Thank You Jim Croce
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7/4/2025 Hi folks, John Paul Monroe here. I'm sitting in my Mazda. The odometer is at 190073 miles. That's the year Jim died...1973. I would not leave this spot until I typed the first words of this journal. 7/5/2025 I received one dollar and 8 cents change at a restaurant. There was a nickel from 1973. 7/6/2025 A special day... 123 years since my princess Maria Goretti died. We were in a library...we created thankyoujimcroce.org. I saw a book on a coffee table. It was What Do People Do All Day? I smiled. Jim and Ingrid wrote "What Do People Do?" I like that song. 7/7/2025 We went to eat at our Monday restaurant... Dragon Buffet. Surprise...it's permanently closed. Instead we ate at Albany Buffet. I told our waiter Dragon Buffet is dead. After much talk I asked "What's your name?" He said "Michael." We were amused. I reminded him of Michael and the Dragon. Jim Croce was raised a Roman Catholic. Ingrid Jacobson was raised a Jew. Jim converted to Judaism before they were married. 7/8/2025 We've been rehearsing nightly at the amphitheater in Cook Park. Last night we sang only one song...it was hot. We met a man named Brad...he was walking his dog. He stopped to hear the end of our song... Jim's "Lover's Cross." We talked for half an hour. I told him about this Website. I directed him to Jim's video of "The Hard Way Every Time"... a tremendous live performance...one of his best. Brad's a guitar player...born in '69... the year I started playing. His wife studied pharmacy at UB... like my Bertha. Jim Croce sings "The Hard Way Every Time" 7/9/2025 Another special day... we celebrate the resurrection of our Maria Goretti. Last night we read news... a computer program had impersonated someone. There is a video on YouTube that claims to be an audio recording of Jim singing "Song for a Winter's Night." To our ears it is a derivative of the Gordon Lightfoot recording released in 1975. Gordon Lightfoot sings "Song for a Winter's Night" "Faux Jim Croce" sings "Song for a Winter's Night" 7/10/2025 Last night as we slept our odometer was at 190366. There are 366 days in a leap year. We number these 1 through 366 beginning with 2/21. Ingrid was born on 4/27...that's day 67. She was born 67 years to the day before John Paul II was canonized. Her son Adrian James was born on 9/28. He was born 7 years to the day before John Paul I died. John Paul II took his name from his predecessor. John Paul I took his name from his predecessors John XXIII and Paul VI. I was born at 6:23am. My birth name is John Paul Greschak. 7/11/2025 We began to eat our "breakfast-lunch combo"... we saw the time 12:37 on our car clock... 37 is the 12th prime number. Ingrid was born on day 67... it's the 19th prime number. My princess Kristen Marie Pfaff was born in 1967. Kristen counseled rape victims. Ingrid was raped. 7/12/2025 Last night as we began our nightly rehearsal two ladies approached the stage in a golf cart... Cook Park workers. They asked me to sing a song. I sang "On And On" and the beginning of "Lover's Cross." They were saying the words as I sang. They offered me $5.00...I declined. They insisted...I accepted. Day 366 is 2/20...day 367 is 2/21...day 500 is 7/3. On 7/3/2012 Bertha and I visited a Roman Catholic priest... we had received news about the Second Coming of Jesus. We told him we would be writing a biblical text... an addition to the New Testament. By the end of the year we had written the first draft... we gave it to a priest... The Holy Eternal Gospel of Our Father. Something else happened on 7/3/2012... I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story was published... it was written by Ingrid and her husband Jimmy Rock. The Holy Eternal Gospel of Our Father I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story 7/13/2025 Maury Muehleisen. 7/14/2025 A special day...the feast day for our Kateri. We call her "Kat." There's a cat story in I Got a Name... it begins on page 265. Jim shot dead a cat thought to be bothering Maury... it was a neighbor's cat...Maury's neighbor. Jim and Jesus have at least four things in common. Jesus died on a cross... Jim's last name is the Italian word for cross. Jesus was crucified...Pontius Pilate. Jim died in a plane crash...his pilot. Jesus used a scourge to drive people and animals out of a temple... Jim shot the neighbor's cat. Men can learn from the New Testament how not to act. Men can learn from I Got a Name how not to act. We hear our Kat was born on 11/11...day 265. I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story 7/15/2025 Two days ago we were listening to "American Pie"... we wanted to hear "the jester stole his thorny crown." We noticed the question "Can music save your mortal soul?" On page 111 of I Got a Name Ingrid says Jim was somewhat of a mentor to Don McLean... 179 pages later Ingrid informs that at Jim's funeral a rabbi spoke of jesters having a share in heaven. 179 is the 41st prime number... 41 is the 13th prime number. We hear the meaning of 13, 41 and 179 is "Jesus." On her Website Ingrid writes "In the Croce home, music is our religion." We hear that my wife Bertha and I are prophets... The Two Witnesses of Apocalypse 11.3. 191 days after Bertha died a thought came to my mind... "get your guitar out." I have the goal of becoming the best singer of popular songs...ever. We're working on that. 191 is the 43rd prime number... we hear the meaning of 43 and 191 is "The Death of Jesus." On page 191 of I Got a Name Ingrid says "I thought back to Christmas Eve and Jim's tiny bed under the crucifix."
Judy Garland sings "Over The Rainbow"
Bing Crosby sings "True Love"
Frank Sinatra sings "All the Way"
Bob Dylan sings "Mr. Tambourine Man"
Dean Martin sings "Pennies from Heaven"
Neil Young sings "Heart of Gold"
James Taylor sings "You Can Close Your Eyes"
Don McLean sings "American Pie"
John Denver sings "Rocky Mountain High"
Elton John sings "Daniel"
7/16/2025
A special day...
we celebrate the death of our Mary Todd Lincoln.
We ate at Albany Buffet.
The cash price was $13.60...
the card price was $14.14...
we used cash.
Jim died 14 days after my 14th birthday.
We hear the number 14 means "The Passion of Jesus."
A pair of 14s means
"a person who suffers the Passion of Jesus."
One does this by contemplating
the crucifixion of Jesus...
imagining oneself as a friend...then Jesus...then Mary.
When we read I Got a Name
we see things from Ingrid's perspective.
We might imagine ourself as Ingrid...
there is much in this book to help us know her.
It's an exercise for us to become better at
understanding the suffering of another.
I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story
Jim and Ingrid sing "Song for a Winter's Night" at home |
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Postscript How will someone find this page? This is the home page for thankyoujimcroce.org. We expected folks would find it by searching the Web for "jim croce." At this time (8/14/2025) the two most popular search engines are Google and Bing. Both have indexed this page. But it's not listed in the search results for "jim croce." Perhaps it will be listed someday. When we search for "John Paul Monroe" the home page of my official website is listed first. There is a link to this page on that home page. We expect folks who are interested in me will find this page easily. |
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John Paul Monroe ❘ Official Website
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