(Followers of the Tailwheeler’s Journal will be somewhat familiar with Zimmo because he appeared in an early episode that I produced in an ill-fated attempt to create a PBS series (https://tailwheelersjournal.com//2012/flight-part-2/). One of my best memories of Zimmo comes from a time when he and I were both working at Bill Warren’s Sportaire Services. Written in February, 2017)
We were working on a Noorduyn Norseman. The Norseman is a large, single engine airplane, similar to the more widely known DeHavilland Beaver. Zimmo’s job was to clean up the wiring behind the instrument panel. To do that job, he would lie on his back under the panel and snip unused wiring from behind the panel. Lots of wires would hang down and dangle in his face. This was just too damned tempting for the hangar cat, “Snivvely”. “Snivvely” was your basic black and white pussycat and he would climb up into the cabin of the Norseman and watch those wires, which dangled invitingly in Zimmo’s face. He’d stalk up to the wires, then bat at them. This really annoyed Zimmo, who was trying to get some

work done, and didn’t really appreciate some pussycat playing with the wires. He’d push Snivvely away, but the cat kept coming back to bat at the wires again. Finally, Snivvely took a mighty swipe at one jiggling wire and his claw managed to snag Zimmo right in the lip. That was the last straw. Zimmo grabbed Snivvely by the scruff of the neck and unceremoniously tossed the pussy cat to the back of the cabin, where Snivvely bounced off the bulkhead and exited out the door, while scrabbling unsuccessfully to stay inside. Pissed, the pussycat wandered off to find his entertainment elsewhere. But he was inwardly fuming at Zimmo for having treated him so shabbily.
