SHAMOKIN — Rain, sleet and snow haven’t kept Harry R. Mattis from walking about six blocks almost daily for 42 years to the Independence Hose Company kitchen where he works as a cook.
“He never misses a day. He comes in every kind of weather,” said Heather Ferrara who has worked with Mattis for 23 years.
Mattis, 84, of Shamokin, was recognized for his dedication to the job this week by the Northumberland County Board of Commissioners and Area Agency on Aging with a certificate naming him ‘Outstanding Older Worker’.
“I like everything about the job,” he said of serving up lunch five days a week to between 70 and 170 people who show up at the fire company at Arch and Market streets.
Mattis even goes in on weekends to clean the kitchen.
“I keep working because what else would I do?” the former bartender said of his lack of hobbies. “I won’t ever retire. I’ll stop working when I die.”
Seniors like Mattis who stay active are more likely to be healthier and remain in their own home, said Shirley Golden, employment specialist at the Area Agency on Aging.
“A lot of older seniors need to subsidize their income, but it also helps overall health to keep socially active,” she said.
Mattis’ son, Shamokin attorney, H. Robert Mattis, is proud of his father’s work ethic and ability to stay active, but said the family is sometimes concerned about his insistence on walking to work nearly every day all year.
Mattis, who uses a cane, admits he’s gotten in trouble because of it, including the time a few years ago when he got stuck in deep snow during a winter storm.
Luckily, he said, a city worker spotted him and “dug me out”.
Mattis said he walks to work because “I never drove a day in my life.”
That chore was left to his wife, Mary, who has given him a few lifts to and from work over the years, mostly when it’s pouring raining.
The couple has been married 60 years, and besides their son, have a daughter, Laurie Davis, of Coal Township.
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