gnoahhh,
I also knew Jim pretty well--and consumed quite a bit of whiskey/whisky with him.
Did he ever tell you the tale about how he traded the family car (the ONLY family car) for several old Winchester lever-rifles, and had to wire Sylvia for bus-fare money to get home? (Years later those rifles paid for one of their kid's college education.)
Haha! Yes, he told me the story after I described to him how I had sold a bunch of good rifles to pull together the down payment on a bungalow + 36 acres in Pennsylvania. It made me feel better (but it could've been the whisky too).
