"We have an old saying in our family: "There are two chairs that will kill you in life - the electric chair and the armchair." Capital punishment won't apply to me, or at least I hope not! And there's no way I'll retire to put my feet up and sit in front of the TV. It's not in my nature, or my blood. My father, Joe, worked in our greengrocery, founded in 1875, until he was in his nineties."
"You could say I joined the trade when I was a few months old in 1940. We're based at an indoor market, and my mother would tuck me under the counter while she served the customers. You were expected to help at the nursery almost as soon as you could walk. By the time I was 5, I'd be sowing seeds, planting cabbage, and looking after tomatoes."
Robin Blair, 80, runs JJ Blair & Sons, a family greengrocer founded in 1875 in Darlington. He starts work at 4.30 a.m. and sometimes works until 10 p.m., six days a week. He refuses to retire and attributes a lifelong work ethic to family tradition; his father worked into his nineties. He began helping in market nursery as an infant, sowing seeds and tending vegetables by age five. The business moved from growing everything to buying wholesale over time. He learned early practical skills—harvesting, washing, loading a wooden cart pulled by a horse—and enjoyed childhood rivalry selling produce for profit.
Read at Business Insider
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