By Larry Davis
Register-News (of Mt. Vernon, Illinois),
Managing Editor

Yes, black sheep. Practically every family history includes at least one. Perhaps it's old Uncle Egbert whose potential to embarrass the relatives was surpassed only by his ability to put the touch on you for five bucks.

Or maybe It was your mother's wandering brother Jim, who seldom wrote much himself, but about whom you were always hearing the strangest stories from the strangest places.

Yes, brother Jim.  Maybe just the same sort of fellow as Hollie Laur's brother Jim, a stiff fellow - some might say wooden - who has Laur and his wife, Wilma, just wishing he'd "straighten up."

But then again, few if any of us probably have a brother like Laur's Jim. For this "Jim" is really a wooden man, but a well traveled one, and it appears that he has finally come home to rest.

"Hi, I'm Jim. Thanks for stopping. 1 would like to get to my brother's house - Hollie H. Laur in Waltonville, Ill. Waltonville is near Mt. Vernon off of 57 on 148 in the southern part of  Illinois,"

Well, indeed!!

Just what sort of craziness is this? Are there really people who would stop along the road to give a ride to a wooden man with his thumb out- stretched? You bet there are.

Jim, the cutout, is the creation of Jim Pallas, a Michigan artist who lives at Grosse Point Park, Mich,, and teaches at Macomb Community College. Hollie
Laur has never met Pallas, but his real life, flesh-and- blood brother, Jim Laur, is the artist's father-in-law.

Sometime before last Labor Day, Pallas made four cutouts - one of himself, one of his father-in-law, one of his wife and one of his daughter and sent them on their merry way by placing them near the side of the road.

The Detroit Free Press described Pallas' venture as the desire to deliver a "life-sized wooden cutout of himself to the Detroit Focus Gallery for an exhibit called 'Mail Art."

Laur described the odyssey of his "brother Jim" as "one of the foolish things people will get into their heads," The other two cutouts might properly be described as "missing."

"The last we heard, the wife and daughter hadn't come home," Laur said.
What  qualifies  cutout "Jim" as a black sheep is the fact that no one tipped Laur and his wife to the joke. The cutout was placed by the side of a farm road about 120 miles northwest of Detroit on Aug.30 at about 4 p.m. Early in November the Laur's got a letter from a man they'd never met.

Art Edlin wrote from Wildwood, Fla., in a message postmarked Oct.31. All he said was that he had picked up Laur's brother, Jim, in Michigan and had driven him to Florida.

Could this have been a long distance Halloween prank? Wilma Laur wrote to Michigan and enclosed Edlin's letter. She got a letter back from her sister-in-law, Ruth, which said:
"Yes, that is your brother Jim that has shown up in Florida.  Hope you told them to send it on in the Spring.   It was left on the side of the road around Labor Day up near the farm.  He (Pallas)  also did one of of Janet (his wife) and one of Lydia (his daughter), which we have not heard from yet.  Let us know when you get yours.'

Well, so much for who Jim was, but just exactly where was he now?

The story is written on his backside. Some of the hand writing Is a bit hard to read, but as Wilma Laur points out, the weather took Its toll on the old boy
This is not graffiti mind you ."Jim" solicited every word with the inscription,
"Take me as far as you can If you will sign your name and address on this card l will let you know when I get there (Waltonville).

The first response begins in the first person for "Jim" then switches abruptly as though the writer suddenly realized that he was speaking for a dummy.

"I spent a few nights at Mr. and Mrs. Jary Kniffers' in Carson City, Mich. Then sent him on his way south with Mr. and Mrs. Art Edlin of Sumner, Mich."

On Feb.23, Jim was picked up by Burl and Penney Thomas of Mundelein, in Wildwood, Fla. They carried him to Atlanta.

"Jim" spent a night at the home of Tom  and Christy Sheehan, Lithonia, Ga."
Perhaps tiring of the south, "Jim" then headed for the for the Midwest.

"Jim was picked up on 2/25 by Mrs. Marian Graff of St. Louis, Mo., and dropped off within 10 miles of his brother's house on 2/26/82 south of Mt. Vernon. Hope he got home."

"Jim was watched by the employees of King City Texaco until his brother picked him up 2/26/82."

So "Jim" was back in the county where the Laurs grew up.  He was expected and welcome if a bit early

"Well, we  were expecting it, but expecting somebody to bring it by here.  They said  in the Spring and it wasn't Spring yet,"  Wilma Laur said.
Her husband drove up to Mt. Vernon, popped "Jim" in the back seat and brought him the final few miles.

"I had to roll the glass down and stick his head out the window to get him home."
The Laurs have enjoyed "Jims" journey and want to send clippings to "each one of those who have participated in the event"

And Jim? Well his back side may be weather-beaten, but mrs. Laur says his face is a dead ringer for the real Jim Laur. "I mean it really looks like him", she said.

And after "better than 3,000 miles" as Laur figures it, "Jim" has enjoyed something of a celebrity status.

"Those boys at the Texaco station said a couple of women stopped there, got out of a big fancy car and had their picture taken with him," Laur said
And of course, "Jim" escaped the Midwest winter.

"Well, he spent the winter in Florida anyway. That's better than I could do," Laur added.

But his roving days are at an end. Laur says "Jim" is getting a little bent and he intends to cure him of that problem.

"I'm gonna tack him to the side of the garage so that he'll straighten up."
That's probably good enough for the family's "black sheep."

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