Jane's Window: My Spirited Life in West Texas and Austin

21. Jake: 1950–1991

299 21 a Jake 1 9 5 0 – 1 9 9 1 O UR FiRSTBORn SOn had a name as expansive as his personality: Dunn Jacobi Sibley. Dunn was my family name and Jacobi was his grandfather Sibley’s middle name. “Jake” was his nickname and it stuck. if ever i was stranded on a desert island, i often told friends, i would want to be stuck there with Jake. He was competent in so many different areas: he thought things through logically and he demonstrated that quality from when he was a small child. at twelve, Jake called his grandmother long-distance—back when long distance was an extravagance —and asked for her ice cream recipe. She gave it to him over the phone. Once he had it, Jake went out and bought an old hand-crank ice cream freezer and made some of the best ice cream i have ever tasted. When it came to taking the initiative, trying new things, and getting them done, Jake was amazing. He would think up all kinds of original projects and follow through with them. as a teenager, he got a ham radio and began talking with people all over the world, making friends on every continent but antarctica. He was also a natural marksman who hunted a good bit when he was young. One time he was shooting with a friend and he fired into the sky at a redtailed hawk. at that exact moment, another hawk Jake Sibley sees Jake Sibley, 1950. 300 C H A p T e R 2 1 flew directly above Jake’s first target and Jake’s bullet went through both birds. When they fell to the ground, Jake was astonished. at that moment, “two for the price of one” held a brand-new meaning to him. Jake’s interest in deer hunting gradually waned, but like many Texans do, he always kept a rifle on the gun rack of his pickup. at sixteen , he learned to fly, got his own plane, and flew back and forth to prep school in arizona in his little putt-putt. He loved flying; i never worried about him because he was a cautious pilot—unfortunately, a trait that did not apply to the way he drove cars and motorcycles. Jake was a true individualist who inherited his father’s ability to look at the world dispassionately. Despite his intelligence, curiosity, and ingenuity , Jake was never able to fit himself into a structured academic environment. He attended some of the best private schools in Texas, including St. Thomas’s in Houston as well as St. andrew’s and St. Stephen ’s in austin. He became famous at St. Stephen’s when he spotted a baby rattlesnake in the chapel and dispatched it swiftly with his boot heel. The poor little rattler was probably just trying to get converted. after Jake ran out of “saints” schools, we enrolled him in Oxford academy in new Jersey. That school promised to provide lots of individual attention to their students. The faculty was supposed to teach Jake how to study, but that never happened. His teachers pegged him as an underachiever and neglected to work with him individually. However , the faculty took the boys into new york City, where they ate lovely dinners, and went to the theater. From that experience, Jake acquired beautiful manners, and he could discuss Broadway plays, but he never could manage to write a paper to fulfill his class assignment. at Oxford, Jake had a roommate who regularly announced he was going to kill himself. Jake was happy to come home after a year there. Jake’s next stop was the Orme School in arizona, where our daughter Mahala had spent two years. For his spring project, Jake rafted down the Colorado River through the gorges of the Grand Canyon into Lake Powell. Shortly before Jake’s “river cruise,” i had read an article in National Geographic showing in great detail the dangers of a raft trip through the white waters of the canyon. i was sorry to have read about that, because i worried the whole time 301 j A K e he was on the river. Finally, he called me from a pay phone to announce that he had lived through the rapids. i wish cell phones had been around during Jake’s adolescence. it would have saved me many a sleepless night...