Retirement.  It's a word that isn't even in the vocabulary of these Upper Perkiomen Valley area seniors.  And aside from not being ready to hang it up, they're running successful businesses well into their golden years. 

        But why the desire to keep working?   

        "That would drive me crazy, sitting at home.  It would bore me to death," said Dan Longacre, co-owner of Longacre's Dairy in Barto.

        "No, he can't sit for any length of time," chimed in his son, Danny Longacre. 

        "I don't even think about that, retirement," said the elder Longacre.  "I never did.  I hear people say they can hardly wait to retire. That never dawned on me.  As long as I can keep working, I'm going to."

        Longacre, who said he's been working at the family milk parlor and ice cream business for at least 60 years, can't remember a time when he wasn't employed.  Longacre's opened in 1942 when Dan was four.  His parents, Daniel and Kathryn, put in long hours so he did too.

        "I've been here since the beginning of time really," he said with a chuckle. 

         When he was old enough to help, he brought in supplies and helped his mother with customers in the dairy barn.  His first official job was to make ice cream, which his dad taught him.  After high school he came on full-time to run the machinery which pasteurized and bottled the milk and also delivered ice cream and milk to wholesalers.   

        He developed a passion for making the best ice cream in the region.  Longacre's currently makes 40 handcrafted flavors and some seasonal specialties.    

        "I did almost everything but with all the jobs that I did I still like to make the ice cream the best," said the 77-year-old.  "There's more pride in that because the people remember you for your ice cream, not for the milk they drink."

        "I don't know what I'd do if I didn't do this.  I'm so used to it.  Hours don't mean anything and I'm used to that… It's a different feeling when you have your own [business].  It's the pride and the customers' response.  You put all that together and it keeps you going."

        Bea Gilbert, also 77, runs Valley Star Gifts in Pennsburg.  She said not only is running a store fulfilling, it keeps her busy both physically and mentally. 

        Gilbert, who worked since the age of 13 at her family's Red Hill eatery, Sell's Restaurant, said she started out as a dishwasher, waitress and even a cook at a young age.  After raising four children, with her husband, John, she got a part-time job as a cashier at a local drug store before opening the gift shop about 13 years ago.

        "It keeps me off the streets," she joked.  "This is absolutely what keeps me going."

        She uses her strong work ethic and a love for what she does to churn out hundreds of hand-sewn quilts, purses, wall hangings, table-toppers, aprons and pillows for her store.  She says she often has three projects going at the same time.

        In her spare time she also sews about 30 pillowcases a month for a charity called Ryan's Case for Smiles, which distributes the colorful pieces to children recovering from long-term illnesses in hospitals like Lehigh Valley.

        "It's demanding, running a business.  You have to be here.  When you say you're going to be open from a certain time to a certain time, you better be here.  But we have a good time; it really is fun.

        "I didn't think I'd be working at this age but my family doesn't know how to retire.  I'm not really going to ever retire.  It keeps my mind active."

        According to US Department of Labor statistics for 2015, more than 2 million seniors ages 70 to 74 are still working.  That's 18 percent of that population.  Even more astonishing is that 1.52 million seniors ages 75 and over are still punching the time clock.

        Richard Quigley, at 81, is a testament to that. 

        He spends his days, according to him, "checking on this and that" helping manage his family's business, Quigley Chevrolet in Bally.  Now a fourth-generation endeavor, the dealership started in a blacksmith's shop, under the name Moll & Quigley, about one block from its current location on Main Street.     

         After doing odd jobs like working at a family peach orchard, Richard Quigley got his first job at 14.  He started full-time as a mechanic after graduating from Upper Perkiomen High School in 1953.

        "I've been here forever," he said.  "I've been a mechanic and done sales and went to Chevrolet dealer management school.  It's always something different."

        But Quigley doesn't just put in a 7:30 a.m. to 5  p.m. shift at the car dealership, he also drives bus for Quigley Bus Service three or four days a week.  Starting at 6:30 a.m., he drives Boyertown and Oley Valley school district students to and from school.

        "Whatever it calls for.  Whenever I'm needed.  I've been doing it for some long it doesn't phase me.  Whatever duty calls for," he said.

        "People ask me 'When are you going to retire?'  When I feel like it; when I'm ready.  I'm not ready yet. 

        "I've been so used to doing things all my life.  If someone said I couldn't do it anymore it would be hard to adjust to that."