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Just some memories collected while remembering Jimmy Wilke…
I was working at a restaurant, KT’s Family Restaurant, during the summer of 1977. I was invited to Pam Tamburlin’s graduation party. I worked all week on a 2’ x 3’ sign for her party. When I got there, I saw a 4’ x 8’ paper sign taped up on the porch. Wow! Was it ever good! A professionally painted sign for her party… Needless to say, it put my sign to shame. Pam introduced me to Jimmy and his wife, Mary. Jimmy said my sign was nice. Later that night he said for me to come down to his shop, that he wanted me to come work for him. Huh? What? Me? Work for a “real” sign shop? I went down on a Saturday and he said for me to come and start on Monday!
I remember coming home from that first day of working. My Mom asked me how it went. I told her about the sights, the sounds, the smells… I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
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We went out to install a sign for the Pure Waters project up in Wilson. Jimmy had the truck already loaded and we took off. I was all excited because it was my first sign installation! Woo hoo! We got up there and I helped Jimmy unload the truck. Then he handed me the clamshell digger. “Start digging…”, he says, “You didn’t think being a sign painter was all fun and games, did you?”. Hahahahaha! Well, yes I did… but not for very long. The blisters healed in a couple of days.
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There was the time that we went to go letter a wall over at the Riley Gear Works. It was my first walldogging experience. Wow! Lettering a wall! Can you imagine? Well, we loaded up the truck with the a-ladders, picks, and paints and such. Jimmy commented that the pants I had on weren’t going to work well for the job at hand. I was wearing those tight thin material jeans that were such a popular fashion rage at the time. Well, after awhile, you can imagine what happened… Yup… right up the butt seam. Jimmy said he warned me about that. He said maybe that I might listen to him a little closer in the future. I had to finish out the day with a big ol’ rip in my pants. That sucked. That was when I went and got some new painter pants. I always wondered why they were so baggy… Now I know.
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Jimmy made his own sauerkraut. He loved making it. One Saturday, I was lettering in the truck bay when a whiff of something foul made me cringe. It smelled like something died. It was truly awful. I asked Jimmy what that stink was all about. He said he was making sauerkraut. I told him I taught he was killing something. The next week he came into the shop at lunch and handed me a bowl of steaming sauerkraut. He said, ”Here, this is the best sauerkraut you are ever going to eat.” He was right.
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I remember the day he came over to the shop and gave me an original copy of “Henderson’s Sign Painter”. He found it in the basement and was so excited to give it to me because he knew I dug that kind of stuff. I value it, not so much on account of it’s intrinsic value, but because of the joy that he had in giving it to me.
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It always seemed that no matter what, Jimmy and Jerry always had time to help us out. Their shop was always open for us to come over and use the shear, the sheet metal break, whatever we needed. We always said that they were “Old World Technology”. The knowledge that those two guys had was enormous. I learned so much from them. They could have written a book.
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I went over to his shop when his brother, Jerry, was sick and had to retire. I told Jimmy that I would help him clean out the shop. Man, it was like a trip back in time. There was the sample channel letter with neon his Dad had made in the late 40’s – early 50’s that still works! There was the old porcelained telephone sign, the show card his Dad had lettered that hung in the office, the old magazines, just everything.
We loaded up my truck with a load of old cigar boxes full of hardware, partial sheets of plastic, all kinds of stuff! He gave us the old material rack his Dad had built in 1952. I bought those infamous a-ladders and picks from him. We bought the file cabinets and some other things.
When I was there the one weekend, we had just finished for the day when he came out of the office. He had the portfolios for the shop. He said that they were the legacy of Wilke Signs. He went on to say, “Danny asked for these but I want you to have them. He wants them just to have them. I want you to have them because I know you will appreciate them.”
He went on to tell me that he was proud of how I turned out. That I was doing the kind of work he always wanted to do. He said that he had had his doubts whether I was going to make it or not but that I had proved him wrong.
We talked about many things. His experiences and his life. His family. About his experiences in Masonry and the Shrine. About his love for life.
He told me not to have any regrets because things turn out the way that they are supposed to. The only thing is that your heroes aren’t supposed to die.
It’s been two weeks since Jimmy passed away. It is weird that even though I didn’t see him as often as I wanted to, I can feel his absence. I loved him as well as I could. I am going to miss him.
Jimmy Wilke.
My mentor, my Brother, my friend.
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6464 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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Hey Bruce, I even got a tear in my eye reading this because I could see where it was leading to. I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your freind. I'm sure you will take great care of those things that he once cherished as his own.
-------------------- Harris Kohen K-Man Pinstriping and Graphix Trenton, NJ "Showing the world that even I can strategically place the pigment where its got to go." Posts: 1739 | From: Trenton, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2001
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Bruce, that was no doubt the finest thing you've ever written here, and one of the best memorial posts I've ever seen.
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Well done Bruce. I often think of the many unknown Letterheads we lose every year. Many of them will never get the recognition and thanks they deserve, but might not ever get to hear words.
Jimmy Wilke will live on because he took the time to plant a dream in at least one person. Dream builders are a rare commodity in today's fast paced, skeptical World.
-------------------- Steve Shortreed 144 Hill St., E. Fergus, Ontario Canada N1M 1G9 519-787-2673
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Bruce You are one blessed man! First, to have known a man like Jimmy; and two, to realize the beauty and value of that relationship! I am sorry for his passing Somebody said it & I like it, "Never put a period where God has placed a comma"
Spellin edit!
[ October 13, 2003, 06:07 AM: Message edited by: Bill Dirkes ]
-------------------- Bill Dirkes Cornhole Art LLC Bellevue, Ky. Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are. Posts: 591 | From: Bellevue,Ky. US | Registered: Aug 1999
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-------------------- Maker of fine signs and other creative stuff. Located at 109 N. Cumberland ave. Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-837-0242 Posts: 4172 | From: Ages-Brookside, Ky. Up the Holler... | Registered: Jul 1999
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Bruce, that was well said and thought out, he would be proud, this is a double take for me, as I to knew him and didn't know he had passed. The sign industry lost a giant is all I can say now as I too am crying.
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
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Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6806 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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