In Memory of Jim Waite

            It happened that Margery and I both answered the phone on the evening of August 7^th when Kurt Holmann called to inform us that Jim had passed away that afternoon.  We were both shocked by the news.  I had talked to Jim about the Midwest fair just a couple of days earlier and there was no hint that there was any health issue.  As a matter of fact Jim was busy gathering corn to send to all of his friends.  Jim was a force in the world of Sebastians and he will be missed, but much more he was a friend.  Now that he has gone, it is hard not to reflect back on the years that we have known each other.  Accompanying this article will be thoughts from others who knew Jim; however I would like to take some time to reflect back on the many years that I knew Jim and to share these remembrances with you. 

            As I think about it is hard to remember a time when I didn’t know Jim.  However, since our friendship evolved as a result of Sebastian Miniatures we must have become aware of each other in the early eighties.   I am thinking that we must have met at one of the first Festivals.  Those were exciting days in the early eighties and a lot was going on.  This was the period when Sebastians were exploding across the country and I had just started to design pieces for the line.  To help me recall the sequence of events, I have gone back to the old Sebastian Miniatures Collectors Society News publications; I have a couple of sets of all the newsletters stashed away for reference when needed.  With my memory refreshed as a result of my research I can safely say that I attended the First Midwest Fair on September 26, 1981.  The Fair was six days after I had introduced my first piece, The First Kite.  The Fair was held in Urbana, IL and was sponsored by three local dealers; The Blossom Shop, JBJ Enterprises, and Dwight Galleries.  Therefore, I met Jim at the beginning of my Sebastian career and at the beginning of his involvement with the sponsorship of the Midwest Fairs.  At that time who would have guessed that the Midwest Fair would be an annual event for two and a half decades. 

            In 1982 my father traveled with us to the Fair and in 1987 Margery accompanied me to the Fair.  Up until this time the Fairs had been held at a mall that was attached to the Jumers Castle Hotel.  The Friday night Chit-Chats were held in a medieval styled banquet hall.  The hall was decorated with swords, shields, suite of armor, high backed chairs and large medieval styled tables.  All of this led to a festive occasion. As time went on, Lance thought it was not necessary for me to attend all of the Fairs and there was a period of time when I did not travel to the Fair.  This was during the late 80’s to the early 90’s and the number of collectors attending the Fair began to shrink.  Also during this time Jim changed the venue from Champaign/Urbana to his shop in Farmer City.  However, while the Fair was still in Champaign/Urbana, I think it was the year that Margery first came to the Fair that we decided to have a little fun with Jim.  After the Fair had come to a close and everything had been picked up, Margery and I decided to drive down to Farmer City and to find The Blossom Shop.  Up until that time I had never been to Farmer City and had never seen The Blossom Shop.  It was late at night and there was nobody in sight and no expectation of seeing Jim or anyone else.  However, I could not resist the opportunity for a small joke.  I took out one of my business cards and scribbled a note on it to the effect that we were sorry to have missed him and left it on the door to the shop. 

The next morning at the crack of dawn we were on our way back to Indianapolis to catch the plane to Boston.  The reason we set out so early was to allow time to visit the Indianapolis Racetrack.  For a few years I had made it part of my trip back to the airport to stop at the Racetrack, to visit the museum, and to have a couple of hot dogs at the outdoor café for lunch.  Even with a tour of the track, Margery did not seemed as enthralled with the experience as was I.  In 2001, Scott and I would visit the track to attend the second Formula One race that was held at the Indianapolis facility thus seeing the track in action. 

            First thing Monday morning after the Fair, Jim called to answer my note on the card and to invite me to the store the following year.  As I mentioned there was a few years when I did not attend the Fairs and it is my recollection that my hiatus started about this time.  It must be said that Jim was never far from one’s thoughts.  I often commented to Jim that he did not have to single-handedly support the phone company.  Having said this, it was not unusual to receive two or three pone calls from Jim a day.  During these calls we would joke, but Jim also had some good ideas and more that a few new Sebastians came into being as the result of our conversations.  It was during many of these phone chats that Jim was able to convince me that I should persuade the folks at Lance that it was worth the expense to send me to Farmer City to the Fair.  In addition to Jim’s requests, we were also receiving comments from collectors that there was something happening in Farmer City in October that warranted a trip.  As a result of this campaign I returned to the Fair. 

            I must admit that I returned to the Fair with a bit of skepticism but as soon as the festivities started, all of those concerns evaporated.  From the Friday night dinner to the relaxed atmosphere of the event on Saturday to the caravan to a buffet restaurant on Saturday night the Fair was a great place to be.  Needless to say, once I returned, I continued to come back each year.  Jim succeeded in making the collecting of Sebastians fun and he did it with the flavor of Midwest hospitality.  If there were new collectors at one of the Fairs, he made sure that I had the chance to meet with them and often sat them at my table for the Friday night dinner.  Jim encouraged youngsters in the community and those attending the Fair to enter the children’s Look-A-Like contest.  With the help of his daughters, Annie and Katrina, Jim would theme the fair and then spend hours decorating the hall where the Fair was to be held.  The theme would always be kept a secret and on Friday night before dinner, collectors would gather outside the hall waiting to be let in.  The talk would always get around to what they thought the theme might be for the Fair that year.  I of course knew the theme because I had created the medallion a few months before.  However, it was always a surprise when we entered the hall to see the extent of the decorations.  This year the theme would have been Merry Old England with the medallion being a red English phone booth. 

            Around the turn of the century, Jim persuaded Margery to return to the Fair and just like me, once she returned she continued to attend.  Recently Jim became involved with the last few Festivals and was a force behind the Conventions.  Because there are fewer of us than in the past we were able to enter a new era with regard to the last few events in Massachusetts.  Taking a cue from the hospitality Jim created with the Midwest Fair, Margery and I started to ask collectors to the Wayland studio for a cookout and a tour of the studio.  These gatherings, mostly after the event on Saturday night, have been the source of a lot of enjoyment for both Margery and me.  We feel that these get togethers have been enjoyable for the collectors as well. 

            Not only did Jim support Sebastians through his sponsorship of the Fairs and his attendance at the Festivals but he was a wealth of information and advice on all sorts of topics.  When one of my famous misspellings was discovered, Jim was the one who suggested that instead of throwing out the pieces already cast that we should make the most of the situation.  Jim suggested that we spray the pieces gold and offer them as an aberration of the piece.  This course of action was a great success and we continued to follow this example with subsequent misspellings.  It is surprising how often we had to find the gold paint.  I think this episode shows Jim’s real strength, he saw everything as an opportunity and not as a problem.  When I launched out on my own, after the demise of Hudson Creek, It became obvious that the pieces I was about to produce should have a label.  Once again Jim came to the rescue with the name of a label supplier, a supplier that we are still using.  As I was in the midst of putting together this newsletter, I had occasion to talk with my contact at Hood.  During the course of the conversation, I mentioned to him that Jim had passed away.  Jim and this fellow had gotten to know one another when this fellow was looking for one of my father’s Hood Cigar Store Indians.  Jim was able to locate one and they worked out an arrangement for this fellow to add the Indian to his collection of Hood pieces.  In response to my sad news this fellow said “It was p pleasure to have known him”.  He continued by saying that “the Indian would be worth that much more knowing it came from him”.  I think this sums up what a lot of us feel, things we have, to include memories, will be worth a lot more knowing they cane from Jim. 

            Through all of this remembrance of Jim there were many more instances of Jim’s goodness that could have been mentioned, but I wanted to give a sampling of our friendship with Jim and his family.  Jim was a lot of fun to be around, a good friend and always a staunch supporter of Sebastian Miniatures.  Jim is and will be missed.