TICKY TICKY BOOM BOOM

Ticky ticky boom. Repeated in just that order, followed by the circular motion of the finger around the ear was the sign that the Garrys always made as kids to indicate one was crazy.

"You are!" was the emphatic response of a Pipher twin when called a name by another. So if you said, "You are an idiot!" His response was always, "You are!"

Lee Ann and Janis called him Chinese Pickle Man after some obscure cartoon character of their generation. When he was drafted to go to Viet Nam, they seriously worried that he would be shot by Americans thinking he was Viet Cong.

"The Fowlers have germs. Don't go near them. Don't go in their yard." Another childhood fear. Another childhood memory. What must go in the heads of the young.

Fictional school teacher character Jean Brodie said "Give me an impressionable mind and it will be mine forever," or something like that.

So why the young picture of former Illinois Gov. Blagoyvitch? Well, it's really a picture of Desi Arnez, Jr. I just thought it looked like the deposed Guv.