Tucker 1
The Source
Tucker is new to Jacksonville. He moved here as part of his retirement and since I’d known him before his move we occasionally meet for coffee. He’s picked up a sweet little delivery job that takes him around most of the town during the course of a day and so it has been enlightening to hear his take on Jacksonville. I should explain a bit about Tucker. He’s one of the most moral men I’ve never known. It would never occur to him to lie. His only real character flaw is that he thinks that everyone else acts the same way, and as a result he’s always blunt and to the point in his assessments. He’s a Christian gentleman but his language is often salty enough to startle me. I’ve asked permission to quote him with the caveat that I can edit some of more vivid descriptions. I’ll admit that I really like Tucker. As Grandpa used to say, “He’s the kind of feller you could run the river with.” “Damned nice town,” he told me when we first reconnected. “You seen the big old houses on State and College and down them little streets?” Then he added, “People live in all ‘em?” I said that I thought they did. At least they kept the lawns mowed. “Sometimes I’ll take my lunch just idling down them streets. I used to want to be an architect.” I’ve found his objective take on Jacksonville so fascinating that I’ve purposely kept from leading him in any one direction. I wanted to know what about the town would catch a newcomer’s eye. When we meet, Tucker determines the course of the conversation. “It’s an old town, ain’t it?” I agreed, adding what bit of historical knowledge I could muster in a booth at Hardees. “Old buildings. Old money too?” I told him that some was old, some was new, and all was spendable. “Not many kids?” I answered that I assumed that Jacksonville had the proper percentage of youngsters. “Your schools need work,” he said. I asked him which schools he was referring to and it sounded as if most of his delivery work was done in the neighborhood of Jacksonville’s elementary schools. “Don’t you have any modern buildings for little kids?” I couldn’t think of any. He said he’d not driven by JHS yet. “There’s that one low flat one on Lincoln.” I told him that would be Turner. “Bet the roof leaks,” he said. I told him I’d never been in Jonathan Turner Jr. High during a downpour. “But the others…boy. I’m surprised. They don’t seem to match up with the rest of the town, do they?” Then he added, “But the banks. The town’s got nice banks.” As Tucker talked I thought it might be a healthy activity for all towns to invite a newcomer or perhaps a genuine outsider to just take a cruise through their town and see what sticks out. “The square used to bustle, I suppose.” I told him that it bustled, then it died, and now it’s struggling to come back. “Town’s got to have a square to make it a town,” he said. “Even if it don’t make money, folks have got to have a center.” I related what little I knew about the efforts to revitalize the heart of Jacksonville and he seemed encouraged. “Are folks doin’ it to make money or because it’s the right thing?” I said that I thought it was probably a bit of both but that it often takes money to do the right thing. Tucker agreed. I asked what he thought of our arts community. “Like what?” he said. I mentioned the galleries, the symphony, and the theatre. “Like plays and stuff? I never done much of that. Any good?” I took a bye on that one, being less than objective myself. Tucker’s a fan of country music and said he was surprised that our town didn’t have any active C&W venues. “No honkytonks?” I told him that Taylorville and Petersburg had long-running country houses but both had folded. “Too bad. There’s always a market for country.” I asked him what he thought of the Jacksonville traffic. “What traffic?” he said. Tucker spent most of his life in a much larger city. “Traffic just means you got business. Start worryin’ when you don’t have traffic.”