An 85-year-old Cwmbran man has told how continuing to work in a part-time job helps to keep “you active” and “keeps you alive”.
Dave Talbott works three days a week from 9am to 3pm at Crossford Oil & Tool Supplies, a family-owned business on Springvale Industrial Estate.
About 12 or 13 years, his previous job was finishing and he popped into the Cwmbran unit to pick up some items.
He told Cwmbran Life: “I came up here one day just to get something at the time and I said ‘have you got any jobs going, you know part-time or anything like that?’”
He was told they were looking for someone to work three days a week and he’s been there ever since.
Dave said: “Time flies when you’re having fun doesn’t it?
“I left school and went to Saunders Valve, which was a foundry in those days, and served my time as a pattern maker. Came out of there and came to ‘GuestKeens’ [Guest, Keen And Nettlefolds Ltd] which was another foundry, which is basically where we’re stood now and stayed there until I moved to Scotland to another foundry.
“I stayed up there for two or three years and then that closed down so I came back down here to ‘GuestKeens’ again and stayed there until they closed down.
“And then went into something completely different which was compressed air and that’s where I stayed until I came here.”
He said he enjoys the “camaraderie” of working at Crossford.
The Two Locks residents said: “I lost my wife 23 years ago and it was a case of I just didn’t want to stay in the house all day, seven days a week. I’d been so used to working seven days a week, for ten or 15 years. To suddenly go from that to staying in just didn’t appeal to me.
“So that’s why I’ve kept doing it. And I’ve got to be honest I think it keeps you, it keeps you active, it keeps you alive. Because I’ve seen too many people retire, do nothing and within two, three, four years, they’ve passed. And I think you know, keeping on working and doing something helps.”