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James Harrington
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Jim Harrington Memorial Location: Pioneer Park Nevada City, CA West end of park, north of the pool, on the bank above the bandstand. |
 
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Jim would like all the people he met to know..."My life has been enriched by knowing you." Some old favorites from Jim...
"Don't worry about money, worry about doing a good job. The money will come if you do a good job." Some history...
James Harrington was born June 1, 1937, in Deer Lodge, Montana, to Frederick Harrington and Edna McArdle.
Jim grew up in Seattle where he graduated from Highline High School and participated on the school swim team.
Jim enjoyed hot rods and joined the "Shifters" car club after moving to the San Fernando Valley.
Jim toured the "pacific rim" while serving as a U.S. Navy fire control technician on the submarine USS Sea Devil.
After an honorable discharge from the Navy, Jim moved to the Los Angeles area and married Barbara Jean Bruce.
They had one son, Shaun Harrington.
Jim worked as a backhoe operator for several years before obtaining a general contractor's license.
During this time Jim married his second wife, Jean Benteley.
Together they helped to raise Shaun and Jean's daughter, Karen.
After moving to Grass Valley, Jim and Jean founded the Foothill Trader and eventually Copy-Right.
It is while living in Grass Valley that Jim married his third wife, Claudette Black. Together they help to raise Nick, Claudette's son.
Jim continued to operate Copy-Right, making deliveries in his classic 1956 Chevy panel truck (The Green Hornet) until his death in 2005.
Stories and such...
You don't want your kids to read this.
My dad would take us on these family trips to the craziest places. One in particular was San Felipe, Mexico.
We would travel in a pickup truck with us kids stuffed into sleeping bags and tossed in the back of the truck with all the supplies.
When we got into Mexico sometimes it was so hot that the us kids would all sit on the top of the cab with our faces in the wind.
Seatbelts were not an option... we held onto each other. One time all us kids had chicken-pox and we hid under the sleeping bags so we could get across the border.
Another time Dave and I learned we could by beer. We were like 10 and 12 years old. We overheard the parents saying that if you could reach
the bar and ask for it they will give it to you. The next day we tested the theory and made it a fact. On the way back to camp a car with four federal police
in it passed us on the highway and we almost died from fear but not because we were minors riding dirt bikes on the highway... we were drunk!
I remember that the tide there would go out farther than the eye could see. While it was out we spent countless hours scouring the sea floor for goodies.
We would play with fireworks and buy cheap switch blades that would fall apart in a week. Man those were good times!
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I remember the first time I met Jim he was managing the apartments we lived in when we were first married.
Then we bought a house and moved away in a couple of years he showed up at our front door and told us they just bought the house next door.
That was the beginning of a wonderful friendship between your mom and I and of coarse you and your dad were a part of that too, even though we didn't see each other much after the first five years or so.
I still enjoy hearing about you how and what you are doing. Hope all is going well for you.
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My dad had the greatest sense of humor. Here is a taste about my birth...
Dad would tell me that when I was born he had to go without lunch that day and he should have taken it as sign of things to come.
Dad would say that I was so ugly when I was born that when he was visiting the hospital nursery, if somebody else was there he would wave to the kid next to me.
I was born with a set of webbed toes on one foot and Dad always said "Damn kid was swimming in circles until he learned to compensate".
He pitch this stuff out while doing something like sitting around a camp fire with family and friends. We would all get going on each other and pretty soon everyone was gut busting.
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When I was about 6 years old I watched Evil Knievel jump and my dad must have seen my reaction or something because for Christmas that year I got a used 60cc Yamaha completely rebuilt and painted to look like Evil's bike.
I bet any parent can appreciate the joy that bike brought me and the fear it brought to my mother! I rode that bike for years and learned a lot about riding and caring for bikes in the process.
The experience helped to define who I am in so many ways. Years later I look back and I am just amazed at the influence it had on me. My love of motorcycles has lasted through my entire life and it all started with my parents sharing thier sense of adventure with me. A cool footnote is that my mother collected both Evil's and Robbie's autographs for me and they still hang on the wall.
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Happy Birthday Dad! We love you! We miss you! (June 1st, 2008)
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Happy New Year 2010 Dad! Ten years into the new Millennium. We miss you and wish you could be here! Love you!!!
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I remember a time my Dad and I were walking with our wives in Nevada City and as we approached a street we intended to cross my Dad put his hand out and held me back and let the ladies step into the street first.
He whispers to me that he learned this from the deer... the bucks always let the doe drink first... so they can see if it is safe.
My wife heard the whisper and from there on out would always stop and MAKE him step into the street first.
My dad, James Harrington hadthe greatest since of humor ever.
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