In between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Wichita, Kansas; just north of the Wilson and Montgomery County lines, lies Neodesha. A small town of around 3000, Neodesha is too small for many. But we can't choose where we are born.
In 1964, it was even smaller. That was the year Grimes Poznik, son to the only Jewish family in Neodesha, graduated high school and left his small but sure beginnings to set out for Cornell College and then, the world!
Over the decades to follow, Grimes took on his authentic Russian name of Poznikov, and would be described as a radical, an artist, a hero and crazy. I first found him in an unlikely place; Neodesha, Kansas. I found, that is, two of his yearbooks from the 7th and 9th grades, his name and address barely legible inside one of the front covers.
I still had no idea who Grimes Poznikov was. His books were actually not the only ones I purchased at the biggest flea market on Main Street. It's been a hobby of mine to pick up identifiable yearbooks, photographs and class rings, for research and useless curiosity. I Googled his name and sixty years of entertaining, enlightening and challenging his world, unfolded on my computer screen.
Grimes was a Bluestreak, as all kids in Neodesha still are. His yearbooks are from 1959 and 1961, when the seventh through twelfth grades were still attending in one building. The pages are decorated with signatures and stories, well wishers who already recognized Grimes' light. He is easy to recognize with his striking features in class and band photos.
Classmates describe Poznik as an oddball, ornery and sweet.
An English teacher recalls his "zany themes." None more zany than the theme he would follow in his future.
An upperclassman writes that she enjoyed babysitting him.
My research would find stories of Grimes' experiences in the San Francisco Bay area, where he performed on the streets of The Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square as The Automatic Human Jukebox, with his trumpet, personality and a painted refrigerator box. Staff writer Kevin Fagan of The San Francisco Chronicle told of his elementary teaching, his protests for peace and his homelessness. Cornell alumni Mike Conklin wrote in the Chicago Tribune that Grimes "was a special talent, and we felt lucky to have him in our midst."
It was in the San Diego Union Tribune, where I found his obituary. Dead at 59, of alcohol poisoning. Survived by a sister and brothers, his ashes held by the San Francisco medical examiner, awaiting payment of expenses. He is said to have suffered from mental illness and addiction. He reminds me of so many stories of insanity mirroring genius.
Grimes' sister Jenny still lives in Kansas. She was quoted saying "He did a lot of things for a lot of people. He fought a lot of battles in his own way. He could do anything."
