Memories of the Man Child, Jonathan Jackson-'Jake'

As indicated by my screen name, I have lived my life without forgettting my fellow Pasadenan and former class mate at 2 different schools as they were called back then, grammar and junior high-elementary and middle. Jake or J J as we called him even as a pre-teen was enlightened, because we 2 were the outcasts of our class we became friends, he taught me about pre-civil rights history and the racist history ofn the US, he was intelligent, mature and wise way beyond his years and standing over 6 feet tall he earned his moniker Man Child given to him by his imprisoned brother.

In the 5th and 6th grades we used to sneak in cigarette breaks between classes, I was impressed with Jake because he would whip out Benson & Hedges 100s from the slide out luxury box they came in back in the day. Jonathan had a wonderful sense of humour and beamed with pride when talking about his older brother, his sister was more or less his surrogate mother despite her being just a couple of years older. I won't go into details but for those of us who knew J J it was no surprise he attempted to break out his brother and I'll never forget his role in shaping my perspective that 35 years later is still part of my physche.