BRACK: A great send-off for Planet Jimbo

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |   Jim Goolsby’s obituary was unexpected in more ways than one.

Celebrate Jim’s life, it said, by putting on your favorite bright and colorful Superhero T-shirt (please no black unless Darth Vader or Batman), and join family and friends at Hampton Park.  There will be food, water and tea, it added, saying you could bring chairs, blankets and coolers (wink, wink.)

“Planet Jimbo” loved comics (DC over Marvel, but he also loved Captain America) and their blockbuster movies.  He loved pro wrestling and reportedly was thrilled when “Nature Boy” Ric Flair phoned him as he lay in a hospital room being treated for the pancreatic cancer from which he died a few days ago.  

An accomplished guitarist and songwriter, Jim loved music.  A pair of friends performed a couple of favorite songs by Jim Croce at the Friday celebration.  

“The measure of a friend is the hole they leave when they’re gone,” one longtime friend shared tearfully Friday as more than 50 people hung on every word.  “I won’t see a Star Wars movie or a Charleston Green taxi without thinking of him.”

When we got to know Jim a few years back, he was selling ads for a local radio station, a job he approached with professionalism and vigor — except during the dull sales meetings required of all ad execs.  He often dozed through them, another friend remembered. 

Goolsby

Most of all, Jim liked being with people — learning from them, bantering and even arguing without getting nasty.  When he’d had it with the radio business, he headed back to the taxi business where he could learn, banter and listen even more.

No one who knew Jim would remember him as a shy or retiring type.  Irreverent, yes. Suffering from a lack of words — not so much. In fact as anyone with a passing knowledge of Jim’s Facebook posts would attest, you  knew exactly where Jim stood on everything from support for Boston professional teams or disgust with President Trump. 

On Friday afternoon as a barbecue feast awaited, Superman, Batman, Captain America, Hulk, Wonder Woman and others thrilled as four small fireworks screamed through the air.  Packed inside each were some of Jim’s ashes. What a great way to go.

James Jackson Goolsby Jr., (1957-2019), we’ll miss you.  Rest in peace.

ON THE SAME DAY that we celebrated Jim’s life, we offered a column on a lot of bad ideas foisted upon us by state and federal governments.  Jim would have loved it — particularly calling out the president on the dumb idea of buying Greenland. Read the column here.

Andy Brack’s new book, “We Can Do Better, South Carolina,” is now available for $14.99 in paperback via Amazon.

• Have a comment?  Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com