A good example is the gentleman profiled in an article above, which appeared in the Lorain Journal back on November 12, 1953. It's the story of E. J. Kelley and it ran in the paper on his 73rd birthday along with two photos of him.
The article notes, "Today is the birthday of one of Lorain's loneliest men. He's 73 today, but he doesn't really think he's so lonely.
"E. J. Kelley lives in a sturdy little shack on Colorado Avenue. He built the shack – part living quarters and part workshop – by himself out of scrap lumber he picked up in the course of business. Kelley sells firewood to Lorain area and Cleveland citizens. In fact, to anyone who happens to wander onto his small plot of ground.
"Familiar to most Lorainites as an "odd job" man, Kelley has been at his present location for five years. Before that, he had two locations at two separate times on East Erie Avenue. "One lot was sold and I just didn't do any business on the other."
"His present location, sheltering a home-made saw constructed from a weird collection of machinery and wood and a 1929 "A" Model Ford engine, and about four or five piles of cut lumber, provides him with a meager living, supplemented by an old age pension check.
"Possessed with a marvelous sense of humor, Kelley looks at death in a somewhat philosophical way. Although he enjoys living, he chuckled as he said, "I been on the death list for the past six years. Be dead now except for old Doc Patterson. He referred to Dr. F. R. C. Patterson, who has an office at Broadway and 13th St.
"Kelley was born in Lorain, married a woman from Perrysburg, and has spent most of his life either in that city and here. His wife died in 1933. He is the sole survivor in a family of 13 children.
"His odd jobs – beyond his wood yard – include killing rats, working on breakwaters and various labor jobs around people's homes. "One week I killed 35 rats in one woman's house. Boy did she have the rats. They came from all the houses around." Asked about his system of killing the rodents, Kelley presented a sly look and said "I got a real potent poison. I put it on bread and stick it in the rat holes. The next day, I give them another slug and 'bingo' they're dead.
"Like most oldsters in Lorain, Kelley has served time working on the lake.
"I sailed on the E. D. Carter, the Watson and the Wilkinson. I was chief engineer on the Wilkinson and second engineer on the Watson."
"The old man admits that living alone gets pretty lonely at times, but he forgot about it while showing his handywork in building his small frame shack. Actually, the shack is cozier and warmer on the inside than it looks like it would be on the outside.
""Come around tomorrow, Kelley said, "I'll get the saw hopped up and we'll saw some wood.""
Edward J. Kelley finally did make the death list a few years later on July 2, 1957 at the age of 80.
14 comments:
If Mr. Kelly turned 73 in 1953, he would only be 77 in 1957.
He would have been born in the same year as Papa, 1883.
HIs obituary said he was born in Lorain on November 12, 1876.
Our "Fixit-Man" was a fellow named "Andy" who lived by himself in a little house up the road that was full of spare parts from appliances. The guy could repair anything mechanical and did odd jobs around the neighborhood. He had a huge garden on his property and had a deal with Mum. She did the work preserving what he grew, and in exchange, we kept half of it. A Very Good Deal in those tight times.
The singular, most striking thing about Andy was that his right ear had been removed due to skin cancer. There was a half-inch-round opening in the side of his head surrounded by some pretty nasty-looking scar tissue.
When I was little, he caught me staring at it and asked, in his brusque way, if I had any questions.
"Yeah," says 7-year-old me, "does it bother you, not having an ear?"
"Nope," he smiled, "but I do have trouble keeping out the bees!"
Took me years to figure out he was joking. I think.
Speaking of handyman Andy, I miss Andy’s Hardware.
I know it's a long shot but does anyone have any idea where this E.J. Kelley guy lived on Colorado Avenue?
Particularly in this edition, the Journal demonstrated its belief that its readers wanted to read about their neighbors - births, deaths, quarantines, DUI arrests, and the fellow who cut wood and killed rats. (That said, I'm not so sure that most people would have appreciated the front-page coverage of a speech on shell molding.)
I find these miscellaneous items far more interesting, if less important, than the current political follies and the various social media phenoms. But then I'm old-fashioned and just plain old.
He is not listed in the 1953 phone book. Of course he probably did not have a phone.
I checked the 1950 book (which I have a copy of at home) and it did not include him either. His 1957 obituary listed him at "RRD 1 Colorado Ave." I'll check the other books at the library to see if they at least list which connecting streets (if any) he lived in between.
Got that right!
OK, I found him in the 1950 Census. No address listed but between 1925 Colorado Ave and 2515 Colorado Ave which is the corner of Nebraska Ave. Curiously there are still no houses in this area, just woods.
Thanks, Dennis!
There could be some weird remains of his old shack in the woods.Thanks for the deep dive Dennis.
There was a man of color later in the early 60's who lived on a wide space in the road w a shack and assorted other junk on Colorado. This would have been in the front of or just a little west of what was to become Drug Mart. It was all wooded then. My dad knew him and would drop off extra fish he had caught.
I did go back and checked all the 1950s city directories and as expected, Mr, Kelley does not show up in the listings. He had neither phone nor Colorado Avenue address.
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