Jeff Clark prefers to have several things going on at once.
His full-time job is delivering Little Debbie snack cakes in Greenwood, which he does five days a week. But he also owns Bowie Lane Fish Market as well as Delta Snow, a snow-cone stand.
“I like to stay busy,” he says.
Clark, 49, has lived in Coila for 19 years. He was born in Greenwood and graduated from Greenwood High School in 1986.
“I thought I’d never leave Greenwood,” he said.
He started working at Webster’s when he was 13 to earn some extra money and stayed until he was 24. At first he cleaned tables and washed dishes, and eventually he became a bartender.
He said he enjoyed the job and had a good boss in Nancy Byrd.
He bought the Little Debbie route in 1994 but has always kept his eye out for other opportunities. He has owned the fish market for about 4½ years since buying it from Johnny Farrish.
“I’d always been friends with him, knew him most of my life,” he said.
He owned Hilltop Restaurant for eight years before selling it five years ago.
Also, for 15 years, he has done some ceramic tile work, most of it involving custom showers.
“I was friends with a guy that did my house when I built it and helped him, and I kind of started helping him a little bit more and learning how to do it,” he said.
People call from time to time asking him to do tile work, although he has to say “no” more often than “yes” because of his other jobs. But he also has good help in those jobs; his kids assist with the snow-cone stand, and he said the fish market is well-run enough that “I’m not here very often at all.”
He said the businesses are doing well, and he has no plans to buy anything else. In fact, he expects to scale back.
“I’ll be 50 in July, and I’m going to start slowing down after that,” he said.
He and his wife, Jenny, have been married in 19 years. He has a daughter, Maegan, who is 26, and two sons: Dawson, who is 18, and Conner, 15.
In his spare time, he enjoys hunting deer on land he owns and watching television. He attends North Greenwood Baptist Church.
He said his family travels more than he does, but he does go to Nashville every so often to see relatives.
“It’s probably my favorite city,” he said.
•Contact David Monroe at 581-7236 or dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
