Tommy Tedesco is pictured with freshly picked rhubarb grown outside his East Second Street home in Jamestown. Tedesco, who turns 99 years old on Sunday, has been growing rhubarb for almost 75 years. Submitted photo

With a handful of freshly picked rhubarb in his lap, Tommy Tedesco was in his element. Armed with a knife, a wooden board and decades of instinct, the 98-year-old methodically prepared each stalk as if they were going to market that afternoon.

“I cut the leaf off first,” said Tedesco who, while all business with his tools, may be the friendliest east side resident in Jamestown. “Then I take the end off here because they can’t use that.”

In splashes all around his Second Street home are the plants with their large, triangular-shaped leaves. When Tedesco was 25 years old he traded some of his strawberry plants with a co-worker for rhubarb, technically a vegetable though best known for being mixed with sugar and ending up in pies and jams.

“You don’t cut it, you pull it and you pull it straight with two hands out of the ground,” he said of picking rhubarb. “It’s all right if you break it — then you got two pieces — but I like to keep them whole though.”

Tedesco is the son of Anthony and Rose Tedesco, a pair whom for decades ran a vegetable and fruit market in Falconer. He has been growing rhubarb himself for more than seven decades, with the fruits of his labor available at Peterson Farm.

Tommy Tedesco’s father, Anthony, is pictured in July 1983 with rhubarb he grew behind the family’s fruit and vegetable market at 337 W. Main St. in Falconer. P-J file photo

While Tedesco has a helper handle all of the actual picking these days, he still likes to sit on his porch and prepare each stalk before it’s sent off to the market.

A native of nearby Falconer and a World War II veteran, Tedesco turns 99 years old on Sunday — a day to be made more special in that it’s also Father’s Day.

“What’s my secret? I don’t know,” he said with a laugh on a recent sunny afternoon when asked how he stays young. “I keep busy, especially when I was younger. But I can’t stay that busy today because I’m a little older.”

However, after pondering the question a bit further, he added, “You got to walk slow. You can’t hurry, because when you hurry you may fall.”

OFF TO WAR

Tommy Tedesco holds a photograph of himself taken while serving in the military during World War II. At the cusp of turning 99 years old, Tedesco is known both for his service and growing rhubarb around his East Second Street home. P-J photos by Eric Tichy

Tedesco was still attending Falconer High School in 1943 when, at the age of 18, he was drafted into the U.S. Army Enlisted Reserve Corps. Two years earlier, Japan had launched a surprise attack against the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor.

After he was inducted into military service, the Falconer teen reported to Niagara Falls where it was snowy and cold. Soon after, he was shipped to Keesler Army Airfield in Mississippi for basic training.

“Boy, it was hot,” Tedesco said of being in the south for the first time in his life. “It was 90 degrees and it was a lot different than it was here.”

After training as a truck driver and air cargo specialist, Tedesco was sent to England in December 1943, 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.

Asked of a memory from the war that stands out, Tedesco recounted the day he accidentally drove a jeep into a tree. He was in Northern Ireland, traveling at a decent pace when — for reasons he still can’t explain today — he decided to switch gears from third to second.

Pictured are just some of the rhubarb plants that surround Tedesco’s home. He’s been growing rhubarb for nearly 75 years.

“There was only one tree there and I happened to hit it on my side of the driver’s side,” he said of the ensuing accident that landed him in the hospital.

While recovering he asked his mom back home if she could send him yarn to string around some nails on a board as a way to keep busy. He hadn’t told her about his accident, but the balloon was soon up.

“Another lady told her that if he wants yarn he’s in the hospital,” he said.

Tedesco was on a 30-day leave back home in Falconer when he learned that the war was ending. He was discharged in December 1945 at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Last December, Tedesco was honored at the Fenton Historical Center in Jamestown for his military service during World War II.

State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, presented Tedesco the Bronze Star Medal, the fourth-highest individual military award for valor; the Good Conduct Medal; the American Campaign Medal; the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two bronze service stars; the World War II Victory Medal; the Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Honorable Service Lapel Button.

“It is gratifying to have the opportunity to pay tribute to such an extraordinary man who was part of the effort to liberate Europe from Nazi rule,” Borrello said during the ceremony. “He bravely and selflessly went off to war when his nation called upon him, putting his own life at risk in order to defeat tyranny. While the sacrifices he made in faithful service to our country can never be adequately repaid, with these medals, we express our gratitude and admiration.”

‘IF IT WORKED IT WORKED’

While he may take it easy these days, Tedesco seemed to be full of energy after his service in the war. With relatives in the Silver Creek area, he recalled the night he stopped by a Dunkirk bar that happened to include a separate room for dancing.

“I went in there and I saw these three girls sitting there,” he said. “I went in and asked each of them if they wanted to dance and they said they did.”

The name of the bar escapes Tedesco today, but one thing is certain from that night: the girl he found prettiest among the three — a 25-year-old named Nina — would go on to be his wife of 70 years.

Tedesco didn’t waste time learning more about Nina’s upbringing. A day after first meeting her, he stopped by her home to introduce himself to her parents and siblings.

After pausing a moment during a recent interview, Tedesco concedes, “You probably won’t hear a story like this anymore, but this was a test. I had to see what kind of parents that this girl had, and her brothers and sisters, and I thought they were all great. Not good, but great. So one month later we got engaged, and three months later we got married.”

“You might think that’s kind of quick, but I figured if it worked it worked, and if it didn’t work it didn’t work. So we were married for 70 years and we never had an argument.”

Together, Tommy and Nina raised four children. Nina, who loved cooking, sewing and her dogs, passed away in February 2020 at the age of 95.

During his working career, Tedesco was employed by Crescent Tool and Blackstone.

FAMILY TIES

Tedesco’s grandfather started a grocery store in 1920 for Tedesco’s father to run. Located on West Main Street in Falconer, the store specialized in selling watermelons, bananas, cantaloupes and California grapes.

In a story celebrating the fruit and vegetable market’s 50th anniversary, Anthony Tedesco recounted the day a circus was in town. It was 1928, and he had ordered two truckloads of watermelons. However, the shipment was late, long after the start of the circus.

Despite the delay, all the watermelons sold.

“That proved beyond a doubt that I could sell,” Anthony Tedesco said.

Five years earlier, on June 14, 1923, he married Rose. “Getting married is like being in a row boat at sea,” he told The Post-Journal. “When problems come up, we have to row in one direction.”

In celebrating the couple’s 60th anniversary, Rose Tedesco remarked on what made for a good marriage. “Hard work,” she said, “and having an outdoor fruit and produce market made it possible to lead a wholesome life.”

Meanwhile, Tommy Tedesco admits there’s not much to teach about growing good rhubarb: pick a spot, clear any weeds that might get in the way and plant with fertilizer.

“With new plants you have to water them every day,” he said. “Anytime you plant you have to water them every day. You can plant any time. Clear the weeds, fertilize it.”

He said it’s important not to pick anything the first year when growing rhubarb; plants need time to fully grow, he said. And when it is time to pick, he advises leaving a few stalks in the ground — otherwise the plant will die.

While Tedesco is best known for keeping up the family tradition by growing rhubarb, he admits he had more fun growing pumpkins back in the day. When they were in season, he’d place his pumpkins of various sizes for sale on his lawn before bringing each one back in at the end of the day.

Tedesco and his sister, Joy, are the two remaining siblings in the family. Joy said she’s proud of her brother’s achievements as well as “God-given, health, and extremely sharp mind.” She also looks forward to her daily calls with her older brother on politics and “daily happenings.”

“He is my glimpse to the past of our younger days when we were at home with our parents,” she said. “Tommy and I share memories of being a part of our parents’ fruit market. That was an amazing way to grow up.”

Regarding her brother’s 99th birthday, she said, “I hope that, somehow, his wonderful genes get passed on to the rest of us in the family and we all celebrate our 99th birthday and beyond.”