James Otis Craine was born on April 11, 1882, in Jackson, Georgia. He was the happiest and most light-spirited man the little girl had ever met! It didn’t take long for her to realize that nearly everybody in Jones County knew him. She learned to use that to her advantage in later years, proudly introducing herself as the granddaughter of her Papa, “Mr. Jim Craine.”
He was a gifted musician who played piano, guitar, banjo and harmonica very well, but his favorite was the fiddle. In fact, that’s how he’d first made a name for himself while playing at peach shed dances across the state. Even in his later years, no Saturday night passed without him fiddling as he (Irish) buck-danced across the living room after dinner.
Earlier on, Webb Vincent (an extraordinarily kind and gentle man) had not been too impressed with his 15-year-old daughter’s fascination for this middle-aged musician. However, after Louise and Jim eloped, Mr. Vincent welcomed his new son-in-law with open arms.
Jim was also known as a real life Dr. Doolittle. One day a water moccasin had been winding its way from Craine’s Lake toward the concrete swimming pool. “Don’t make a fuss, now. I’ll just pick him up and throw him back where he belongs.” The little girl froze as her Papa sent the snake flying into the air and back into the lake.
On another occasion, she spotted her grandfather sitting atop a big, long rock behind the house. In his lap, he held a huge, white duck that seemed to be looking up at him as he spoke. “Now, everything’s gonna be alright. You just sit here for a spell and calm down. No need to get so upset when people come fishing.” After a while, the duck jumped up, then waddled down the side of the rock and headed on back down to the water.
Mr. Jim’s twinkling, green eyes brought great joy to Louise, their children and grandchildren for many years. Then on December 16, 1964, the 82 year-old man was struck by a car while walking along Highway 22/129 between Gray and Haddock. The shock of his sudden death was almost more than the teenage girl could bear.
However, shortly before the funeral her grandmother came to sit beside her in the red and white glider on the front porch. “Sugar, I’ve been thinking a lot these past couple of days. Your granddaddy just wasn’t the kind of man who could’ve been lying around in a hospital bed just waiting to die. Lord knows, he could hardly sit still at the best of times,” she said chuckling a bit out loud. “It’s hard, child, on all us left behind, but this was the only way that man could’ve left this earth.”
For the next little while as they waited for the funeral home limos to arrive, the girl and her grandmother sat silently…occasionally, smiling at some memory of such a delightful man.
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