Tommy Tedesco, 100, is pictured with his sister, Joy, outside his East Second Street home in Jamestown. Tedesco celebrated the centennial moment with friends and family at a recent gathering. Photo by Eric Tichy

By all accounts, Tommy Tedesco has lived a pretty fruitful life.

For years he sold pumpkins of varied sizes from the front lawn of his East Second Street home in Jamestown. Today, he still grows rhubarb that is sold at a local market.

Though long since retired from his 9 to 5 job, the lifelong Chautauqua County resident and World War II veteran still manages to keep busy and live life by routine. He speaks by phone daily to his sister, Joy, and stays current on world affairs by watching the news.

“I try to take care of myself,” Tedesco said outside on a recent sunny afternoon with his sibling nearby.

Tedesco seems to have found the recipe for a long and healthy life. He recently celebrated his 100th birthday with friends and family present.

“I just take it a day at a time,” he said. “I didn’t know I was going to live to be 100 years old, but I’m here.”

Tedesco is the son of Anthony and Rose Tedesco, a pair who for decades ran a fruit and vegetable market in Falconer. He has been growing rhubarb himself for more than seven decades.

In 1943, Tedesco was drafted into the U.S. Army Enlisted Reserve Corps. After training as a truck driver and air cargo specialist, he was sent to England, joining the 325th Ferry Squadron, Ninth Air Force.

The 325th provided passenger, mail and logistical support to all American military units in the United Kingdom.

After the war, Tedesco met his wife, Nina, and together they raised four children. Nina passed away in February 2020 at the age of 95.

For more than two decades, Tedesco worked as a security guard at Crescent Tool Company and later Blackstone. Though officially retired, he never really stopped putting in a full day’s job.

“I was working all the time,” said Tedesco, who still proudly recalls the years he sold pumpkins on his front lawn. “I put the pumpkins on display by myself, one at a time. And, at night, I brought them in by myself.”

Some of the gourds he grew, and others he bought.

“It was something I could do. I knew I could do it,” Tedesco said of the years-long hobby.

Asked about turning 100, the ever-smiling Tedesco said he “never gave it a thought.”

Ten years ago, when he was about to turn 90, his sister told him he would live to see his 100th birthday. Though he scoffed at the suggestion, he now admits she was right all along.

“You should have listened to me,” Joy joked.

The city resident said the centennial moment was “just another day.”

He added, “I don’t know, really, how long I’m going to live. But I don’t have any pain, so what does that tell you? It tells you that things probably aren’t that bad.”