“Unforgettable, in every way. Unforgettable, that’s how you’ll stay.” — As sung by the unforgettable father-daughter duo of Nat and Natalie Cole
I have maintained often that Facebook is 95% garbage and 5% gold, and that you have to separate the wheat from the chaff. The worst chaff are those politically-motivated posts that make outrageous claims, but dismiss any fact-checking counter claims as “Fake News.” My pet peeve.
Yet recently I was pleased to come to the conclusion via Facebook that two very unique individuals are somehow connected through different generations. I submit that sometimes Townbroadcast columnist Mark Wakeman is the Jon Seymour of the 1960s. And vice versa.
Both are graduates of Wayland High School, but the similarities do not end there. From where I sit, they share rare qualities of wit, intelligence, irreverence, irrepressiveness, likability, unpredictability and fearlessness. This is not to say they are precisely the same, it is to say they share eerily common characteristics.
When I watched and heard Seymour speak as student representative for City Council and Board of Education meetings in back-to-back years, I wasn’t sure then who he reminded me of. But it came to me not long ago when 1965 WHS alum Wakeman penned a couple of well received guest columns I talked him into writing.
Mark Wakeman was one of the first students I met as a freshman in high school, though I am certain he doesn’t remember. Even then, I regarded him as witty, intelligent and “unforgettable.” Though I did not get to know him during my high school career, I admired him from afar, mostly because he had the courage to speak up and he was a terrific public speaker.
One of my best recollections was Wakeman’s performance in the Variety Show as the Music Man, Prof. Harold Hill, waxing eloquently on “Trouble, Right Here in River City.” That was a year before my blackface performance as Timetable in the Showboat. Interestingly, his second column was about his father wearing blackface.
I also admired his father, Wally, who was a high mucky-muck in the Allegan County Republican Party, who later went rogue on the GOP on issues of race and on public tax dollars being spent on private religious schools. Wally Wakeman was a man of principle, a rarity nowadays.
I lost touch with Mark Wakeman over the years, but Facebook brought us together in a way that didn’t exist all those years ago. Since then, I’ve continued to hustle him into writing columns for Townbroadcast, particularly on his personal life since leaving Wayland and his remembrances of “Bygone Days” in this town.
I found his first column about Wayland’s stoplight history compelling reading. As you can see, I’m flattering him here, trying to blow enough smoke up his backside to get him to join the infamous group of columnists.
Meanwhile, I can only hope to someday entice Mr. Seymour into sharing his prose. I understand he is very busy on the collegiate circuit and with his political interests. I have this fanciful prediction that like Austin Marsman he is destined for some kind of greatness, if the planet is habitable for human beings in the future.
For what it’s worth, I’m proud of myself for getting a handle on just what makes Jon Seymour such an endearing young man. I’m sure Mark Wakeman would join me in wishing him successes that are many and troubles that are few.
