And then there's James Lunsford, who turns 65 on Memorial Day, a Dennis Farina doppelganger with a pilot's license and a taste for fancy cars. Tall and athletic, he still looks like the firefighter he used to be, a couple of careers ago.
These days, the licensed contractor works about 50 hours a week and splits his time 50-50 between Home Depot and Echo Electric, the San Mateo electrical and construction company he owns with his wife, Sherri.
Lunsford is part of Home Depot's recently launched "master trade specialist" program, an effort to recruit skilled craftsmen with expertise in areas such as electrical work and plumbing. The pay is higher, and the specialists tend to be older than the basic sales force.
One recent Friday morning, Lunsford clambered up the packed shelves looking for the right gauge wire for Bill Hoy, an Atherton pool contractor installing an automatic gate opener.
He led a customer to the cat-door aisle, helped an elderly man read the wattage on a lightbulb that needed to be replaced and brainstormed with a builder whose solar light blinked on and off unbidden.
He and his wife could retire tomorrow, but the idea of not working bores him senseless. Most of his Home Depot check goes into the company 401(k) plan; the rest "pays for some of my toys." He is not here, he says, for the money.
"People here thank me. I don't think I've gotten one thank-you card for the over 6,000 homes I've wired," he said. "And when I come through that door, it's show time."
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maria.laganga@latimes.com
