CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Bob Adams greets everyone as they come to his Ballantyne Lowe’s hardware store.
He never misses a day of work. Only takes Thanksgiving and Christmas off
And of course, he usually gets there early.
He was 79 when he first took the job at Lowe’s – after leaving behind the electrical work he’d done for decades.
“I had to do something," Bob says. "I didn’t want to quit work, I don’t believe that."
He answered phones for years. He’s 93 now.
“I just want to be useful,” Bob says.
It’s a work ethic he learned in the Navy.
“My brother told me the Japanese bombed pearl harbor.”
The next morning he signed up for the Navy.
“It was quite a day.”
He was on board a ship – a destroyer – during the invasion of Normandy.
“We were close enough we could see them getting shot down.”
It was as bad as it gets…
“It’s kind of scary, anybody ay they weren’t sacred they were pretty big liars.”
He doesn’t dwell on it – says he doesn’t think about it often. But he will spend some time this Memorial Day remembering all that he and other veterans gave for this country.
And he’ll be at work, because it’s a Monday.
That’ll be on Monday?" asked NBC Charlotte's Michelle Boudin.
"Yeah, I’ll be here," he says. “I’ll work as long as they’ll have me.”