Jim Kerwin was a "Michigan outdoors" reporter for Detroit News Papers until he retired in 1994. Before that, he wrote for the "Stars and Stripes", so his choice of drop-off point for his hitchhiker makes sense.
Kerwin was disappointed when the Hitchhiker didn't show up at the Detroit News Building, the destination he had selected for it and posted on the back of the plywood cut -out.
In May, 2000, I received an email from C.M. Faubert who wrote;
"In the early 1990's I spent 2 weeks in Frankfort, Michigan,
hiking
in the hills and fishing the streams - I was on holiday from Australia
and was sort of casually touring the US. In a Deli off of the
Main
street (not far from the only movie theatre) I saw your Jim
Kerwin.
He appeared to be simply standing around at the Deli, people
watching.
He didn't say much - actually he never spoke to me - but he
always
had a grin on his face, so I can only assume he was of a
particularly
happy nature. He was the source of much conversation among the
establishments
nearby - no one knew from whence he came, and there was great
speculation
as to the reason for his constant good mood.
I offered the opinion that he was simply aware of a "joke" that
we could not see. Others had different ideas as to the source of
his amusement. In any event, that is where I saw your
wayward
friend.
....As for what I recall about the deli itself: It was located
in a building with other commercial shops which faces the street
with a sidewalk fronting it. It was famous for large
sandwiches,
and had a very small eat-in area as I believe it was popular for
bring-in and catering. In any event, it certainly was a
reasonably
fashionable establishment, and I would be very surprised if it
was
not there any longer. As I recall, across the street was an open
park, and you could see the lake from there.
NB: I never did make it back to Australia. I met an American
girl on
the train station platform in Denver and she insisted that I
marry her
and start a family - which I did"
Note: Jim Kerwin died in January, 2004. He was 74. Nolan
Finlay wrote a piece in the Detroit
News. I said a few words at his
funeral.
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