Darlington sanitation worker still going strong in 70s

Jerome “Sonny” McCall was working the trim saw at a saw mill in the Mont Clare section of Darlington County 17 years ago when the Sonoco-owned facility closed.

McCall, 59 at the time, was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. He needed to work, but the job market wasn’t ripe for people his age who operated trim saws.

But McCall managed to get on with the Darlington City Sanitation Department — a good eight-mile haul from his house in Mont Clare. He said he relies on his wife to drive him to town and back.

Today, McCall is a familiar site around Darlington Public Square. He pulls a trash cart to pick up paper and other refuse.

He wears out about a pair of shoes — which the city buys for him — a year, and he’s walked the streets long enough to know which side the shade is going to be on.

Mondays are the worst days because of the weekends. He said he used to pick up many beer cans, but “I don’t think people drink that much beer anymore. It’s mostly paper now.”

And at times he brings his “little hoe” with him to “dig grass out of the bricks.”

“I enjoy seeing all the people the most,” he said. “They all know me and are friendly to me.”

Tammy McKnight of Carolina Drug Store is among those he sees five days a week.

“Sonny eats a hot dog every day at 9:30 a.m.,” she said. “And don’t ask us because we’re supposed to know that he wants that hot dog with just onions and chili along with a Pepsi or a Dr. Pepper. He keeps us straight.”

McCall also was off one week and didn’t let the drug store people know.

“We got on him good about this because we were worried something had happened to him,” McKnight said. “But he popped in here on a Saturday morning and let us know he had been on vacation.”

“Sonny is always friendly, talkative and of good cheer,” Mary Allen, another Carolina Drug employee, said.

McCall did about the same thing on vacation that he does on the weekends. He doesn’t watch TV, fish or hunt. He has five children and six stepchildren.

“I sit in my chair in the yard and sleep when I don’t work,” he said. “I got chairs all over the yard. I sit in one chair a while and sleep, then I move to another one and sleep some more.”

McCall is a pillar at Mount Rona Baptist Church in Society Hill. He’s been a faithful member there since 1947.

Just the mention of Mount Rona brought him right up to a reporter’s recorder.

“Hi, everybody, I’m Jerome McCall, and I serve as a deacon at Mount Rona Baptist Church, where Rev. Matthew Robinson is my pastor. I’ve been in the senior choir for 20 years and on the trustee board for 24 years. I love my church work; I love my people; I just love everybody,” he said.

McCall’s favorite hymn is “If I Can’t Say A Word, Just Let Me Wave My Hand.”

And his favorite Bible verse is Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

McCall wasn’t there in the beginning, but he said hopes to be around Darlington and Mount Rona for a long time to come, despite his cholesterol and minor blood pressure problems.