Jack

Jack Pardue came to work at Eveready in the 1950s. He was fresh out of the Army... had been in Korea fighting the North Koreans and Chi-Coms. He never said a word about Korea except that he didn't like anything about it.

Jack running our Harris LUH 14 X 20
not his usual Multi.

I remember those first days Jack came on board... skinny, lanky, and wearing a clean white Tee shirt, he was determined to learn how to be a pressman. He was taught to run the Multi-graph 1240, which became his main press.  This was a small duplicator, not a true "press" in printing terminology, however Jack was able to print up to three-color jobs in register on this small press.

If you want to picture Jack, just think of of Andy Griffith in one of the peak seasons of the Andy Griffith show. He was tall, had wavy hair and of course in later years had the shock of gray hair. He spoke slowly and deliberately. Everything with Jack was thought out, decent and in order.

He became part of the Eveready family. He got to know customers. He did whatever he could to do a good job as pressman, and also, in delivery or in good customer relations to further the success of Eveready Printing.

Gardner Smith was in charge of producing a monthly two color newsletter for Cheekwood-Botanical Garden & Museum of Art.  She and Jack became friends over the years so that she would bring in the copy and say "Jack, what accent color should we run this month?" or just "Well run whatever Jack likes." She never complained about his choice.

In the over 50 years Jack worked at Eveready, he hardly ever took a sick day, took short reasonable vacations, and worked at his slow but sure pace every day. In July of 2003 Jack spoke pleasantly in everyday conversation with Priscilla, then after eating lunch sitting at his press and by his table with his thermos and his coffee... there he passed away. Priscilla went back into the shop to speak to him, saw him slumped over, came back and got me. I immediately started CPR. She called 911. The paramedics were there within minutes, but he was already gone.

"The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace." I prayed in my head as I gave him CPR. I knew he wasn't coming back.

He loved his wife Peggy and his son Michael, was a member of the non-denominational Christian community church in his Ridgetop home, and a was great friend to me and my family.

CMS

The Atomic Sandwich

Eveready Printing dates back to 1928.  For this account I will only harken back to the mid 1950s.

My father Charlie Stevens and I often used to come to Eveready on Saturday.  I came to help him. My job was to clean up... basically to sweep the shop and take out the trash. He worked on paperwork and paying bills and together we did a little paste up work, that sort of thing, to finish up the week.

As the day wound on closer to lunchtime I got hungrier and hungrier and once in a while, not every time, as a special treat, my Dad  would order an Atomic Sandwich from Melfi's.

Melfi's in the 1950s

Melfi's was a wonderful Italian restaurant a couple of blocks up from Eveready on Division Street. Melfi’s was probably the source of some of the first pizza in Nashville… although there was a little place down in the Arcade which was one of the very first pizza places in Nashville…a guy actually threw the pizza pie dough up in the air, and it featured a very authentic oregano/basil base to the tomato sauce.  Anyway, if my dad was feeling effusive and generous, he would order an Atomic Sandwich for our lunch.

The Atomic Sandwich was a true Italian work of art, consisting of home-baked Italian bread, probably 18 inches long and, as I remember it, tender yet crusty, sweet and fresh… then inside the sandwich were layers and layers of Italian meats and cheeses, a homemade mayonnaise sauce, sweet peppers, onions, lettuce, tomatoes and anchovies. The masterpiece came wrapped in aluminum foil with black olives on toothpicks as eyes and a pepperoncini pepper as a tail.  Half a sandwich, or probably less than half for me, with a Coke was and entire meal.

This special lunch made my work absolutely worth it. I cleaned the shop using that absorbent granular sweeping substance you throw on floors and then sweep... it takes up all the dirt. Then you sweep all the dirt plus granules into a pile and use a dustpan and pick up the debris and throw it away. I also emptied all the trash cans. My dad taught me to work and I loved it!  Later I learned paste up, darkroom work and all the pre-press steps necessary to get a job ready for making metal plates and printing.

CMS