WORKER A ROLE MODEL AT 95.Byline: Scott Vanhorne Staff Writer Mern Shepherd worked through the Great Depression banging dents out of Model T Fords and other cars. It was one of the few jobs around in those lean years when thousands lined up for free buckets of potato soup and day-old loaves loaves n. Plural of loaf1. loaves Noun the plural of loaf1 loaves loaf of bread. He earned $2.35 an hour. ``That was powerful money in them days,'' Shepherd said. The 95-year-old San Bernardino San Bernardino, city, United States San Bernardino (săn bûr'nədē`nō), city (1990 pop. 164,164), seat of San Bernardino co., S Calif., at the foot of the San Bernardino Mts.; inc. 1854. man is still pounding out dents, though he takes more breaks than in his younger years, and while most people his age have long since retired, Shepherd has no plans to stop working. ``I'm going to try to keep going as long as I can,'' he said. ``I might die on the job.'' That dedication is why Dickies
He is the oldest person to receive the award since the company began bestowing the honor 13 years ago. The next oldest recipient was 82. ``It's just interesting that he still has that kind of vitality at 95,'' said Dee Capps, a Dickies spokeswoman who also helped pick Shepherd out of 650 entries from California. ``Those are the people who are really the backbone of the country, and the people we all call when we need something fixed.'' Shepherd works with his grandson, 30-year-old Mern Lee Shepherd Lee Alan Shepherd was an American drag racing driver (born August 30, 1944 died March 11, 1985). He began racing for car owner's Reher & Morrison in 1978. The team campaigned Chevy Camaros through most of their career. , who operates a mobile auto body repair business with his cousin. ``I've been working with him probably since I was about 12,'' the younger Shepherd said. He said his grandfather helps carry tools, offers his technical expertise and works on cars when he can. ``He's a little old to be bending down and doing all the work,'' Mern Lee Shepherd said. The elder Shepherd has been a truck driver, aircraft inspector, railroad railroad or railway, form of transportation most commonly consisting of steel rails, called tracks, on which freight cars, passenger cars, and other rolling stock are drawn by one locomotive or more. brakeman brake·man n. One who operates, inspects, or repairs brakes, especially a railroad employee who assists the conductor and checks on the operation of a train's brakes. Noun 1. and roofer. He was also a soldier in the 65th Infantry infantry, body of soldiers who fight in an army on foot and are equipped with hand-carried weapons, in contradistinction originally to cavalry and other branches of an army. during World War II. |
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