This is neat. I looked up this guy and he has a wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakey_Jake It's cool that someone like that was notable enough to be remembered.
I remember him from my first several years in town. His guitar usually seemed to have maybe 3 strings on it at any given time. He ambled around downtown and was quite the celebrity; maybe the wiki mentioned the "I BRAKE FOR JAKE" bumper stickers.
After he died it seemed the town was one character short. I thought about what kind of character I could be, and had a whole thing worked out with friends, in which I'd be walking around bouncing superballs. When one got away, as one occasionally would (this happened to me once and the folks on the streets all turned to watch its escape), I could then hold up one finger and utter my catchphrase, which would also be my name--- "Li'l' help?" People could then brake for me, or for my little helpers, chasing after an errant superball.....
It was never determined what particular odd style of dress I'd have, though we thought I could sell autographed superballs, like Jake sold cassettes. But now my knees are too bad, even if we didn't have a pandemic, to live that dream. And I'm a wimp during the Michigan winter.
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After he died it seemed the town was one character short. I thought about what kind of character I could be, and had a whole thing worked out with friends, in which I'd be walking around bouncing superballs. When one got away, as one occasionally would (this happened to me once and the folks on the streets all turned to watch its escape), I could then hold up one finger and utter my catchphrase, which would also be my name--- "Li'l' help?" People could then brake for me, or for my little helpers, chasing after an errant superball.....
It was never determined what particular odd style of dress I'd have, though we thought I could sell autographed superballs, like Jake sold cassettes. But now my knees are too bad, even if we didn't have a pandemic, to live that dream. And I'm a wimp during the Michigan winter.
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