Pete Rutkowski, age 80, can be found most mornings helping out at his daughter's restaurant, Polish Connection, on Main Street in Plymouth, by providing an essential ingredient.
"Oh, yeah, they like to see the old man sitting here peeling potatoes. They say 'there's the potato man!' You got it, baby," laughed Rutkowski.
Pete turned 80 on Monday and has set a goal for himself to accomplish this year. His daughters Marie and Denise who run the restaurant say the demand for pierogis, potato pancakes, and other Polish delicacies during Lent could get him pretty close.
"This will make number 15th bag, 750 pounds. But we're going for two tons. I told number two daughter there, when we hit two tons, she can take me to Knoebels and we can ride the bobcat," Pete said with a laugh.
Pete's daughters say they could use an electric peeler in the back, but Pete won't have it.
"What do you need them trinkets? Leave the old man to peel the potatoes."
Or Pete could spend his retirement with some of his other children down south but for reasons he'll share with you over a bag of potatoes, Plymouth will always be his home.
"You can't get no pierogis and you can't get homemade kielbasa unless you want to eat Hillshire or Polish kielbasa and I don't even feed that to my stray cats!"
If you'd like to hear more from Pete, you can usually find him sitting in the back peeling potatoes weekday mornings at the restaurant.
"Long as the hands don't start cramping up, I'll keep on peeling."