Remembering Friends: Jack Nimitz
Many of you have heard these stories before but many haven’t… So, here is another….
It was just another after noon in my new shop in the Valley… I did not have many clients and did not have anyone famous… My friend at the time Bob Sheppard was not yet famous and he gave my number to Jack Nimitz…. well, I’m setting in the shop and the phone rings… of course I pick it up… the guy on the other end says “Who is this” .. Not being the smoothest person at the time (I sense like Sheldon am a total joy) I said “Who the hell do you want to talk to?” he said this is Jack Nimitz and I want to talk to Rheuben Allen…. I am now so far in the hole I said “Let me see if he can come to the phone”.. waited a few seconds and tried to disguise my voice…. I’m pretty sure Jack knew what I was doing but came in anyway… I worked on his horn and he played it and I guess liked it then left…. He did start coming back…. He was my first big name client in LA…..
Right off the bat I liked Jack…. He was salty and would say just what he wanted…. Great qualities….
One afternoon he came close to closing… I worked on his sax and he said “would I like to get something to eat…. I said yes and he informed me we were going to have Sushi…. Now, being a country boy for Oklahoma the thought of eating raw shit did not really appeal to me very much… but Jack said I would like it so I went along… well of course they have tempura and I did not know that so I was safe….
Jack made me try a lot of raw stuff some were not very good to me but to my surprise….I don’t like Tuna salad, Tina fish but raw Tuna was great….. it was my favorite raw fish…. Jack was very nice and let me order the Tempura….
By the way I am hooked on hot air fries… My friend Greg Huckins gave me a Hot Air Frier for my new house warming gift…. I get the Arby’s fries from the frozen food section… I cannot get enough… I am eating some now while I write this and got side tracked…. back to the story!
Several weeks Jack had a session and I was working on his sax and he could not pick it up because he was waiting for a delivery…Jack already told me his dog Romeo would not let anyone come in the house so he would meet me at the door… I got to the house and walked up to the front door and rang the bell… Jack opened the door and Romeo just came out and let me pet him and was very friendly… Jack said he couldn’t believe it and I would need to watch his house if he went on the road… and I do a couple time…..
I really enjoyed hanging out with Jack and was hit very hard by his death…
P.S. Four out of the five guys in this section were my repair clients…..