Johnny Story

 

TCM had the movie Psycho on the other night, which got me to thinking about my brother Johnny. Way back when, Psycho was on television and he and I were home alone. He couldn't have been more than about ten years old at the time. John was perched in a chair next to me with a bowl of popcorn in his lap. I was sitting in a Captain's chair with broad, flat arms, with my elbows resting on a 2x4 wooden block my dad had sanded down as part of a set for our younger brother. When Anthony Perkins comes out dressed up as his mother and is about to slash the detective, I slammed the block down on the arm of the chair. Johnny lets out a scream, popcorn goes flying and his hair stands on end. Only time in my life I've ever seen that. 

Which brings me to Maggie's Farm. When living at home, we always had a big garden. When the song came out Johnny switched the word Maggie out with our mother's name and would sing the song when out weeding the garden. He'll have been gone 11 years on the first of May. I miss that boy. We'd have a lot to talk about these days.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, laid in some supplies yesterday morning for an Easter feed as well as stocking the pantry for the coming hard times. Afterwards, I started boring the holes in the carb adaptor plate. They're bored at a 20 degree angle. The holes need to be 1-1/4" in diameter, but the largest end mill I have is 1", so I'll finish the hole using an adjustable boring head to get the finished size. A little slower, but it should do the job.

I decided to paint the regulator cover. The Depression era solution to making the cover is one thing, but it was a bit too shabby looking even though it won't get seen by maybe three or four people, tops. I'm going to caulk the seam on the top. I would have done that yesterday, but I didn't have any caulk.

I've got a doctor's visit this morning. His office is almost right across the street from the auto parts store, so I'm going to see if I can get the studs I need for the carb adaptor while I'm in the neighborhood.

The bout sheet for this week's Golden Gloves tourney should be posted this afternoon, so I'll find out if I'm going to Indy again this week. The gym has two guys left in the tourney, the 156 pounder I took to Detroit, and a super-heavy weight competitor. There's three more nights of competition. I don't want to have to go down there all three nights, but I'm going for sure when the 156 pounder fights.