Remembering Joe Johnson
Joe and Maximus 2019 This isn’t an obituary because I don’t know what Joe Johnson did in the 85+ years of his life that we didn’t know each other. But in the five years that I did know Joe, likely the five slowest years of his life, he was a one-legged maniac hellbent on squeezing his remaining years for all they were worth. Joe finally bought the farm a couple weeks ago. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he kicked the bucket too. Characters like Joe don’t just pass away or any other kind hearted euphemism; guys like him going kicking and punching into whatever comes after this life. I don’t know if it is relief or disappointment now that I know that Joe’s phone calls will stop; harassing me almost daily to clear space in my schedule to help him pull off some hare-brained scheme or build something ridiculous on the old high school on the hill above town. The genius of Joe Johnson was that his ideas were often so bonkers, that they sorta made sense. He lived by Tom Petty’s immorta