“It’s a great place to work,” said Reed, 88.

Now living in Clairemont, Reed used to drive a motorcycle to work. Her late husband Harold worked there as a mechanic for 30 years and her granddaughter, Heather Landry, works there now as a cutter/grinder.

Reed arrives at 4:45 a.m. daily at the Pacific Highway plant, 45 minutes ahead of the start of her shift.

“I enjoy coming in and fixing myself a cup of coffee and simmering down,” she said.

Then she sits down at a portable work station and tackles a box of heavy metal disks. Like a dental assistant scraping away plaque, Reed uses files and picks to remove imperfections from each disk; it can take two to four hours to complete each one. If the burrs remained, the turbine’s efficiency could suffer.

Over the years, her interests have included bowling and table tennis. Back in 1953, she mixed concrete that went into the Solar chapel where weddings, funerals and holiday festivities take place.

Reed says she plans to work until she’s 92.

“What else are you going to do? All my friends have passed away.”

Marianna Brunetto, 28, lives in the same house at India and Juniper streets in Little Italy where her mother, grandmother and grandmother also lived in over the past 80 years.

“It’s its own little community,” she said. “I know a lot of businesses and condo complexes. Every morning I go to work, the Little Italy Association guys are outside, always saying hello ... It’s very warm and welcoming. I always tell people living on the entire street is your entire family.”

Brunetto commutes daily to an assistant bank manager job in the quiet, homogeneous Carmel Valley suburb. But when she comes home, she ignores the noise of planes flying overhead and the passing of trains with their horn blasting at every crossing.

“It’s more background — it’s about the atmosphere you live in,” she said.

In compensation, she gets friendly shops and colorful storefront displays, and in nine years, hasn’t feared for her safety.

She’s become involved in the neighborhood and currently serves on the Little Italy Association board and cochairs a fund-raising committee.

As for pollution coming from the industry around her, she says she’s never noticed a problem.

“We’ve had gardens all these years — vegetables and fruits we’ve eaten. I’m still here. We’re still here.”

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