little cod liver oil and a daily vitamin.

He reads the newspaper every day, does the crossword puzzle and voted in the last election. He doesn’t go to many movies, but watches a little TV, especially Dr. Phil. (“He makes a lot of sense,” Jordan has said.)

But his only remark about current events, including the 9-11 terrorist attack, is to repeat what he’s read in church.

“The scripture said in the last days, men will be wiser in wickedness,” he said. He looks with puzzlement at a rap video on television, in the studio where he is recording his recitations of religious poetry, and said young people needed to learn to praise God. “The whole world seems to be troubled,” he said.

But he has survived by keeping things simple and light. When asked what events in the world were most memorable to him, he didn’t bring up World War II or the Kennedy assassination.

“I remember going to the World’s Fair,” he said. “Where was that, on Long Island?” He remembers taking his daughter to the Horn and Hardart automat. He is impressed by “buildings, people, stores and all of those kind of things.”

Jordan’s CD will be sent to the New-York Historical Society, and Moreno said he might like to take an oral history from Jordan for Ellis Island’s archives. “I’m sure that he’s one of the last of his generation, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

The CD will be ready for his birthday party. Jordan may recite from his favorite poems, including “St. Peter’s at the Gate.” He will repeat what he says is most important.

“Give God praise every day,” he says. “That’s all. That’s my life.”