He was the Indian of the group, he'd say, quoting Jimmy Carl Black of the Mothers.
I remember when we saw J.Geils, who were opening for Ten Years After at Madison Coliseum. After Geils played and Ten Years was on, and We were standing up front and Jim sneaks his long-haired head from just behind the stage curtain. Points to mime come stage left and I will get you inside. Looked very Injun. A scout. And we hung out with the J.Geils Band.
Getting arrested by Officer "Hash" Halverson at Cambridge Castle apartment near Brady St. We had the speakers (each as big as a washingmachine and one pointed out the open apt door) listening to Voodoo Child when the Squid arrived.
In his wood shop by a turn in the Root River - right in the city but very rural. A strange overgrown patch off Memorial Dr. Showing incredible turned wood working. I think his company was called Dovetail. Discussing fending off varmints with shotgun.
Singing deeply 6 Days on the Road, It’s Dark as a Dungeon Way Down in the Mine, Wait on the Corner [guessing] in Nelson Hotel with Home Cooking. A prince in the place of “thick smoke dim lights” and good music.
Thanksgiving turkey 1972, the first any of us ever cooked, on the “flower made out of clay” known as New York City. He was out with Don Owens [?] hitchhiking with his portfolio trying to get into the Rhode Island School of Design. He was deeply sad not to get accepted. Could have been a whole different path. He immediately threw himself into creating illustrations for the poetry book I was working on. He saw the lattice security gates on my window that looked out to 3rd St. and made a perfect ink drawing that showed the prison way the city could be. [Never finished "Pedestrian Levels"]
Jim visited a few years later in Boston. He was running a CETA program, and came for a workshop. Back at the pad, he told the funniest joke I ever heard in my life [Punchline: "What's wrong with Jake?" "I don't know, but look at that coat!" It's about a guy who is sold an illfitting sportscoat by a great salesman. I'd just picked up a retro sportscoast, a bit big, from Salvation Army. Jim put it on and went into the joke perfectly.] My painter buddy who was with us was on the floor laughing for over 15 minutes.
Let’s roll to more recent. Ed tells me the Park HS 1970 Class Reunion had a pinata in the form of a spiked Covid virus. Nobody could beat this pinata to submission. Then Jim took the bat and hammered it to smithereens. Classic.
Jim got to our second show at George's and had no comment about our abilities but threw himself into the great how are you doing picking up on being with so many friends of cherished memory. Marijuana Mementos of Monument Square. The day before, Bob Stepien and I met up with him for a beer at Kelly's [?] Bar on a cliff by City Hall. By my feeble singing I spur him into singing a 6 Day era country song. Maybe Hank Williams. Wow he had some big bellows, and the few bar people were astounded and clapped. Big heart too. But the heart, the lungs, they give out, I'm sighing.
I recall Jim dressed up as Scoutmaster - was it in the Parade? For me, he was a scout, a master and fellow comrade for our days in the Movement - sorted, raucous and remembered dearly they were. Jim was and is “A jewel on earth, a jewel in heaven.” AndOr an “old chunk of coal” but he’ll “be a diamond someday.” -jv
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