Dressed in painter's whites, Nick Williams points out his toughest job, a two-story Colonial with shingles that he painstakingly scraped, sanded and painted by hand.
"I was on a 32-foot ladder most of the time," said Williams, eyes twinkling. "But I was only 82 then."
Now 10 years older, Williams is still climbing ladders and painting homes all over Ventura. He labors six days a week, a pace he intends to keep until "more than my knees give out."
Far from settling into retirement, Williams and a growing number of people 75 and older are continuing to work, some because they have to, and others, such as Williams, because they want to.
There's the 81-year-old Minnesota schoolteacher who retired after 60 years last summer, only to return to the classroom in September as a substitute. In rural Wyoming, a 93-year-old surveyor pounds his own stakes five days a week.
Ella Clarke Nuite of Georgia has got them all beat. Honored last fall as "America's Oldest Worker," Nuite, 101, still pitches in daily at her family's bottled water business, filling orders and doing the books.
For this hardy crowd, work keeps their bodies fit and their minds active. It gives their lives vitality and purpose, they say, while bringing in income that is a bonus for some and a necessity for others.
"My children and many of my friends think I'm crazy," said a grinning Williams, white hair escaping his painter's cap in unruly wisps. "They're probably right."
These older workers are an example of what the U.S. workforce will look like in years to come as people live longer, healthier lives.
The number of employed workers 75 and older grew from 669,000 in 1994 to just under 1 million last year, according to Labor Department statistics. Those numbers will increase as the large baby boom generation ages.
"It's really like a big steamroller that's coming," said Martin Rome, spokesman for Experience Works, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates employment opportunities for seniors.
For many of those older seniors, work is not a choice but a necessity.
Whether outliving retirement savings or facing lower-than-expected investment returns, this population is finding that Social Security isn't enough to cover their bills.
Even before the current debate over Social Security's future, many Americans seemed doubtful they could retire without working at least part time.
