By: Derek Legette
Edited By: Sara Leary
During the dark morning, long before most of Columbia wakes up, John Davis awakes at 3 a.m., sips a cup of coffee, drives to The State newspaper plant and scoops up his daily deliveries. He spends the next three hours trucking around the USC campus in his beige Ford F-150 delivering 10,800 copies of The Daily Gamecock.
The 72-year-old has been delivering student newspapers for at least 17 of the 30 years he's been delivering papers, and he's been able to put his three daughters through college because of it.
"It's in your blood, and it's just something you get used to doing every day, and it gives you something to do," he says. "It's invigorating."
Davis cranks up the heater just enough to "knock the chill out" when he works during the cold months. Sometimes, while dropping off a stack at one of his 86 stops, Davis just leaves his truck on and the door ajar. He figures it's 6 a.m., who's there to steal it?
"There's not a lot of people to deal with and traffic isn't bad," he says. "Of course on Fridays you have to be careful of the kids that stay out late."
Davis also keeps an eye out for pedestrians and joggers, all while finishing up his 22-mile drive before students start popping up on campus around 7 a.m.
After taking a nap, he shifts to other business. On Mondays and Fridays, he preps cars for auctions. On Tuesdays, he commutes to and from Atlanta with the prepped cars. Davis is one of an estimated 6.8 million Americans holding down two or more jobs simultaneously, up from last year's 6.6 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But Davis, who worked with Pope Davis Tire Co. for 24 years before retiring in 2007, doesn't do the work because he has to. He wants to.
"It's stressful when a person has to do three jobs. For somebody like me, it's not stressful because I really don't have to do it. I do mine because I enjoy it," Davis says. "If you enjoy what you do, you will never work a day in your life."
Despite being retired, Davis says he fills his days with work because it's his nature. He stays busy. His wife, Ethel, calls him a workaholic.
"I don't sit around and just waste away. A body in motion stays in motion," Davis says.
"If I go home and sit down and just watch TV, then I do nothing," he says. "I got a brother that does that, and he's got back troubles and he's younger than I am."
Davis also exercises at Ellis Physical Therapy and practices with the First Baptist Church's senior adult choir. On any given day, he might be laying floor tiles or doing other maintenance for people, not only to stay busy, but also to do something else he enjoys – helping others.
"I put a doorbell in a lady's house one time and she says, ‘I know you're not going to take any money, so I'm just going to send a memorial,'" he says.
"I say, ‘I'm not dead, don't send no memorial!'" Davis says, chuckling.
Davis says he worries about emergencies or anything that might abruptly come up while he juggles his days. Otherwise, "if I've got time to think about it, I don't worry about it," he says. "If I have time to think about it, everything goes fine."
Davis is dedicated and he understands the importance of getting a daily publication out, says Sarah Scarborough, USC Student Media advertising manager who's worked with him for four years and says he's quick to report any printing errors.
Sometimes The Gamecock's outdoor boxes are tipped over by USC students coming back from a night in Five Points,a nearby entertainment district, Scarborough says.
But that doesn't bother Davis, who actually works for The State.
"John would joke about picking them back up. He's got a good sense of humor; he's a good guy," she says. "He's on top of making sure things run smoothly on his end. He's a good partner for us."
At times, delivering papers has been a family affair. His in-laws have covered for Davis while he was on vacation, and his daughters – all three now teaching in Columbia – used to help him when they were younger.
"When I was a little girl, he used to deliver The State newspaper, and it was the coolest thing for us to be able to get up early on a Saturday morning and sit in the back of the car and fold papers," says Carol Randazzo, Davis' youngest daughter. "It was an adventure for us."
Randazzo still helped him sometimes when she was a USC student. Now 39 and married, Randazzo says she wouldn't be where she is if it weren't for her dad.
"He's always shown us that it doesn't matter how much money you have," she says. "If you're happy with what you do and work hard at what you do, then you'll be happy."
Now that his children are grown, Davis says the money he earns from the Gamecock deliveries will go toward his grandchildren and a Hawaiian vacation with Ethel, with whom he'll celebrate his 49th wedding anniversary March 9.
Davis steadies himself as he helps move a cooler to give space for the new Coca-Cola machine the First Baptist Church is expecting to receive. Davis does odd jobs to keep up the church's maintenance.
