Jake Grimsley was watching for me in the entry area of Chisholm Trail Estates in Keene. The weather was hot and I was surprised to see him wearing a gazelle-hide jacket. The tall 80-year-old looked happy to see me. Ever the gentleman, he offered me a choice of two areas to sit.

“My real name is John A. Grimsley, but I go by Jake,” he said. “I’ve been here about four years. I was born July 4, 1931, in Hawaii, where my father was in the U.S. Navy. He was a career navy man — a commander when I was born and a rear admiral at retirement.”

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Jake, his mother and sister were transported to safety from Hawaii to Long Beach, Calif.

“I liked it there. I went to school in Long Beach and felt safe. I was very quiet back then. I never got in trouble at school, and have fond memories of my teachers. I graduated from high school there in 1948.”

His father had always told him to try to travel to Australia, a country he considered intriguing.

After the war ended, Jake owned a Texaco gas station in Honolulu. At 26, he sold the station and boarded the Spirit, a Norwegian cruise ship, to reach Sydney, Australia.

“On the ship I became acquainted with Lillian Marks, a beautiful tennis player, whom I had met once before in Long Beach. We were together every day on the long cruise — some 54 days. We fell in love and she agreed to marry me when we reached Sydney, her home.

“We were approaching the Tasman Sea and we knew we faced up to 10 more days of rough sailing. We didn’t want to wait, so we had the English ship’s captain, named Capt. Shubb, to marry us at sea. Officially, we were in Amsterdam waters at the time.”

The couple lived in Sydney for 14 years where he worked for Qantas Airlines.

“On the weekends I played tennis with Lil. I always said she was the best woman’s tennis player in the world — everyone wanted a match.”

They moved to Cape Town, South Africa, and bought a condominium on the beach and also had one in Long Beach.

Jake described South Africa as a country rich in natural resources.

“There were diamonds, rubies and other precious gemstones mined there. Perhaps the most valuable mineral of all became platinum. Once the United States made the law that all vehicles had to have catalytic converters to help the environment, platinum was the only metal that could deal with it.”

Jake opened a gazelle-hide attaché case as he held it in his lap. Piece by piece, he carefully showed me part of his past.

“This coat I’m wearing is also Thompson’s gazelle. The male gazelle leaps along and leads the herd. When they need to scatter, this tail comes up. Poof! Then you can’t find them anywhere. That’s his warning signal that danger is up ahead.

“This ostrich plume came from the bottom of the bird’s back. They’ll have 35-50 of these plumes, while the others are pin feathers. Ostrich often weigh up to 320 pounds — and they are very fast runners.”

He paused to place the plume in the headband of his hat.

A small, jet black hide was next. Soft, with worm-like designs all through it, I learned it was from a wildebeest.

He raised up a tanned skin that was very luxurious, only about 24 inches long. I couldn’t identify it. There were no quill marks.

“That is from the leg of an ostrich. You notice how smooth it is — and how thin. It is very difficult to tan. Ostrich skin boots are very expensive, compared to cowhide, for instance.”

A larger, tough gray skin was easy to spot as one from an elephant.

“The African elephant, the largest land mammal in the world, and can weigh up to 25,000 pounds,” he said. “It is much meaner than the smaller Indian elephants you see in the circus.”

A copper clock face with a silhouette of Africa reflected the light.

“You see these animals on certain numbers? That means that you are most likely to see sable and antelope at 9 a.m.; elephants at noon; antelope at 3 p.m.; and predators like lions and leopards at 6 p.m.”

My pen went dry and I couldn’t find another. Jake loaned me a hand-carved leopard pen made from springbok wood. That seemed much more appropriate.

He explained that he worked for the Department of Wildlife in South Africa for 37 years. These things were, no doubt, samples of what he sold on his trips to the United States.

“We would stay in South Africa for six months and then come to the States,” he said. “We sold African items at the State Fair of Texas for many years. It was a good life. We spent time with my wife’s twin sister, Rita Schultz and her family at Bono. We brought our trailer from California and enjoyed living out there, and stored many of our products there.”

I contacted Jake’s niece, Clara Schultz Bush of South Fork, Colo., to find out what it was like living with her aunt and uncle in California.

“They were quite the adventurers, and traveled the world extensively,” she said. “They were definitely unique and glamorous. I idolized them and their travels.

“They owned a Harley Davidson motorcycle and a Porsche, with the steering wheel on the right. They imported the car to America, and while living with them in California, we would drive down the freeway with me putting on lipstick or brushing my hair while I appeared to be sitting in the driver’s seat — but Jake was driving. We had the best time watching people pull away from us, slow down — the expressions on their faces were Candid Camera quality.

“They had a Myna bird that talked — cussed a lot, actually. Disneyland tried to buy it from them.

“Once they shipped my mom 10 puppies and the mother dog from Hawaii. She sold them for a hundred dollars each in a day after running an ad in the Times-Review selling ‘Pullie pups from Hawaii.’

“My mother and Aunt Lil were in the Australian army together during World War II.”

The couple worked for Lion Country Safari in Grand Prairie for a time, operated their import business in the Neiman Marcus store in Fort Worth and aboard the Queen Mary.

In 1992, Jake and Lil were visiting South Africa as tourists, when disaster struck.

“Lil was bitten by a black mamba snake, the most deadly snake in the world,” Jake said. “The strike was on her upper arm and doctors were able to save her life. But her health began to decline after that.”

The Grimsleys lived in Glen Rose where Lil was confined to a nursing home towards the end of her life. He stayed in his trailer.

After her death Jake moved into Chisholm Trail Estates.

The collections in his room, his clothing, and his memories keep him emotionally tied to his happy life in South Africa.

He handed me a sand cap — one with the skirt that covers the back of the neck.

He grinned.

“There are no rednecks in Africa.”

Jake walked me to the door nearest to my parked car.

“The best times here are when we go by van to drive around for awhile,” he said.

He smiled and said quietly, “Oh, how I love to get out and see the world!”



Larue Barnes may be reached at laruebarnes@yahoo.com.