Work Keeps Him Young

The McDonald’s at Massaponax throws a birthday party for the store’s oldest employee, 88-year-old Neal Charles.

The Free Lance-Star:

Some folks look forward to retirement as a time to kick back and relax.

Not Neal Charles.

“If you sit down and do nothing, then you won’t be able to get back up,” he said. “It’s better to keep moving.”

And move he does.

Like clockwork, the retired maintenance man makes the 20-minute drive from his home in Stafford County to wash the breakfast dishes at the McDonald’s at Massaponax. He even made it in during the snowstorms earlier this year.

“If you see Mr. Neal, you know it’s 9 a.m.,” said manager Julie Mariotti.

She and her staff have grown so fond of Charles, who is the oldest employee at any of the McDonald’s restaurants owned by local franchisee Eric Miller, that they’ll bring him one of his favorite McDonald’s biscuits–served plain, just the way he likes them–while he’s working.

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