Jake
Back in the 1960s, Bert and I took in a movie with our friends, Al and Jo Anne Lenkey.
It was a celebration of sorts, made memorable by the hilarity of the movie and accented by Al’s roaring baritone laughter shaking the seats throughout the film.
The movie, “The Hallelujah Trail,” is a saga about an Old West wagon train delivery of whiskey, and attempts to divert it from its calvary escort by a tribe of Native Americans, the village miners and a Women’s Temperance group. An oracle led the way for one of the groups, and after much planning and strategy, the resulting encounter is incredibly funny.
The movie was not rated highly, probably because Burt Lancaster fans didn’t appreciate their hero of drama and passion starring in a comedy; but, the memory of the hilarious clashes of opposing forces stuck with me for a long time.
Years later, on regular vacations to our favorite campground at the Delaware shore, we encountered our own oracle. His sharp-edged wisdom made him a guru about fishing and life to most of the campground kids and some of the adults.
Probably most of the kids who avidly listened to Jake’s yarns and advice didn’t know or care about his last name. He was, after all, just Jake.
His name was Jacob Barron, and he lived in Somerset. In physical appearance, I would place him as a farmer, as he seemed to have memorized all the information in the Farmers’ Almanac.
Jake knew how to fish the sandy Rehoboth Bay bottom, and the smell of flounder roasting on his grill was proof of that. His coolers usually had catches of blue crabs and clams wowing the campground kids, who for the most part just fished off the docks.
Even guys who went out on the bay and fished the channel (like us) would listen to Jake’s free advice on the best baits, tides, times and techniques to get a better catch.
But Jake’s advice and no cost council wasn’t limited to fishing. He had a solution (usually hilarious) to any problem.
As much as Jake enjoyed the attention he garnered, his wife was quite the opposite, smiling at his stories, but rarely joining in.
As unusual of a character you might consider Jake to be, there was no denying he was a heck of a fisherman, had garnered a lifetime of knowledge, and he loved interacting with people of all ages.
He would counsel on how to keep a blue crab holding on to chicken neck bait until it could be netted, how to find clams with bare feet, (a technique our daughter Lori learned), and where flounder could be found at low or high tides.
I pictured Jake as the oracle in “The Hallelujah Trail” with his admirers intently soaking up his guidance.
Roy Hess Sr. is a retired teacher and businessman from Dawson.