Shorty was a character in old downtown

Some veteran Florentines who were around when Florence had a real downtown might remember Shorty Andrews.

Shorty was a piece of work on a block to remember — 100 East Evans. There was all sort of activity there in the 1930s and 1940s, including the Morning News in a store front, the city’s two main hotels, important stores, Western Union, Kafer’s Bakery, auto dealers and even the First Presbyterian Church. It is said that you could get a Prohibition-era drink, place a bet and more on that block. There was legal stuff, too.

There were characters, and Shorty was a main one. If Damon Runyon had known about him, Shorty might have turned up in “Guys and Dolls,” which, by the way, has just had a revival on Broadway.

Reading a clipping from a decades-ago Morning News, I was reminded that Shorty had a real name. It was Peter C. Andrews, and he came from Eastern North Carolina.

A small ad ran in the Dec. 12, 1944, paper asking for donations to help Shorty go home for Christmas. I was told that each year there was a collection to buy Shorty a train ticket and send him back home to North Carolina for Christmas. A few days later, he would be back in Florence.

I also was told by my elders that Shorty once was a very good typesetter — from the days when newspaper type was set by hand — and drifted around the country going about anywhere that struck his fancy. His typesetting was a high skill, and he could quickly get a good-paying job anywhere he liked.

However, machinery that set type more quickly and more cheaply made his skill obsolete, and he landed in Florence without a saleable skill and no prospects.

When I knew him, he was selling pencils and newspapers on the streets and picking up a little money that way. I don’t know where he lived.

He was a moody and profane little guy, and I guess some people might not have liked him because of that, but I did. It was always fun to see him and join him for a few minutes on his rounds, which included frequent visits to the old Morning News office.

People he approached to sell a pencil or newspaper were not guaranteed gentle treatment from Shorty just because they bought something from him. But if they didn’t, they could expect a world class cussing that was educational for a kid. This wouldn’t be the place to go into some of the words and expressions that I first heard from Shorty.

Once I saw some guy, approached by Shorty, give him a coin, then haughtily walk away after saying he did not need the pencil. This was a legitimate insult, and the guy was the target of a cussing that, so help me, turned the East Evans air blue.

Shorty was so short that, although I was quite short for my age, I was taller than he. But one night at the old Morning News, I saw a guy about six feet tall all bruised and beat up. What in the world? I found that the guy had gone too far in teasing Shorty, and Shorty had crowned him with his walking stick, stunning him, then worked him over some more with the stick before it was stopped.

Shorty apparently was at least a little like Teddy Roosevelt. Although he did not speak softly, he did carry a big stick.

During years at school and in the Army, I lost touch with that great block of East Evans, but shortly after returning permanently to Florence, I went to lunch down there at the legendary old P&M Café.

When I stood at the cash register on the way out, I felt something on my right arm and looked around but saw nothing. It happened again and I looked around and still saw nothing. Then I looked down, and there was Shorty. He remembered me.

“I’m in the Army,” he said, and sure enough he was splendidly turned out in a Salvation Army uniform that must have been made especially for him. Shorty had gone straight!

I don’t know whether or not that lasted very long. I hope it did.

— Thom Anderson is a retired journalist who has 40 years experience with South Carolina newspapers, including the Morning News. E-mail him at .