Jim Robinson:

Your grandfather was an odd man. I still can’t figure him out to this day. I can’t fully describe his personality without getting confused first. But, for you I will try.

Jim had an odd charm to him. He certainly had my attention during the whole drug store thing. He had an interesting view of the world. It didn’t make sense most of the time. Almost everyone thought he had lost his mind. But after I took time to actually listen, I realized Jim had the true gift of a poet and a genius mixed together.

Your grandfather, I later found out, loved the arts. Well-educated. Top of his classes to be exact. (I didn’t believe him at first because of my background. Again, different times.) But, your grandfather loved jazz, Shakespeare, and Langston Hughes. He had a mini-library under his bed. I borrowed some of his books from time to time. Your grandfather had a great collection of literature.

His views and brains weren’t the only thing that I liked about him. Jim had a wild side to him. Your grandfather loved jazz by day and Jimi Hendrix by night. He loved to party every chance he got. That boy drank worse than a fish. He even smoked like a chimney. He may have experimented with drugs from time to time. The amazing thing was he managed to party and keep his grades up in class. I could never figure out how he did it. Your grandfather seemed like a magician or something.

Speaking of which, Jim proved to be pretty unpredictable as well. I could never figure out what was on his mind. His moods matched a pendulum. One minute he was over the moon. The next that boy wanted to kill something or someone. I just didn’t know what to expect with him up until the very end. That’s what made him more attractive that way.

That’s your grandfather in a nutshell. He was like a roulette table in a casino. That boy had many ups and downs in his life. I didn’t know what I would be in for at times. The only thing I could do was to just go with the flow so to speak. I didn’t even want to do that at first. But, he managed to entice me into his world. From then on, your grandfather continued to show me new things in the world. Sometimes, it would good. Other times, I wish I had never known. Either way, I couldn’t turn back. Maybe I didn’t want to. Jim turned out to be the escape that I needed. Of course, I put my old life in jeopardy. But in retrospective, I made the right decision. If I had to do it all over again, I would. I definitely would, believe me!

1983