Published Sunda, June 19, 1999
HERMITAGE
Life on $3.40 a day
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Sylvia Jarrett fell for love on icy pond
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99-YEAR-OLD RODE BY BUGGY, SLEIGH ON SHOPPING TRIPS
By Derrick Bash
Herald Staff Writer
Sylvia Jarrett has nearly 100 years of stories to tell but even with prompting from her daughter Marge Crompton she is sometimes reticent to share them outside the family.
“Tell the story about the time the horse got away from you, Mom,’’ her daughter prods.
“That’s not important,’’ Mrs. Jarrett responds but later says it happened when she was about 11 and she had to go to the store with the horse and buggy. Another time, a horse and sleigh got stuck in deep snow and flipped but she managed to right the sleigh.
However Mrs. Jarrett, who will turn 100 on July 6, will talk freely about her family and the flu that killed so many local people, including her mother who visited a sick grandchild and died in her early 40s.
“All the rest had it but me,’’ Mrs. Jarrett says.
She also mentions the time she was “a young bit of a girl’’ and her great-grandfather died. “I don’t remember much but I remember they had horses and carriages (in the funeral procession.”
She attended the first Buhl Day with neighbors and watched the parade which included Frank and Julia Buhl. “It wasn’t much of a parade then,’’ she says, noting that it stayed in Buhl Farm park. She recalls Mrs. Buhl wearing a hat with a large feather plume.
Mrs. Crompton, who was 3 when the family house was built at 296 South Neshannock Road, lives a short walk away from her mother, brother and sister-in-law.
A registrar/conservationist for the Mercer County Historical Society, she often uses her mother as a resource.
“I have to call her and ask her questions,’’ Mrs. Crompton says, adding that she calls her daily anyway.
Once, a couple bought a house and were researching its history with help from the society.
Mrs. Jarrett remembered a murder that happened there on butchering day.
She had five children — Albert, Myrtle, Margie, Walter John and Wayne — with her husband W. Wayne “Sparky’’ Jarrett.
The nickname was born when he sped in an “old open-air jalopy’’ down Longview Road in Hermitage and either didn’t realize the bridge over Bobby Run was out or just forgot, according to Mrs. Crompton. He landed OK, but sparks flew.
Mrs. Jarrett has nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. She’s looking forward to granddaughter Melanie’s wedding in July and the birth of another great-grandchild in August.
The story of how she met her husband in Bethel is also supposed to be a funny one, according to her daughter, but Mrs. Jarrett keeps to the facts. “We met ice skating. I fell on the ice. We were just kids.’’
Her daughter fills in later: “They were all ice skating and he was showing off and upset her on the ice and she got so mad and went home.’’
Mrs. Jarrett’s mother predicted they would marry.
They did and she says it was her happiest moment. They married when she was 22 before a New Castle preacher. Afterwards they went to a nearby fair with his mother and stepfather.
Her husband earned $3.40 a day at the Wheatland wire mill.
In the 1940s he also worked as a mechanic, service manager and then owner for a short time of the Chrysler-Plymouth garage in Sharon.
When he died at the age of 41 of a brain tumor his wife was 43. She raised the children and began working at the former Shenango Inn, Sharon. She cleaned 12 rooms a day and worked there for 12 years.
She also worked at a nearby skating rink, the Swirl Arena, until its roof collapsed under snow.
Mrs. Jarrett relied on street cars to get to work because she never drove.
“We didn’t have television to watch. We listened to the radio and read the papers.’’
Mrs. Jarrett never dreamed she’d see an airplane, let alone men on the moon.
“I never thought I’d see all the wonders,’’ she says. “My life’s been good.’’
These days she likes to watch golf, cowboy movies and “The Young and the Restless’’ on television, which she labels “the crazy box.” And for five years during bowling season she has gone with her family to Hickory Bowl Inc. to watch the action.
“My husband used to bowl,’’ she says. “They used little balls then. I used to take the kids.’’
“She has a lot of friends,’’ her daughter says, adding that her mother still works around the house.
“I’d like to cook a good meal,’’ Mrs. Jarrett says, remembering the Sunday dinners of roast beef and pork roast she used to prepare for the family.
“Her homemade bread would melt in your mouth,’’ Mrs. Crompton says. “And we never went to school without breakfast.”
The family is planning a party for her 100th birthday July 6 at New Virginia Park .
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Updated June 19, 1999
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