In a small workshop in Montpelier, Vermont, Nathan Longo spends about 30 hours a week repairing accordions. He’s one of only a handful of people in all of New England who do this work, and the demand keeps surprising him. “I’m a lot busier than I ever thought I would be,” he told reporters. What began as something to keep him busy in retirement has become a genuine trade, with instruments arriving from across the region.
Longo’s path there wasn’t a straight line. He grew up with undiagnosed dyslexia and says it gave him an edge in a job that requires seeing how dozens of parts fit together. “Dyslexics have a really good three-dimensional visualization,” he explained. Before accordions, he built prototypes for high-end machinery, so his fingers were already comfortable with small, precise work.
He started playing the accordion around age 50, mostly to keep his brain active. He’s honest about his limits: he’s better at fixing instruments than performing on them, and he admits to stage fright. For Suncoast readers, the story lands close to home. Plenty of us picked up something new after retirement, and a few of those hobbies quietly became callings. Fishing, woodworking, watercolor, pickleball, the second act is real around here.
Have you ever turned a retirement hobby into something more? Tell us about it in the comments.
