ABILENE, Texas (AP) - The creative life. Its curse can be that the wheels never stop turning, the fire always needs to burn, the spigot always is open.
The Abilene Reporter-News reports but just as powerfully, it can be a blessing as well. The act of a creation isn’t simply joyous, but satisfying, too.
And it keeps the mind occupied.
“God put wheels in my head,” Ernest Johnson admitted. “To keep myself going, I like to make stuff. Some of it ain’t ever been made before.”
Johnson lives in the 600 block of North 16th Street. You may have seen his home if you’ve passed by. Some have expressed admiration for the owner’s creative spirit.
Johnson, 77, retired from the U.S. Army and National Guard as a welder. It was a trade he kept with after his service. But it was also his means for expression.
When his wife, Sherry, became wheelchair-bound, the Johnsons didn’t have money to buy a van with a fancy lift. That didn’t mean there wasn’t a solution at hand, however.
“I had this old Suburban here,” he said, gesturing to truck looking something from a “Mad Max” movie. “I just decided I’d make my own.”
A repurposed winch with its own generator at the back allowed him to lift Sherry, wheelchair and all, swing her into the back and then drive off to church.
“I took care of my wife for years and years, I finally had to put her in a nursing home,” he said. Sherry passed about five years ago but before she did, Johnson used to spend nights parked behind the nursing home in his modified Suburban, sleeping in the bunks he’d designed so he could be there in the morning to help her eat.
Bits of toys, his old “steel pot” army helmet, and various planters balance in the air over his home. They colorfully stand against the sky, or slowly swallow themselves in creeping vines. It’s a cheerful display, overall.
“People are always driving by here taking pictures,” Johnson said, chuckling. “It shows what you can do with just junk. I’m just a poor man; all I’ve got is junk, I ain’t got any money.”
He laughed as a funny thought crossed his mind.
“Every now and then you’ll find a nerd,” he said, still laughing. “I guess that’s what I am, I’m a nerd. I like to build stuff.”
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Information from: Abilene Reporter-News, http://www.reporternews.com
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