Person:Everett Waddington (1)

Waddy's jobs were a messenger on the NYC Railroad where he rode the mail car probably between Cleveland and Chicago, After getting married and building a home in Cleveland he moved the family to Valdosta, GA where he ran a plantation of pecans and peanuts. This did not work to well because the trees were not bearing a good crop and the peanut crop which he was advised to store awaiting a better price was eaten by the rats. At this point I believe he went to work for The Georgia Railway and Power Co. where I think he was a photographer on the "Tugalo Dam Project". I have the May, August and a supplement from 1922of the GR& P house Organ. We then moved to Highland St. Hammond, IN abt early 1923. This was my first exposure to alley picking for I found about 3 years issues of the National Geographic which I still have today. At this point Waddy was working for the Hammond Sewer Dept. as Manager of the pumping station on Columbia Ave just north of the Big Calumet River. This job entailed monitoring the large pumps that emptied the sewers into the river. During storms waddy would visit each of the sub stations along the Big and Little Calumet Rivers to be sure they were working properly. After about 3 years we moved to Murry Street. Two years later we moved to Indiana Street just west of Columbia Ave. We then moved to Standard Ave. at the south end of Garfield St. then to 173rd. and Jackson. At this point Waddy was working for Pullman Standard Car Co. This must have been about 1929 because the depression was starting to pinch us all. Waddy lost his job but would go back to Pullman regularly to look for work. The men would gather around the gate and each morning the personnel manager would come out and ask for the carpenters or pipe fitters or some other trade to hold up their hands. Of course no matter what he was looking for all the hands went up. Things were tough at this time and we were forced to move into a store front on Conkey Street. There was a small room and a wash room in the back of the store. We then moved to Tole Street in north Hammond where Waddy was the maintenance man for a group of three two story apartments. Waddy refused to take any kind of Govt. support. This was in 1933 at the time of the Chicago "Century Of Progress" World Fair. We then moved to 32 Ogden St. Hammond where Waddy worked for Dan Brown driving him around town to collect rents for the bank. About 1936 Waddy opened Waddy's Sweet Shop on 165th St. and we then moved to 6318 Jefferson St. It was some time before the store began to pay but after setting up the Postal Sub Station the steady flow of people to the station in the back of the store it showed a living profit. A few years later the store was moved to the 6500 block of Calumet Ave. I believe it was in the late 1950s that Calumet Ave. was widened and the store was all down hill from that time on.

Waddy liked to meet people and would spend many hours each year planning his next trip to Canada to fish or hunt. He would sleep on the ground in the coldest weather. One year they were Coming in from the island where they camped when the boat capsized dumping all equipment and men in the frigid lake. They lost all their gear but did not otherwise suffer.

Waddy's Death cert. states he died of commotoes due to Carcinoma of Lung