Mike the lead guitar in Casey’s Fancy was probably one of the most read persons I knew. Although he tended to read only those things that agreed with him. One evening we were having practice and there was a full moon on the horizon. Mike commented “Did you see how big the moon is tonight?” I replied that it is the same size it is when it is overhead. That precipitated a full-blown argument. Martha suggested that I just drop it. However, I am too hardheaded to comply. He began to cite sources I had never heard of. I replied that when I was a kid and reading the Book of Knowledge, it said if you bend over and look at it between your legs you will see that it is the same. This just put more kerosene on the fire.
So, I told him, you take a durr durr. He claimed to have no knowledge what that is. So, I explained to him that it is the cardboard tube you find in the middle of a roll of toilet paper. Kids hold it to their mouths and go durr durr. You take a piece of toilet paper and put it over the end with a rubber band. Then you look through it at the moon on the horizon and draw a circle around it. When the moon is overhead you look through the tube and you will see that it is the same size. The girls convinced us to just practice, so we did.
A year later when Barb had passed, and Martha dropped out, we were four guys as the Casey Brothers. We were practicing at our house. During the evening Mike asked me where I learned to sing harmony. I told him that I had been a semi road person and listened to a lot of Country Western. It’s easy music with easy lyrics all about trucks, trains, getting drunk, jail, and sad love affairs. He asked if I told those same lies to Martha. I assured him I did.
I ask him that when he was on his way home from practice that he find a Country Western station and listen to it all the way home. After he pulls into his driveway, I want him to stand up in the car seat and look at the radio between his legs and he will see what I mean.
In actual fact even though the moon is the same size, it looks 14% larger with 30% more area when on the horizon. However, it is an optical illusion.
