ELORA – Jim Black likes to go for a stroll and while he’s out, he waves at people.
This is not unusual, you may think. Many people wave at others when outdoors and even when inside through a window.
But Jim is different. And the response he gets is different too.
He’s kind of a superstar in these parts and for an 89-year-old in a wheelchair, he can sure attract a crowd.
“He’s quite a bright spark,” said Lorie Black, Jim’s daughter. “He just started doing this thing where he waves at everyone. And they started waving back. It was immediate.
“I think it’s the way he does it. He sits up straight and puts his arm up in a salute almost. People take notice.”
Jim is hard to miss. He wears a tartan tam, sometimes carries a walking stick that he waves with, and always has a huge smile.
These days he’s also wrapped up in a sleeping bag or blanket while his daughters Lorie and Susan Benham wheel him along Colborne Street for his daily outing.
People on foot will wave back, Lorie said. Sometimes a carload of people will wave back. Children will run up to him to get a wave.
“Now people will pre-wave, just to get a wave from my dad,” Lorie said.
Lorie’s real dad was named Perry Black and he and Jim were cousins, who coincidentally were born on the same day. Perry and his wife Peggy had five kids.
When Jim came to visit, “he’d turn us kids upside down and pretend we were brooms,” Lorie said.
Lorie was five and Susan three when Perry died, and Jim would come around to visit and help around the house. A few years later Jim and Peggy were married.
“In a way, they did trade places,” Lorie said of her two dads. “(Jim) has been a wonderful dad. He brought the wonder of life back to us.”
Peggy died last year and shortly after Jim had a stroke.
Jim Black gives a wave as his daughter Susan Benham walks him through Elora. Submitted photo
He also had a bad fall this summer and that’s what put him in a wheelchair. Lorie and Susan take turns taking him for daily walks because he loves the outdoors.
He’s got a good attitude and that’s what shines through when he’s out and about, Lorie said.
“He just loves life and people,” she said.
Elora has a history of embracing its endearing characters and talk of Jim Black and his following led to talk of Archie Smith, a character known locally as the “town greeter” back in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
“I do remember Archie,” Lorie said. “I was a teenager – it would have been 40 years ago.
“Archie wore black pants and red suspenders. You’d see him around town, waving at people too.”
Members of the “Growing up in Elora” Facebook page recalled that Archie would also wear an Easter Bunny costume and sometimes a Santa suit as well.
By their recollections, Archie was known to attend funerals and church services and always dressed and behaved appropriately at these events, even if he didn’t necessarily know the deceased or was a member of the church congregation.
He too would walk through town saying hello, offering a hearty handshake, and a wave.
“He loved having fun and dancing,” Tina Buckton wrote on Facebook. “I was at Café Flore the night he passed. He died happy, doing what he loved to do.”
Nathan Sloniowski remembers Archie and even wrote a song about him in 2019 called Archie’s Good Night.
“I asked around about Archie at local pubs and the Legion, and interviewed a few people who knew him, including Lisa Windsor (she works at the Elora beer store), who claimed she was there the night he died, dancing in the basement of Le Cafe Flore, now home to The Friendly Society,” Sloniowski said in an email.
Sloniowski mentions Archie’s gold tie clip, red suspenders, second-hand suits and brown Oxford shoes in the song.
While Jim did know Archie back in the day, he’s not trying to emulate or usurp the warm spot people have for the original town greeter, Lorie said.
“They both have the same eagerness to engage with people and spread good will,” she said.
“With my dad, it’s just so cute to see. The great part about connecting with people is that he’s always so grateful. And so are they.”
