It's been a while, Spring is here, summer right behind.   I've been thinking about Jer because this time of year he would be around to do odd jobs for me, painting the bilko doors, or the porch floor or doing yard work..  Last year he borrowed Tony's chain saw and was trimming all the dead wood off the apple tree and the crab apple trees in front.  The front one was particularly bad, I use it to feed the birds, with two bird feeders and a giant suet holder on it. The squirrels' claws and the birds' talons had done a job on the poor tree.  More dead than alive, he was attempting to leave just the branches that had buds.  Jer was a sight to see, hoisting the saw above his head, that full head of hair, full beard, cigarette in his mouth.  He pulled the cord and went to work.  But he accidently cut a healthy branch and moaned as he saw what he had done.  I assured him there was no problem, the poor tree was more gone than alive, but he felt bad and shook his head in disgust.  After that we called it "Jer's tree".  This spring it didn't even try for a bud.  The bark is stripped off, dead branches going here and there.  So Tony came down to take off more branches.  Now it is a glorified bird feeding tree.

I took permanent markers and printed "Hobo Magician" on  the longest branch and I will tell you why.  Sabra had a lot of Jer's stuff in her barn, he often moved and there was never enough room for all his belongings.  Anyway, she found a small notebook that had a story printed in it, not in Jer's handwriting, so the author is unknown.  I don't remember all of it, but it started "J. Jacob Kelly, hobo magician", and it told about his life.  I thought at first it should be "hobo musician" but I came to realize the magician is the right word.  Jer was a magician.  He worked odd jobs, rarely steady, but he always managed to smoke the expensive cigarettes.  He never learned to drive, but he always managed to get a ride to parties or even out to the Cape.  He traveled both ends of the United States from a stay in California to a time spent with friends in Maine.  He was a magician with food, at Wellfleet taking leftover haddock and making the best fish cakes I have ever eaten.  He even made a green sauce, what the green was I don't know.  He was a magician with music, could play anything you gave him.  His girlfriend told me the crowd would yell "Wizard" when he played in spots in Hudson.  He was a magician full of knowledge on any subject and if he didn't know he would take his phone and in minutes be able to tell you everything about why there are all those funny looking moths in Wellfleet this year.  Yes, Jer was a magician and his magic and memory live on.