Delivering in the ‘30s, reading online at 100
Jack Sharp at 100 -- Contributed
Jack Sharp as a 1940 graduate of Steubenville High School -- Contributed
Jack Sharp at 100 -- Contributed
Jack Sharp as a 1940 graduate of Steubenville High School -- Contributed
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- National Newspaper Week, set for Oct. 2-8, is a time of recognizing the service of newspapers and their employees.
Former Steubenville resident Jack Davison Sharp relates to both sides of that coin, even if it was a long time ago when he was a newspaper carrier for the Herald-Star.
Sharp, who celebrated his 100th birthday on Sept. 8, grew up at 216 North St. in Steubenville and delivering papers was among his first jobs during the 1930s. He had sweeping and mopping duties at a barber shop and a paper route that reaped a Christmastime bonus of a whopping $15.
He thought himself rich.
As one who helped deliver the news in his youth, Sharp remains loyal to reading it, too, and even though the Sunshine State has been his home for decades now, what's going on in his hometown remains important, though it's far removed from Florida.
Sharp follows what's happening there, reading the online version of the Herald-Star.
Born in 1922 and the only child of William and Willella Davison Sharp, Sharp has fond memories of Steubenville as relayed with the help of his 51-year-old grandson, Kelly Sharp. The two live next door to each other, explained Kelly, who said his grandfather has been "very hard of hearing" since his service in the Marines during World War II.
One of his best Steubenville memories and stories he likes to tell happened May 24, 1935, on what was the first night game in Major League Baseball history. The Phillies were playing the Reds in Cincinnati at Crosley Field. The home team went on to win 2-1.
Sharp remembers being at his buddy Shelton "Shelly" Goodman's father's cigar store while the game was being played.
"The store had a 4-foot-by-8-foot or so board displaying baseball scores," Kelly explained. "Updates to scores would come in on a ticker tape, and Jack and Shelly would update the scores on the board for the patrons who hung out there."
It was standing-room-only that night as baseball enthusiasts packed the place to see updates on the score of that historic first night game.
"I love that story," Kelly said.
Sharp grew up across the street "from a huge house where the Zanes lived. They had a daughter, Betty, who became a school teacher," Kelly noted. Nearby was an ice cream place that would hire boys in the summer to wrap popsicles.
The family's milk got delivered to the doorstep in the early mornings, horse-and-buggy style. Empty bottles left on the door step the night before got swapped out for full ones.
On cold mornings the cream from the milk would rise over the top and freeze. Jack would break it off and eat it like a frozen treat, a practice that would not endear him to his mother.
On May 16, 1937, Jack's father died in a tar plant accident. Just 14, Jack earned money for the family with the newspaper route and the barbershop job. From 1938-40, during his sophomore, junior and senior year at Steubenville High School, he worked at that very same tar plant on a shift from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. He started painting pipes, then got a job in the lab.
"By the time he graduated from high school, he had married men working under him," Kelly said of his grandfather who worked on chemistry titrations. "Jack would often stop by Delatore's (Naple's) for something to eat on his way to work. As soon as he'd walk in, they'd yell to the kitchen 'meatah-ball sandwich for Jack,' as that was his usual. If they were short staffed, they'd tell him to go back in the kitchen and make his own. If he got to come home from work a little early, he'd stop at Seltzers for ice cream."
After graduating high school in 1940, Jack joined the Marines in 1943 and headed for boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. He went to Aircraft Mechanic School in Jacksonville, Fla., graduating Oct. 16, 1943. While stationed in Memphis, he went across the river to Hernando, Miss., on June 8, 1944, and married Nancy Jane Elliott, a girl he'd met in high school.
From Memphis, he went to California, then on to Roi-Namur Marshall Islands. "At the time, there was no grass, no trees. Now, it's a resort. He loaded up planes to ship to Japan," Kelly noted.
On April 1, 1945, Easter Sunday, Jack loaded planes with ammunition, but the war ended. Come June he was on the main island of Japan, waiting to come home to Cherry Point, N.C., and be discharged from the military.
"Jack and Nancy went on vacation to Indian Lake, Ohio, and loved it there. Nancy's brother, Will, lived in nearby Bellefontaine, Ohio," Kelly continued his grandfather's story. "Jack went to work at a tar plant in Follansbee. He apprenticed as a furnace installer. This is where he got his start in sheet metal work."
After the birth of their first child, Margaret Ann Sharp in 1946, the family moved to Akron. Jack worked construction in Cleveland with his father-in-law at Carlson Construction Co., working 40 feet in the air his first day on the job.
In 1951, their second child, William Elliott Sharp -- Kelly's father -- was born.
Jack served in the Korean war, stateside from Oct. 22, 1951, through April 28, 1953.
Sometime between then and 1955, Jack got "tired of the damned cold" and moved to Fort Lauderdale, living with Nancy's sister and husband, Barb and Al Teague, for a few weeks. Nancy and the children soon followed.
Jack worked as a sheet metal worker, most of the time in Miami, enjoying life in the midst of a great group of friends and coaching Little League baseball.
They moved to Alachua in 1973, inspired by a co-worker who'd recently purchased 40 acres in north central Florida.
The couple decided on property in Alachua because of a beautiful oak tree. "The landowner was in the hospital, and grandpa brought him $50 and a gentleman's handshake to save the land for him until he could get to the bank," explained Kelly, who grew up next to his grandparents and would live with them after his parents divorced.
The property would be home to a farm with chickens, cows, pigs, goats and kittens and a garden producing everything from corn, green beans and cucumbers to zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes.
Nancy died of cancer on July 17, 1979. The couple had been married 35 years.
Jack remarried, wedding Margaret Ann Elizabeth Leonard on March 28, 1980. She died in 2017.
After retiring at age 64 in 1986, Jack worked with his son Bill and grandson Kelly on electrical transformers, traveling across the country.
Jack has outlived his sister, two wives and both children. He has five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
The 100th birthday celebration "went great," according to Kelly, who said about 36 friends and family members got together for a party. It included a few surprise presentations. "I was able to get a letter from the Marines thanking him for his service," Kelly said. There also was a congratulatory letter and T-shirt from Big Red.
"He has one or two beers a day still," Kelly said of his grandfather's diet staples that include bacon at least a couple times a week and ice cream, too.
And his interest in his hometown never wanes. Jack's heart is still in Steubenville, his grandson agrees.
And the newspaper keeps him connected to it.