Snow's No Obstacle When Jake Has A Job

Snow's no obstacle when Jake has a job

NEWS PHOTO • RICK UEDCR

Shakin' Jake climbs ladder to top of Banfield's Bar and Grill to install satellite dish

By JOHN DUNN

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Ann Arbor’s most recognizable resident smiled broadly on Wednesday as he climbed a ladder next to the satellite dish he was helping to install at Banfield's Bar and Grill on Packard Road.

Harold Shapiro? Lou Belcher?

Nope. It could only be Shakin’ Jake Woods, jauntily decked out for the occasion in wide-brimmed straw hat, fluorescent-orange work gloves, galoshes – and, of course, his famous black fur coat.

“Shakin’ Jake” is well-known as a warm-weather denizen of his favorite campus area street corners, but for the past eight years he has also worked for Ann Arbor Music Mart owner John Flis.

"He's a lot of help," sadi Flis, who with "Shakin' Jake” and several other workers labored during a snowstorm to hook up the $3,000 satellite dish that will bring a variety of sports events to Banfield’s patrons.

Flis said that “Shakin’ Jake” also does a variety of other chores as a jack-of-all-trades handyman, including running wires and fixing televisions and refrigerators.

“I want to see this on the front page tomorrow,” Shakin’ Jake good-naturedly commanded a reporter and photographer. “This will be the fun part of the job I’ll make the headlines. ”

‘Shakin’ Jake” said that he is 84 years old, and that he enjoys working outside in the snow and cold.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said.