Johnny Too

Well one good birthday blog deserves another and since tomorrow is my brothers birthday I have one for him too. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNY! Oh and I am pretty sure he doesnt read my blog on a regular basis. Although I cant imagine why not. Anyway I am sure my mom, who does read my blog of course, will make him aware of his birthday blog! Thanks Mom!

As I was thinking about memories to share about my brother here I realized that a lot of the "Johnny Stories" were just that - stories. Not quite as many memories as I first thought, but believe me there are tons of stories. But for today I will stick to memories. I was trying to think back really far and I guess the first memory I have is of when he stole my birthday cake. We were having a party. I think I was maybe 5 or 6 and I remember that he went in the kitchen and stole the cake. Of course mama came to the rescue and recovered it.

One time he came rushing into the house locking the door. He was all in an uproar and was saying something like "He's gonna kill me!" Pretty quickly a loud fast knock was at the door. My mom was all flustered and wondering what was going on. I remember this Older Italian man, yelling at my mom "You son-a, he's a very very bad-a boy!" Mama asked what in the world he did. Turns out the older man disliked kids cutting through his yard and decided to spray them with his waterhose when they did. Turns out Johnny didnt like getting sprayed so he went to the neighbors yard and turned on their waterhose and squirted the older man back! Turns out the older man liked that even less!

I remember one time Johnny came home with a HORSE! We lived in the city folks! He made up some crazy story about riding a bull for 10 seconds and winning the horse. My mom was again a little flustered wondering what we were going to do with a horse. Our back yard wasnt really the place! Anyway he didnt really win it. It was a friends and he just brought it home to trick us. I really liked riding it around the street for a little while. :)

I remember that he used to get old clothes and stuff them to make a dummy and then attach the dummy to a bicycle. Then he and his friends would hide in bushes and roll the bike out in front of people so that the people would think some kid had a bike wreck.

I do remember when he was on the local news in Memphis. They named him "Evil Knievel of Craigmont High" He had a bicycle ramp and jumped over (I think it was 14) trash cans! He landed it too! Mom and Dad had been out of town and they came in to us telling them that Johnny was going to be on the news in a few minutes. Too bad there were no VCR's back then. :(

I remember one day I was sitting at the kitchen table and twirling my arms around my head and the little table behind me started shaking. I remember thinking "I didnt hit that table, why is it shaking?" About that time the house sort of rattled and I remember my mom shouting to Johnny in the back of the house. "Johnny what in the world are you doing!" That was when Johnny came running out of the bathroom with his face half shaven, the other half fully loaded with shaving cream. I remember him holding that razor saying "I didnt do anything, it's an earthquake!" We all walked to the front door and opened it up, and walked out onto the front porch to see all the other neighbors walking out onto their front porches too. It really was an earthquake. Quickly it was over but I have always thought it was funny that mama blamed Johnny for the earthquake! :) What with all these crazy stories who can blame her? Oh, and believe me there are many many more.

I remember when Johnny no longer was going to be called Johnny but John instead. So I guess that worked for everyone else, but I still call him Johnny! That's my brother. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNY!

This is my wedding day June 4, 1983.

This was one visit where Johnny made things more interesting for the kids. He had rescued these baby raccoons and had been bottle feeding them. The kids enjoyed holding them and playing with them, especially Mark. Not something you get to do every day. Johnny always was making things interesting for them.

In this one he is helping Wil, my sisters grandbaby shoot the gun. Another one of the interesting things he did with the kids on a trip to visit. My kids enjoyed doing that with him too, even Casey. (But dont tell anyone. Let's just say she is not into guns.)

So thats my brother Johnny, who by the way was born John Dalton Stella, but then they changed his birth certificate to John Sid Stella Jr. (I hope that was done legally! :0)
I hope he has the greatest birthday!