SAN ANTONIO — Hiram Walker has spent the bulk of his life in the gutter, or on the lanes, or elbow-deep in a pin-setting machine.
You see, he's the bowling mechanic at Oak Hills Lanes.
He's the most well-known man there. He bowls in several leagues every week, and he always keeps things running smoothly. He's been the master mechanic for 56 years!
"I didn't plan on staying here this long," Walker says. "It's just a good place to work, they pay me well... and I like it here!"
Walker first walked through the door July 6, 1968. "She asked, 'Do you think you can come work for me?" Walker says. "And I said sure! Been here ever since."
But it wasn't just the pay or the benefits that kept the now 82-year-old Walker around. There was a friendly face in the nursery that caught Walker's eye.
"He's not ready to retire. I can see that. He loves what he does" says Calista Walker, Hiram's wife.
Calista first started working in the nursery, then moved to the snack bar, and now she just tends the bar one day a week. She and Hiram have been married for 42 years.
"Yes, I picked up my husband here" she says. She also works for Northside ISD's food services department. She's been with them more than 30 years.
Walker says he's had a good run and isn't ready to slow down.
"Maybe a couple of more years" and he'll think about retiring, he says. He and Calista want to spend a little time traveling to watch their granddaughter play volleyball.
In the meantime, he's making sure he has a replacement in the wings, or actually three replacements. They're all training under Hiram's watchful eye.
"When I went to school, they taught me a few things and said you'll have to learn the rest on your own," Walker says. And so he did!
"I don't think there's anything he can't fix," says Connie Gillette, the co-owner of the bowling alley.
Gillette also knows that one day she will get that call from Walker to say he's going to hang up his tool belt.
"Not today, though" Walker says. "This gives me something to do and someplace to go," he says. Calista is OK with that. She says: "I'm not ready to retire either."
"We'll keep him on speed dial," Gillette says.
"People ask me all the time, what they gonna do when you retire?" Walker says. "If they need me, they know they can call me."
He knows someone will be there to make sure things keep rolling along.