Ed Harrell's Mechanical Hobby

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ "Today you're going to be an inspector," his boss told him one morning at the pudding factory.

No day was the same. Just the day before he had been a fork lift operator and tomorrow he would probably be something else.

Ed Harrell, now 87, fixes lawnmowers and pumps out of his backyard shop for the sheer love of doing it.

"I've always been a little bit mechanical minded," Ed said with a smile.

But Ed's work history varies greatly from anything mechanical.

Ed worked for at the My-T-Fine Pudding Factory, now McDaniel's Furniture, just east of Pinckneyville for ten and a half years, each day being different from the rest.

"Each morning my boss would tell me what I would be doing that day. I never knew what I was going to be doing."

Each day came with new challenges, and on lunch break the crew and the supervisor would talk about everything... except work.

"I got along real well with the supervisor. He would come down on break and eat with us. He was a good man and a scholar. Then they brought in a new guy as the supervisor. A younger guy. There was a clash of personalities."

Ed started looking around for another employment opportunity and asked a friend if there were any openings at Phelps Dodge, now General Cable Co.

"I asked my friend if there were going to be any openings and he said they had one right then. So I asked for an application and a few days later they called me in."

Ed's interview was to be a security guard.

"The day they called me in they told me they wanted to hire me. I told them I would really like to give my current job the formal two week notice. They said that was ok, but when I went back and told my supervisor about getting new employment, he told me I could leave right then," Ed laughed. "I had to call up Phelps and tell them I would be starting a bit sooner."

Ed's 13 years as a security guard at Phelp's was mostly a quiet enjoyable one.

"There was one time when lots of kids from the area, Elkville, Du Quoin, Dowell, that came in the parking area with ball bats looking like they were ready to free for all. I told the other guard working to call the police and I would go out there and try to get them out," Ed said. "I went out there stomping my feet and told them to think about what they were doing. They argued a little bit and then the police showed up and got them to leave. No one got injured."

"Another time during the fair my boss told me that they were leaving the south gate open for employees to park and go to the fair. But it was for employees only. Well, one night a corvette came pulling in and I went out there and told them it was employees only and they got mad. Instead of driving out to the east, they drove around to the west to the back of the lot and started speeding toward me like they were going to hit me. I took a step back and they stopped near the exit after they passed me as if they were thinking about turning around."

"I couldn't see their plate, much less make out what was on it, but I took out my pad and acted like I was scribbling something down. That made them speed off pretty fast."

Ed retired from Phelps Dodge in 1988.

During his time at Phelps, Ed began working on local lawnmowers and pumps.

"Early in the season I can get between four to six machines in here to work on," Ed said. "I'm usually out here between nine and four, more or less if I 'm close to fixing a machine or not."

Despite having never advertised anywhere, Ed gets a decent amount of customers who have heard about him by word-of-mouth alone.

"Wal-Mart got seven lawnmowers in that didn't work one time and they sold them to me at a really discounted price. I picked them up at 10 a.m. one morning and by noon I had six of them working."

Even Ed's garage has stories of it's own.

"I've got tools from everywhere. This ratchet set here is from Kenny Cook used to own a buy and sell shop down from the Call office."

"Whoever gets my tools when I decide to quit is getting a lot of tools."

But don't expect Ed to quit anytime soon. After four stents in his heart and two repaired vertebrae, Ed is still working as usual.

Ed will also be celebrating his 67th anniversary this coming August 15.

Last year Ed had been featured in the Du Quoin Evening Call for his oddity in his garden.

"I had tomato plants and potato plants right next to each other and they germinated at the exact same time. I had tomatoes growing on my potato plant."