And what time zone are we in?
Our first night after leaving Michigan and all our new friends at PMO was a very enjoyable stay with Butch and Fonda at 12 Mile, Indiana.
What a great experience it was! Butch and Fonda own and operate a machine shop in what used to be a Chevrolet dealership.
I’m guessing the buildings were probably built in the 30’s or 40’s, that’s one of the hundreds of questions I wanted to ask this fascinating couple but our conversations were moving from subject to subject so fast, I forgot to ask.
Although they have a retired New Jersey Turnpike transit bus (converted to their home on wheels), and even though they’ve sold the machine shop business and “retired” they aren’t able to get away as much as they’d like because former customers keep coming and coaxing and cajoling them into making parts for them.
And what kind of parts do they make you ask? They make parts for collectors and rebuilders of cars. And what kind of cars you ask? Post-war Crosley automobiles.
Heres a link to the Crosley Auto Club if you want to learn more about this 40’s / 50’s vintage automobile. If you’re my age or older, you might remember Crosley radios, TV’s, and appliances.
Crosley also designed and built the 500,000 watt transmitters for the Voice of America war-time propaganda station near Cincinnati, that I toured and wrote about while we attended the Dayton Hamvention back in May.
To refresh your memory, here’s a shot of a well used Crosley back behind the shop.
Cute little thing, eh?
Besides keeping busy manufacturing and supplying parts, their other interests include; rocks (acquiring, cutting/slicing, shaping, and polishing) and then either selling those “cabs” or more often making them into all sorts of jewelry that they then sell at shops and festivals.
Fonda gave Kathy a gift of a sample of the type of work she does. These are zipper pulls.
They’re also both Extra Class License ham radio operators, so we talked a bit about that hobby too!
Butch is a self-described “tinkerer” and because they have so much room in this old Chevy dealership, they’ve filled it with their interests.
He rebuilds engines, he does a little auto repair work – mostly that which no other mechanic can or wants to do, but because Butch has the talent and the patience, he helps out friends in need.
He’s a shooter .. and what shooter doesn’t want to cast his own bullets and load his own shells?
And the list goes on, there was so much to see in this shop, it was a little overwhelming .. and fun.
We had a wonderful visit with Butch and Fonda, along with Rascal, Gizmo, and Daffy.
We’re so glad that Butch and Fonda signed on as hosts at BoondockersWelcome.com and we look forward to seeing them again out in Quartzite, AZ this winter when we attend Quartzfest ’19 and the Big Tent RV Show.
In the meantime, we’ll stay in touch via RVillage.com .. 73’s & 88’s to them both.
