wanna hear a story?

I know this isnt an exciting picture, its the story that makes it worthwhile sometimes. That said Im disappointed I don't have a better picture. Also I forgot to mention. I saw this man a few weeks ago, you might remember waiting? or you might not. Anyways I wasnt expecting to see him again!

Once a week I try to walk around downtown and take pictures. Sometimes I meet interesting people. This day I hit the jackpot.

~wyreth and I spotted this man, walked up to him and I asked him if I could take his picture. "Now why would you want to do that?" That simple question launced us into over an hour of conversation. He started off by expressing interest in photography. Jim knows all the downtown business owners, including serveral gallery owners and the people who every year put art on the walls along the streets.

He gave me marketing tips. He gave me inspiration. He gave me contacts.

A very nice young lady who spoke almost no english came up and hesitantly asked for directions. Jim lept up and gave concise and easy to follow directions - something most people have no clue how to do in my opinion.

He told so many stories, I can't even remember half of all of them now. He showed me his broken watch, "Wanna hear another story? There's this man who brings me coffee every morning, I thought he owned a coffee shop. I asked him what the time is and he jokingly asked me if my watch had broken. I said it had indeed. Turns out it was Paul, who owns the watch store across the street. He asked me if he could take it over and have a look. Well he brought my watch back a few hours later and told me it was broken. My heart just dropped right there. Then Paul brings out this watch..." here he flashes the watch on his wrist and smiles... "and he asked me to take care of it."

"Jim," I asked, "can I see the watch?"

He held out his wrist. It was gold, a timex; it looked brand new.

"Wanna hear another story?" Jim told us about his two trips across country. About the time he got stuck in Idaho and lost 1400 dollars. He told us an hour's worth of stories until I was tired, unfortunately, so I asked him if he needed anything.

"Wanna hear another story? This lady brought me a leather jacket. A big heavy mother that must weigh about 20 pounds. I'll be nice and warm with that but..." here he motions to his cutoff shorts... "these are the only pants I have and winter will be coming up."

I told him we'd get him some jeans before winter, maybe not that same day but we would.

"Well, I appreciate that, and if it slips your mind thats ok too cause I sure had a good time talking with you two. Wanna hear another story? This lady brought me 3 pairs of mittens she knit herself. Theres a lot of good out here and this town sure has more than its fair share. I've been to a lot of places but this town tops them all."

We agreed heartily with him, shook hands, wished him a wonderful day and walked on. When we got back to the car I turned to ~wyreth and said, "Drive me to Sally's and lets get him some pants."

We returned to Jim a half an hour later with his pants. He gave me a hug with a huge grin on his face. "Wanna hear another story?" he asked.

If you read all that I thank you. If you took the time to try I thank you. If you looked at the picture and skipped the story I hope you at least enjoyed that