8 to 5 at 85

EARL KOMIS

› AGE: 88

› OCCUPATION: “I’ve been a tour guide for the Big Stone County Historical Society for the last eight years. I work four days a week.” (Big Stone County is in western Minnesota on the South Dakota border.)

› WORK HISTORY: “I started out farming for 16 years, then decided that wasn’t for me. So I worked a few different jobs, then went back to school and worked for the city reading meters and doing electrical work. My wife and I moved to Edina and worked as apartment caretakers for 18 years, then came back to our old stomping grounds after she had a heart attack.”

› WHY I’M STILL WORKING: “I wanted to do something to keep my mind straight after my wife died in 1995. It’s hard to go home to an empty house since she passed away. You never get over it.”

› WHAT I LIKE ABOUT MY WORK: “We have one of the biggest bird collections in the United States. We have over 500 species. I have to know where they come from, their habitats, their flights. It keeps my mind going. You don’t get Alzheimer’s so quick.”

› WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT WORKING AT 88 INSTEAD OF 58: You’re slower and your memory isn’t quite as sharp. But you’re also more content. I think you do things better than you did when you were younger. When you’re younger, you’re looking more for the money than for the work.”

› WILL I EVER RETIRE?: “Yes, when they haul me out to Mound Cemetery.”

MARION LARSEN

› AGE: 81

› OCCUPATION: Since 1971, owner of Cottage Inn Café in Big Stone City, South Dakota (right across the border from Ortonville, Minnesota). “It’s a little café that seats 40 to 50 people. My parents owned it before me. I had seven children, so I raised them first before working.”

› HOURS: “I go in at 5:30 in the morning six days a week and every other Sunday, and close about 5:00 at night. I stopped being open in the evening around eight years ago.”

› WHY I’M STILL WORKING: “I love the people, and I like what I’m doing.”

› WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT WORKING AT 81 INSTEAD OF 51: “Nothing.”

› WHAT I’D BE DOING IF I WASN’T WORKING: “Probably sitting home on the couch watching TV. I could go traveling a little maybe.”

› WILL I EVER RETIRE?: “I suppose I’ll have to one day. My children think I should. As long as my health is good, I think I’ll keep on.”