NORWAY – She’s unsure why she’s retiring.

At 60, Roberta Gordon could work longer. She said her health is great. She enjoys the work, the people she’s working with, and she really doesn’t know what she is going to do having worked for the past 40 years.

But she’s leaving.

For the past 17 years as counter clerk for the town of Norway, many residents know Gordon. She’s the one who has been taking money for taxes, marriage, birth and death certificates, auto and fishing licenses and registrations for anything that moves on land, water or snow.

Until last year, when she changed to part-time hours, Gordon did payroll for town employees and the sewer bills.

“I’m retiring Friday because I can,” Gordon said. “My husband, Sidney, has been retired for a few years and we’ll spend more time together.

“It’ll be a big adjustment,” Gordon said. “We’ll see if we’ll be in each other’s way or not.”

Roberta was Sidney’s high school sweetheart. They have been married for 42 years. They met in South Paris when she was sitting on a granite wall just outside the record shop there.

Gordon got her first full-time job in 1962 and spent the next 23 years working in the office at Wilner Wood Products. She began working for Norway in 1986.

The lives of Gordon and co-workers Shirley H. Boyce, town clerk, and Bonita Seames, payroll clerk, have intertwined throughout their work history.

Seames worked with Gordon at Wilner until she left to work at the Cornwall factory in 1972. Boyce worked at Cornwall’s until 1977, when she left to work at the town office.

Gordon joined up with Boyce at the town office in 1986 and then Seames started at the town office in 1997.

“I’m leaving with mixed feeling,” Gordon said. “After 17 years here people become your family. You watch the girls and their families grow up.

“Time is flying and you know that when you have a 22-year-old grandson,” Gordon said. “Everything just seems to be going faster in the world. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been here 17 years, but I have. The calendar says I have.”

Carol Millett, deputy town clerk and administrative assistant to the town manager, said Gordon will be missed because of her dependability, sense of humor and ability to work well with the public.

“I’ll miss just getting up and going to work,” Gordon said. “I’ll miss the people at work and I’ll miss the public. It’s a little scary, she said, “but Friday will be my last day.”

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