Attending high school at B.Y. High and completing several courses at BYU, Elton followed up his LDS mission by selling candy for a now-defunct now-defunct Provo firm. Then he signed on at Utah Power and Light as a statistician and business office worker, a job he performed for the next 42 years. With the company demanding retirement at age 65, Elton retired in the winter of 1970, but his retirement didn't last long. After a "little relaxation," he and his wife Bernice leased a Salt Lake Gas-A-Mat location and operated that for several years. When his wife became ill, he left the station-but station-but soon he and his wife were back for two more years as a relief team, operating 14 different gas stations in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. ONE MORNING the Hartleys stopped by their local McDonald's to have breakfast. "I could tell they were short-staffed," short-staffed," he recalls, "and I mentioned men-tioned that to the manager. He agreed and asked me if I would be interested in working at the restaurant." res-taurant." THE NEXT day Elton was in uni form ready for work. And he's been there ever since, driving his car down to the restaurantfor the II a.m.-2 p.m. shift, occasionally helping out during busy dinner hours. He doesn't move as fast as he used to and he hasn't been able to pursue his favorite sport of hunting, hunt-ing, but he still has his rifle ("I won the darn thing playing a pun-chboard") pun-chboard") and he still enjoys punching pun-ching the timeclock. HIS TIMECARD lists his name as Elton Hartley. He'd be just as satisfied if it said Mr. Mudd. (Mr. Mudd) won't retire w t in n The man in his Golden Years stands beneath the Golden Arches. ..He's ready for work. HIS NAME is Elton Hartley, but hundreds of children call him Grandpa or Mr. Mudd. Watch him in action: "Hello, little girl," says Mr. Mudd. "I'm not a girl," says the five-year five-year old. "I'm a boy." "Is that right? Gee, you've got bangs. Don't little girls have bangs?" THE BOY sheepishly grins and shakes hands with Mr. Mudd. The boy has made a new friend, an 80-year-old man who refuses to retire. "Oh, I've retired several times," says Elton, "but I can't stop working. Without work a man starts slipping in health and energy. If I sat around in the rocking chair all day I wouldn't feel half as young and active." ; FOR THE last seven years Elton has served as a "host" at the North Salt Lake McDonald's Restaurant. During busy weekday afternoons he greets customers, cleans off tables, wipes up spills, chats with children. ..In fact, does about anything any-thing required to make the store a more pleasant place. "He's the most popular employee em-ployee we have," says a manager. "He knows half of the customers that visit this store and he has become be-come a significant attraction. He's extremely dependable-and it's obvious ob-vious he enjoys what he's doing. When I'm his age, I just hope I'm as sprightly as old Mr. Mudd." : THE HARD-working ethic stems from his family. His grandfather was still operating a jewelry repair business in Ogden at the age of 84. The man was killed in a robbery-only robbery-only an hour after he had helped a neighbor mow her lawn. And Elton's father, a postal employee, retired at 65 only to start up again as a custodian and an insulation ELTON HARTLEY salesman, jobs that took him into his 80s. Elton's son, Ralph, laughs when asked if his father "implanted" the work ethic to the children. "You bet, he implanted it," he says. "He implanted it right in my rear end." AND CLEANLINESS was also a family motto. "One of the great compliments I receive is when people peo-ple come in and tell the manager that this store is one of the cleanest McDonalds stores they've ever eaten in," says Elton. "A restaurant res-taurant should be nice and clean-and clean-and parents should teach their children chil-dren to clean up after themselves-...The themselves-...The only customer I've made angry in seven years was a lady vho allowed her children to scatter stuff on the floor. I picked the stuff up a few times, then approached her and mentioned that I could maybe help the kids be a little cleaner. I was going to tell them a story about how paper can be slippery slip-pery or something, just a little story to get the message across. The lady thought I was intruding, I suppose, because she still sulks everytime she comes in. I guess you can't please people all of the time... But I still try." The fast-food restaurant is quite a contrast to his former career.