“Some days ideas come easier than others. Some days it’s like pulling hen’s teeth.”
– Jim Palmer
This morning was perfect. Sunny, colorful, calm. Other than the pollen, Spring is such a fun season, don’t you think? (Achoo!) Wrinkled brown seeds turn into rainbows in the dirt, and birdsong is carried on the breeze. Clouds with cartoon edges stretch toward each other with their soft, white wings, and fat, fuzzy bees zip around with yellow spice on their feet.
(My hydrangea bush yawns and stretches out its leaves. Berries warmed by the sun, as pretty as they are sweet.)
And porch time, oh my goodness, what a gift to swing out there in Spring. The light is especially magical when the sun has set but isn’t fully swallowed up yet. Inside, life goes on with my Palmer people. They’re such a gracious bunch, and I don’t know what I did to deserve them, but I’m so thankful that they are mine.
(Granpè Jim and Steevenson, tongues out, left hands hard at work.)
That’s Kevin’s dad in the photo above. He’s got silver in his hair and gold in his heart. His name is James, but most folks call him Jim. Steevenson calls him Granpè, so the rest of us have started to call him that too. He was the youngest of two sons. In his youth, he worked hard and played football. As a young adult, he served his country and then took a job at a bank in downtown Dallas. And he drew. He always drew. In 1968, he met and fell in love with Katie, and in the early 70s, he, too, was blessed with two boys. Kerry in 1971 and Kevin three years later. Both “K” names because Jim was absolutely certain there wasn’t a more beautiful way to start a word.
He gets around on a scooter now, but before the discs in his back and neck started to give him trouble, he had a long and busy career with the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper. He was their political cartoonist, and you could find his drawings in the paper six days a week. Sometimes, after a long, mind-bending week at work, he would pack up the family and drive out to the country to visit Katie’s mom, Mama Gustie. Family members who lived nearby would get wind and trickle in, and Mama Gustie would fill them all up with her favorites: fried chicken, squash casserole, no less than three different bean dishes, and potato salad, all made from scratch, of course. Seconds weren’t optional and no one was allowed to leave the table before finishing a fluffy hunk of her homemade lemon icebox pie.
One weekend while they were visiting, Jim surprised the boys with easels he had secretly propped up on Mama Gustie’s big back porch. The three of them stood side-by-side, for hours, dragging thick, colorful oils across their canvases. Kevin was probably eight years old at the time, but it’s still one of his favorite clear glimpses into the past.
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And when they weren’t creating works of art together, Jim incorporated his boys and his beloved into his art at work. While the rest of the city was scanning his cartoons to see what each day’s drawing had to say, Katie, Kerry and Kevin were on a mission to find a different message in his work. Squinting their eyes and scrunching their noses to see where Jim had hidden their secret symbols that day. A sunshine for Katie and two little stars for the boys. Do you see them in the picture below?
They’re harder to find in these next two:
(Answers: Pic #1: button on left boy’s wrist, pin on right boys hat; Pic #2: button on man’s wrist, awning over schoolhouse door; Pic #3: pin on taller man’s hat, top edge of rowboat)
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The Montgomery Advertiser published a book full of his work in December of 1992. I looked up the ISBN number today and it says there aren’t any more books available. (Boo!) Here’s an excerpt:
Jim Palmer contends, “You don’t have to be left-handed to be a cartoonist, but it helps to be crazy.” He’s been crazy about cartooning from an early age. After graduating from high school in Hawkins, Texas he attended Dallas Art Institute in 1955 and 1956, and later stretched his banking lunch hours to hang around with the Dallas Morning News cartoonists, in hopes of getting a job in the field.
“If I had my druthers, I’d be a sports cartoonist,” Palmer says, but the heyday of the sports cartoons passed before he got a full-time drawing job, so he wound up drawing political footballs, sometimes involving pork-barrel politics, instead of pigskins.
In 1959-1961 he was in the Army, stationed in the San Fransisco Bay area as a dog handler, “and I’ve got the scars to prove it.”
He spent 11 years in banking, all the while harboring the urge to puncture pomposity and ridicule asininity. Having continued his habit of visiting working cartoonists and drawing sports cartoons for weeklies in Texas, he sent out a brochure to “everybody in Editor & Publisher’s yearbook ….. My family thought I was crazy.”
The fateful phone call came from Harold Martin, then editor of The Montgomery Advertiser, offering a job with the afternoon newspaper.
Palmer says he took a $100-a-month pay cut, but “I would have come for free. If they’d just let me publish my cartoons, I’d have worked in a grocery store.”
Part of his credo is something the Alabama Journal’s Ray Jenkins told him early in his career: “A cartoon is an overstatement.” In lieu of a Greek chorus, Palmer has incorporated “the little man” into some of his cartoons since 1969. In that era, Palmer explains, most political cartoons had captions at the top and bottom, but an editor often tampered with them. To keep his sentiments intact, Palmer made them emanate from the mouth of “the little man”.
His approach to cartooning, as the examples in this book illustrate, is “humor with a little impact thrown in for emphasis…If I can’t do that, I might as well be back in the bank filing checks.”
To him, the hardest part of the job is “just keeping up with what’s going on. Then we zero in on the topics for the cartoons — who we want to get mad at that day… Some days the ideas come easier than others. Some days it’s like pulling hen’s teeth.”
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My father-in-law’s back troubles may have limited his ability to walk and use his right hand, but you’ll never meet a more loving, unassuming, talented, left-handed man. These days, he mostly draws cartoon animals and angels. He pulls up to his drawing desk every morning after breakfast and he’s got stacks and stacks of colorful drawings to prove it.
I’m sure he draws because it feels harder not to pour pictures out, but his artwork will always look like so much more than pencil on paper to me. I see a quiet confidence, and what can happen when a person like that throws open the windows of their soul to the sun. I see the gathering of courage and the creativity of someone who sent brochures out to everyone.
Hope you are well, friend…wherever in the world this story finds you today!
Layla
Beautiful Layla! This made my morning! Blessings to you and your precious family.
Thank you, Jill! And I’m so glad you enjoyed this post! 😀
Layla, what a beautiful piece on your Father in law, thank you for sharing that and what a nice picture of Steevenson with his Grandpè. Jim Palmer’s work is just amazing!
Thank you, Colleen! And I’ll have to share more of his work in future posts. It really is so good!
Such a wonderful true story about your father in-law. U are blessed to have such a wonderful family. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for taking time to swing by and say hi, Zelda! 😀
Layla,
What a gift he has!! I thoroughly enjoyed looking for the stars and sunshine!! I love how you knit words together and these stories of your soul! What a sweet family! Thank you for the beautiful start of my day!!!
Thank YOU for making MY day, Babette! 😀
How special!!! Love the hidden sun and stars!!❤
Me too! 😀
I absolutely loved this! Listening to it, especially. Maybe you’ve been doing that for a while, but today is the first time I’ve seen that “listen” option. Your voice is perfect for narration! My husband is an illustrator and for a short while, he drew cartoons on local politics for our small weekly hometown newspaper in Kansas, so I especially enjoyed this story of Kevin’s dad.
Thank you, Deborah! I just started recording the audio last week, and I’m so glad you enjoyed that new feature! And how fun that your hubby is an illustrator too. I always thought I wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up too! 😀
LAYLA, what a beautiful story about a besutiful man. You ate one lucky woman within your Oalmer family. A wonderful mother in law in Katie who cooks and smiles, an amazing father in law in Jim who smiles and draws and Kevin who is the product of these two wonderful people who smiles and plays beautiful music. Not to mention your beautiful little boy who also smiles, talks to Jesus and continues to find wonder in life. You, LAYLA Palmer are a loving giving woman who spreads joy where ever you go! I have a feeling all rainbows land on the Palmer cottage. Be happy, be well, be able to see all your blessings with an open receiving heart, you so deserve it.
Layla, You convey in words how life makes me feel, the love of family and our life heritage all rolled into great prose for your family….THANKYOU for your gift…God Bless❤️
Thank YOU, Peggy! You made me smile over here! 😀
Sweet story of a life well lived.
Thank you, Denise! I’m so glad you swung by today! 🙂
Layla,
What a beautiful tribute to your father in law. But the reference to Hawkins, TX amazed me. My mother graduated with the class of 1958 as its salutatorian. In such a small town they must have known each other. Thanks for sparking a memory this morning.
Best,
Renee Blair
WOW! What was your mother’s last name, Renee? I’ll have to check with Jim to see if he remembers her! 😀
Layla,
Her name was Janas Yates. And thinking back she probably graduated in 1957.
Renee
What a beautiful tribute to your father-in-law. I enjoyed the read this morning.
What can happen when a person throws open the windows of their soul to the sun…
Thank you for inspring me this morning. 🌞
You are so welcome…thank you for encouraging me to keep sharing in this way! 😀
Girl!!! What a beautiful post! Thank you for sharing his story. The audio makes me feel like you are in the room and we are just chatting over a sweet iced tea. 😊
Thank you, Martha! And I’m so glad you enjoyed listening, too!
To have a great man as a father-in-law is truly a gift from God. I had one too.
Oh, I’m so glad you loved yours too, Debbie! 😀
I so enjoyed this piece on your father-in-law. I’m so glad he never gave up on his dream. I think it encourages all of us to hang in there on achieving ours.
I’m so glad he never gave up on his dream too, Jerralea! 😀
Beautiful! You have such a wonderful soul and you are truly talented as a writer!
You are so kind to say that, Kathy! Thank you!
Love your blog and love this one on your father in law! To HEAR your words and his words speaking makes your blog come alive! So so special ❤️ Thank you for sharing your life and your inspiration. God is shining through you my friend!
“Alive”! I loved reading that description! Thank you, Danette!
Aaaaaw! Just love that man! You have written a real tribute to him ! Really enjoyed that !
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Valerie! I enjoyed writing it too!
Layla,
What a fitting glimpse into the life of a wonderful man. Long may he continue to draw. Thank you for sharing this! It was as good as you said. ❤️
Aw, thank you Teresa! It was fun to share it!
What a great story! You are so lucky to have.such lovely Palmer people to call your own.
Thank you, Beth! 😀
Lovely!! I was wondering how the grandparents were doing.
Tears! Oh my gosh reading this is great but listening to it was amazing. My husband would be able to sit and talk with him for hours about drawing. I keep telling him he needs to just open up and go for his drawing. I can’t wait to share this with him.
Wonderful! I bet Sweet Pea REALLY loves seeing him draw, and having him draw fun things for him. What a wonderful inspiration for all of y’all.
Grandparents are special but this article about your father-in-law just shows your love of Kevin’s parents ! How lucky Stevenson is to have them live so close ❤️
Off the subject but if Kevin’s dad is experiencing pain have you looked into Platelet Rich Plasma injections.? Won’t try to explain it all but if you google it you may be impressed.
I haven’t heard of that, but I know the gadget that Jim has implanted at the base of his spine (and that he controls with a dial on the outside) has made all the difference in the world as far as managing pain goes! 😀
The PRP is more than pain control. It allows the area to heal itself using your own blood cells at the injured site. Well worth a look-see
Oh I want a Jim! Do you rent him out? I will pay for a plane ticket to Indiana!😉 I am so, so envious of the relationship you have with your in laws. The only living grandparent my kids have left is my mom. My dad was the most amazing man and I so miss that my kids didn’t get to know him..I am so happy you are blessed with that kind of sunshine in your life.❤️❤️❤️
I really enjoyed this post. You and Pappe’ should collaborate on a children’s book!
I was *just* telling him that this morning!!!
That’s a great idea!!! Yes!! There can always be more books on adoption too for kids.
Wow wow wow!!!! I love listening to your blog!! And love hearing about the story of your father-in-law!! Thank you for using your gift from God, writing & storytelling!!
This was just what I needed…thank you for sharing. It’s easy to see where you got your big heart from.
Gosh Layla his work is amazing! Couldn’t he do children’s books illustrations . . Hint hint? You write the book he does the drawings . . . I have always loved to draw . . .. I wish I had his talent. What
Wonderful lessons Steevenson is getting. Much love to you all. Oh I have a design ? For you . . . Doing our kitchen over . . . If you were to buy a farmhouse sink what material would you get it in?
💗
Loved this story about your father-in-law. I grew up in Kilgore, Texas which isn’t to far from Hawkins and we use to go to the lake there in the summer! You need to keep all those pictures he has piled up on his desk!!
Love this biographical essay! Beautiful!
Such a beautiful post!!!
Layla, thank you for sharing Jim with us today! He sure seems like a sweet man! I loved listening to your story!
❤️ Brooke
Oh what an inspirational post Layla. I really enjoyed hearing about your father-in-law’s work and how he managed to finally get to enjoy work as an artist. I really loved how he incorporated his family into the final cartoon. What a lovely keepsake and memories. And how lovely that Granpe and Steevenson enjoy working together. What memories they will make together. Thanks for the uplifting boost for today.
Ohhh this is so good! Thank you for sharing!
Layla, thank you for this! It is so good to hear James’ (Andy) voice. That’s how I grew up knowing him! I always loved checking out his cartoons many years ago!
My family owned weekly papers in east Texas. I wonder if his cartoons were in theirs.
Your writing is beautiful and a lovely tribute to his life and character. I enjoy your blog and your humor, but your writing? That is quite a gift you have lady❤
I love this post about your father-in-law! I was so wishing the book was still available to purchase. The love politics, humor, and drawing.
I intend to show my young boys the cartoons in your blog post. Does your father-in-law sell any of his artwork? I would love to give my son something presidential for his upcoming birthday. 😉
Such a beautiful post straight from the heart! You are truly blessed!
Enjoyed listening about your father in law. You have the perfect voice and I could listen to you all day🥰. Bless you and all your family. By the way I Grew up in Denton Texas. 😘 Debbie
Layla,
I’ve always loved your God given talent for writing but when I got to the wording ” my hydrangea yawns and stretches out it’s leaves” I couldn’t wait to read on..and then as you wove the life of your father in-law, it found it’s way wrapped around my heart.
What a precious man, loving his “K”atie , andnaming his sons with the same intial.. omgoodness!
He balanced responsibilities with his dreams, not willing to let one go for the other.
Like you 😉
So blessed for the blog today..thank you! You all are a very lovely family.
God bless and keep you!
Thank you so much for making the connection to our former coworker, Jim! When my husband an I got married and left the Advertiser, we received the traditional going away present of caricatures done by Jim. We treasure them to this day. Tell him Mary and John say hello!!
What a beautiful post!!!
Layla,
This was a beautiful tribute to your father-in law. I would love to see one of his angel drawings!❤️
This is a great post! You have a gift with words for sure! And what a wonderful way to honor Kevin’s father! Your people must really enjoy seeing how you treasure them.
Loved reading about Kevin’s dad and I was surprised to see where we was from. I live 30 miles from Hawkins, Tx in Longview. So cool!
Oh I just love this!! I have wanted to know more about your father in-law since you mentioned he was a cartoonist. Thanks for sharing. I just can’t get over how lucky you are to have such wonderful in-laws in your day to day lives. How wonderful for Steevenson 🙂
Sure thing, Melanie! And I look forward to publishing more posts about my Palmer people in the future, too!
Loved this one, thanks for sharing. The way I always heard it said was, “Scarce as hen’s teeth”.
Oh, that’s a funny one too, Janice! 😀
Your wonderful story finds me in Ohio with a hint of a day filled with sunshine and a temperature (finally) above 40 degrees! Thank you for helping me start my day with such a loving and family oriented post.
Yay for above 40! 😀 And thank you for connecting with me here today, Sue! It makes me happy to know you enjoyed your “stay”. 🙂
What a loving, beautiful post!
Thank you, Kim! 😀