The Unforgettable Jim Blackstock: Lessons and Laughter at a Memorable Funeral

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And I, to this day, can't kinda turn that off. That's just the way it

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is.

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Hey. What's up? What is new and exciting?

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Speaking of exciting, I was in Walmart

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Friday night because, you know, that's how I party.

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And I saw an old friend many, many, many moons ago.

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I was the editor. Well, first, I was a writer. We'll talk about this.

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For the student newsletter at Stark State

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College. And I've done an episode about this person before.

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That is James Blackstock, better known as Jim. He was my

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favorite teacher, and that's the problem. I just gave the, I just

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I just let the cat out of the bag. I'm in Walmart, and I see

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Amber. Haven't seen her really since we graduated,

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I think. I might I actually videotaped her wedding back in the day

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when you would put your camcorder on your shoulder,

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hand seen her. And she's like, hey. And I'm like, hey. I remember

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you. And she's like, did you hear coach died?

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And the last time I saw Jim Blackstock was at his retirement

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party, and he was amazed that so many people showed

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up. And I'm like, dude, you're Jim Blackstock. You won, like,

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teacher of the year 8000000 times.

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And he really helped get me through school.

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I remember he taught tech report writing. Now tech report

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writing and he even said this. He goes, look, this is the most boring class

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we probably teach at this school because tech report writing is

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like if we're doing a tech report for opening

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a jar of peanut butter. It would be like grasping the

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jar with your right hand and,

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with your left hand turning the lid counterclockwise. Like, you had to write

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stuff so that, like, a monkey could do it. And so he would come in.

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He'd be like, hey. What's going on? What's new and exciting? And he would just

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blow off, like, the first 10 minutes. And we'd all be laughing and having

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a good old time. And he just said, yeah, we're gonna do this, and then

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we'll have to do the boring stuff. So we're trying to have some fun at

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the beginning of this. And that's really it influenced

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my teaching style that, hey, you can actually have fun at school. That

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and I've said this before. My niece, Emily, one time,

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she was all of 3, and there's nothing more beautiful

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than the belly laugh of a 3 year old. And I said,

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Emily, what are you doing? And she said, Roger Rabbit is teaching

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me reading. And I was, like, she doesn't even know that she's learning. She's

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playing a game and having fun. And she was spooky smart, still

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is spooky smart. But that's when I was like, if you can

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get people to have fun while they learn, it doesn't seem so

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much like school. And so

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Blackstock and I had the same warped sense of humor.

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And every time there was a class that he was teaching that was in my

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field and in some cases, even if they weren't, I would take

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it. That's how much I loved having him as a teacher. And I think the

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first class I had him was some sort of techniques of writing or something like

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that. And there was one I don't even know what the assignment

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was. I think I've told you about this before where I

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wrote a piece, I guess, you could say. And

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the idea was this is back in the early nineties probably.

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And there was a rumor going around that if you ate enough wheat

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bread, you would get high. Now for the record,

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this is not true. But, nonetheless, back then, it

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was like, wait. What is that for okay. And so I wrote

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this article on what

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what would the you know, those commercials you see on TV,

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like, this is your brain on drugs, that kind of thing. I took

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every cliche you could think of

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and applied it to wheat bread. Like, I went

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from homeboy to home pride, you know, all this

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stuff. I got busted, getting money out of my

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grandma's purse. And she said, what are you doing? I'm like, grandma, I'm trying to

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get some butter top. Don't you know it's good stuff?

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And, it was very weird, and yet,

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you know, Blackstock saw it, and he stopped me

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after class. He's like, hey, man. I just wanna let you know

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I laughed a lot at this. This was funny. Have you ever

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thought of of writing? We we would love to have, like, a

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column from you in the the newsletter.

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And I was like, what would I write about? He goes, I don't know. We'll

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figure it out. He goes, maybe you'll have your review movies. He's like, but I

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I love your style, and this is good stuff. And

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so I'm driving home from Walmart,

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and I'm thinking about Blackstock. And I'm like,

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man, we had some good times together. And I was trying to figure out,

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like, when did I meet him? What what really stuck out? What was that first

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time? What's that first meeting? And I think that was it wasn't that was the

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first time I met him, but that was the time that I look back

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now and go, was this dude the linchpin? Because he really

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said, this is funny. I like this. You should do more of this kinda

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thing. And that led me to believe. I'm like, wait. Because

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later the next year, it was funny. He comes to me. He goes, hey.

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Great job last year with the newsletter and the articles. He goes,

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I'd really like to see you be the editor of the

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newsletter. And I'm like, dude, I I am so awful. I'm like, you

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bleed all over every paper I hand you with my

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grammar. He's like, no. No. No. I'll I'll handle that stuff. He's like, I

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just need somebody to run the office. And I'm like, well,

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okay. And he's like, oh, that's great because everybody else graduated. You

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are you are the newsletter at this point. And so that was

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funny. And he always had me laughing.

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But I I looked back and I was like, that this is good. That led

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to me being the editor of the newsletter, which

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then, actually, at one point, I was writing articles, and I

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was literally biting the hand that feeds because the nursing program

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at the college would allow so many nursing students in, but

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there were only so many placements. And so these poor

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nurses would end up taking unwanted classes,

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unneeded classes just waiting for it was like a bad game

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of musical chairs. And I

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just remember I would come in when I was just writing articles,

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and I would hand him 1. And we would both

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just start laughing until we almost, like,

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peed ourselves. And we'd be laughing and laughing and laughing. He's like, oh,

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man. He's like, yeah. We can't print this.

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So that was always funny. My favorite was we

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we decided to do an April fools joke because I don't know what

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date we published, but it it turned out it was gonna be on April 1st.

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And at the time, they had just banned

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cigarettes on the campus. You couldn't smoke anywhere

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unless it was outside or whatever. But you couldn't smoke in the cafeteria and all

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that other stuff. So smoking was banned. And so one of the articles

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was, not only had they banned cigarettes, they had banned

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candy cigarettes. And then the line that that got him is

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we had, like, the community calendar. So it was like, you know, the blah,

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the glee club will meet and blah blah, yada yada. And then on Wednesday,

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the gay Nazis for Christ will meet. And I just love the phrase gay

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Nazis for Christ because it's just a bunch of words you never see next to

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each other. And he saw that and just howled.

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And because number 1, we were right next door to, like, sister

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Mary Teresa, whatever her name was. And, he just

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laughed because, again, it was just so wrong. And, again, he was like,

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Yeah. We can't print that. And I think we changed it to gay Nazis for

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Elvis or something like that. But it was funny. And, of

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course, during that time, my mom died. And it

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was one of those things where I would go to his office, and he would

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get me laughing and and kinda make it through. And

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so the last time I saw him was at his

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retirement party. And, again, he was freaking out there

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there were that many people there. And I just thought, don't do

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your Jim Blackstock. What what do you of course, there are this many people here.

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And at this point, luckily,

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I always wonder, like, how I haven't seen Amber in, like, 20 years at

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least, if not 30. And I just happened to be at

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Walmart, happened to see her, and she lets me know on a Friday

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night that his memorial service is on Monday. And I

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was like, thank you. Because I really it was

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it was not like, I wonder if I'll go. It's like, no. I'm going.

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And even though I didn't know anybody there besides his wife,

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and so I'm at his truly his his retirement

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party, as in retirement from the planet. And what was

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interesting is I just picked up

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the bulletin, you know, and it says at the bottom of

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the page, it's got a picture of him, and he was 76.

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And it says, don't cry because it's over. Smile

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because it happened. And, apparently, doctor Seuss said that. But then I opened

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it up, and he's got 4 kids, and they are chips

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off the old block. And like the procession, it says

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the service will commence when the family enters. They might

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proceed, or they might just show up in a conga line to form a human

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pyramid. You never know with these clowns. And then later, it

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says, music, only scars in heaven from casting crowns.

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We invite you to sing along softly if you'd like, very

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softly if you can't carry a tune. And then towards the

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end, the benediction, Brett will close our time together and

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dismiss us. You can leave before the family, but that's

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rude, and it will be noted. And so I

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get there. I find a seat. We sit down, and I'm

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assuming it's his oldest son, but I don't know. One of his sons, he had

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4, gets in. He's like, hey. For

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those of you that knew my dad, you know he loved baseball.

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Like, just and he and his sons had visited

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every Major League Baseball Park in the United States. He

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loved baseball. He also loved music. And so they

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said, so to start off today's celebration of life,

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we're gonna start off by doing the wave. We're gonna say hi to dad

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by standing up. You know what the wave is. You stand up. You lift your

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arms up. And he goes, we're gonna pass it from the right to the left,

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and then left will then pass it back to the right. And you're sitting there

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thinking, are we gonna do the wave at a funeral?

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Like, no. Just like, okay. The guy's like, alright. Here we go.

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Remember, we're starting on the right side. 321. And everybody

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stood up and did the wave. And then they passed it

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back. And I instantly felt like this is

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where I'm supposed to be. I felt like he was there because that was just

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wacky, kinda wrong, and yet kind of

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fun. And so his his

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wife got up and spoke, and then his,

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kids got up and spoke, his grandkids got up and

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spoke, and then they opened up the floor. And it

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looked like nobody was gonna get up, and they'd left a lot of time. They'd

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said, hey. Kinda keep it short if you can. And I was like,

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well, somebody's gotta be first, and you never leave an open mic with a

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podcaster in the room. And so I got up, and it was kind of

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interesting because everything else was about family.

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And I just got up, and I said, Jim Blackstock was the best teacher I

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ever had. Hands down, no contest. Don't even think about

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it. And then I shared the things about tech report writing and

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things I've said here. And so it was interesting because you had

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all these different perspectives from his brother-in-law got up and

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spoke. Because once I got up and spoke, other people did. And, you know,

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there's always got to be that one person to to break the ice. And what

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was interesting is everybody did the same thing. You would get

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up, you would tell a story, and explain how you ended up

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laughing. And then somebody else would get up, and they would share a

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story. So on one hand, you're sitting there, and we're

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all laughing. And then that laughter would make you

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feel good. But then if you didn't watch yourself, you'd be

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like, I'm not gonna get any more of that, and it made you feel bad.

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And then somebody else would get up and make you feel good because it was

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a funny story. So it was kind of this roller coaster. But in the end,

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I was was so happy that I was there. But it it

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really as I listened to it, how especially from, like,

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his not sister-in-law, when you

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your your daughter-in-law. Right? The people that married his children,

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and they just said, he embraced us. Like, you never felt like

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an outsider with him, and he made

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everyone comfortable. And once you are comfortable, it was

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easy to make people laugh. And I just thought

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about that. I'm like, you know, I kinda complain a lot. You know? Have my

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opinions, and I'm not too shy about sharing them.

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But I wanna do that. I wanna embrace

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people and make them feel welcome, get them comfortable so I can make

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them laugh. And I I

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don't know. It's just one of those things where I still have the bulletin here

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in front of me, and I kinda wake up in the morning, and I'm like,

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okay. How can I make people feel comfortable?

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How can I help them to kinda forget whatever crappy thing is going on

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in their life, their stress, or whatever? And then how can I make them

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laugh or something or at least smile, something like that? But

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I gotta tell you, I have never been to a more fun funeral

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in my life. And that was the other thing. It's kinda weird. He was 76,

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and that's only 17 years older than I am. That's weird.

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That's like because I realize as as we

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if I look at 2024 and subtract

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17 from it, right, that's something

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2,007. Right? Yeah. And I'm like, 2007

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wasn't that long ago. Not really. And

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so I'm like, well, holy and I and I I wanna live to be, like,

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90, but you don't get a whole lot of say in that. Now

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Jim had Alzheimer's. He'd been kinda sliding away for 7 years, and that

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sucks. I've lived through that. That's no fun. But all of a

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sudden, when you see stuff like this, it reminds you

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that I am not immortal. I

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am going to eventually, And then you wonder how is how's are you

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gonna be lucky like my grandpa and bowl on Thursday and dry

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die on Monday or whatever it was, something like that?

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And I think about, you know, I'm the

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baby of the family, so I'm gonna end up burying all my brothers and sisters

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if everything goes according to plan. That makes me cry just thinking

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about it. It's the the bonus of being the baby as you get away with

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murder when you're growing up, but then you get to yeah.

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Holy cow. And that's one of the reasons why I'm a

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bit of a a workaholic. When

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my my mom, my grandma, and my uncle died in the span

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of a few months, that's when I first realized, oh, wait a

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minute. I've only got, you know, a very short time on this

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planet. I gotta get to work. And I, to

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this day, can't kinda turn that off. That's just the way it is. And when

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stuff like this happens, I'm like, I gotta get going. I gotta get

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going. But on the other hand, the more

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stuff I put into action, I end up moving,

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you know, a 100 peanuts a half an inch, where if I just

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focused on 1 peanut, I could move it a mile. But that's

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not my style. Sounds like I'm rapping now.

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But it was just I I keep I'm

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I'm glad I have this because that bottom line again,

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don't cry because it's over.

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Smile because it happened. And the thing that was cool is

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he started attending church, and he found the lord

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later in life. So for me, it's not goodbye.

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It's a see you later and,

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still my favorite teacher. And if you ever see me

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present or teach or anything like

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that, I am really a cheap knockoff

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of Jim Blackstock. I'll miss you, buddy,

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but I will see you later. And in the meantime,

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hopefully, it's gonna get better.