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.
