Don Gerber, 66, has been at the same job for almost 47 years. The owner of Don's Barber Shop, 4219 Lafayette St., and the sole barber there, Gerber received his first Social Security check in February.

“What I'm hearing about every day across the chair is, ‘I was thinking about retiring but I'm going to work longer than I planned to.' Now that the economy has gone south and all the retirement funds have dipped, I think this is what's going on.”

Through the years, Gerber says he has seen a change in thinking about retirement from people at 62 or 65 counting down to their final days of work to conversations today with 65-plus-year-old customers who are still working. Some want to work out of choice. Others remain in the workplace because they say, “Wow. I'm not going to have what I thought I'd have.”

In the height of building his business, Gerber worked upward of 70 hours a week. Then some health problems arose, including a heart attack two years ago and a three-month period last year when he couldn't work due to a serious infection that nearly resulted in the loss of his hand.

His wife is 62 and has not been employed outside the home. Although she can begin drawing up to 35 percent of her husband's Social Security benefits in April, she is too young for Medicare, so she needs to remain on a health insurance plan that was Don's primary coverage and now is his supplement to Medicare.

Gerber says, “I've never really planned to retire. I love doing this. It's been so much fun. In the barber shop, hair is the minor part. The people are the big part.”

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See WANE-TV's story on this topic at www.wane.com.