Decades before there was an Ice Cream Alley, the small crevice between two Main Street buildings in Greenfield was the storefront of Waffles T. Clown, aka Joshua Jay Jester, aka Joshua Dostis, one of Franklin County’s most colorful political activists ever.

Waffles poured his batter for customers like me, who took my young daughters downtown for warm waffles with real maple syrup. Joshua was a mixing bowl: part Harpo Marx impishness, part Abbie Hoffman yippie politics. Environmentalist, No Nukes protester, presidential candidate, and street jester — Waffles performed at all the great political protests in our region: from Yankee Rowe to Seabrook, from Bear Mountain to Colrain War Tax Resisters.

His friend Libby once posted on a blog: “I lived in lovely downtown Noho and I knew Joshua well enough that when I discovered a forgotten briefcase after the revelers left, I knew immediately it was his — even though there was no ID. How? Who else carries around a rubber chicken?”

Nineteen years ago, at the Big Y plaza, Waffles T. Clown perched atop a huge “Stop War” peace symbol on a banner that read: “Support Vets: 6,256 vet suicides in 2005.” Kathy-Ann Becker, the town crier of Wendell, recalls: “Although Josh Dostis lived just over the border from Wendell in New Salem, it was Wendell that gave him a welcoming stage. Wendell became home to some of Waffles’ most famous actions.”

When the state unveiled a plan to divert Route 2 through Wendell State Forest/Bear Mountain, Joshua appeared at events disguised as the Wendell Bear. “Some of Waffles the clown’s most brilliant ideas benefited the Bear Mountain Preservation Group,” Becker says. “Their successful ‘Improve It Don’t Move It’ campaign was joined by Mass Audubon and the Sierra Club. Waffles became the mascot — incognito — as the silent Bear Mountain Bear who notoriously seized a photo opportunity with Governor Mike Dukakis.” Joshua later donated his bear costume to the Wendell Historical Society.

In 2000, Joshua ran as a write-in candidate for president on the Waffles Party ticket. He campaigned in Manchester, New Hampshire as Dick Head, wearing a 6-foot costume of a male organ. He pledged to “reform the penal code,” and “foster intercourse between nations.” He was arrested for lewdness, but the New Hampshire courts said his appearance was protected by the First Amendment.

“My opponents accuse me of being ‘obscene,’” Joshua protested. “I say our entire political process is ‘obscene.’”

“Joshua was an architect in New York City,” notes collaborator Paul Richmond, a spoken-word performer and publisher. “He walked away from it all to become a clown. He worked tirelessly with the anti-nuclear movement. He used his creativity to bring the hazards of nuclear waste to the awareness of the public. He had a children’s show using Shel Silverstein’s books, and was a postcard artist. Joshua was a complicated human being, wanting the world to be a better place.”

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Wendell resident Susan von Ranson remembers: “One day during the occupation of Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner’s house in Colrain, Phillip Berrigan, the activist priest and brother of Daniel Berrigan, showed up. Josh was making spinach waffles for everybody. He happily accepted Father Berrigan’s offer to bless Joshua’s waffles.”

Carla Charter recently wrote a reminiscence in the Recorder about the Wendell Full Moon Coffeehouse. “Another past performer was Joshua ‘Waffles the Clown’ Dostis,” she wrote, “the coffeehouse’s original emcee. When he would perform, he would choose members of the crowd and have them come on stage to tell jokes or sing.”

“Waffles’ last act,” Kathy-Ann Becker adds, “was as ex-emeritus master of ceremonies at the Full Moon Coffeehouse, where he announced that he was dying of a terminal illness. He led the audience in a singalong of “Happy Trails,” and then passed out his famous little booklets about his philosophy of life.”

I recently went to visit Joshua in a local nursing facility. His exploding curls are gray, the same shade as his beard. At 82, his full moon is waning. He once offered this advice in his illustrated booklet: “Love what you do, and Love Yourself for doing it.” Waffles T. Clown was right: Our political process is obscene. We need every clown we can find.

Joshua couldn’t hear a word I was saying, but as I said goodbye, he gave me a firm handshake, and whispered: “Can you turn off the light?” I fumbled for the switch by the door. Looking back at Joshua Jay, I said, as if a benediction: “Yes, I can turn off the light.”

Al Norman’s Pushback column is published in the Recorder the first and third Wednesday of each month.