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From 2006 to 2011, anthropologist Caitrin Lynch observed the daily life of a suburban Boston factory specializing in the production of steel needles. This family-run business boasts an unusual workforce: it employs workers with a median age of seventy-four. By observing and interviewing these men and women, Lynch investigated the meaning of work for older adults in the United States. In addition to the income it brings them, which is often a necessary supplement to their meager pensions, this anthropologist shows that work gives them both a sense of belonging to a group (membership) and of being valued (mattering). It thus enables them to escape the social marginalization to which they feel condemned, by keeping them in professional social networks.