One of my brothers, Neil, tried heroin at the age of 15 and by the time he was 17, he was on his way to prison for the first of five times.  He was the middle son and was born healthy and happy with bright blue eyes and an engaging personality.  In high school, he was voted most handsome and dated many of the popular girls. However, heroin addiction pretty much ate his life.

During one of his stints in prison, he learned to be a machinist and manufacture screws and such. The reason I bring this up will be evident shortly. He also became a master painter with particular proficiency using an airbrush.  We had a longstanding letter-writing relationship (and in fact I visited him in three different prisons but don’t tell anyone I went to prison three times!). Neil would send me a letter and a deposit slip and I’d fill out the slip and mail it, along with a check, to his prison account.  He’d decorate the envelopes with all sorts of drawings and paintings and I still have 30+ of these along with a couple of airbrushed handkerchiefs. I think he found that if he spent the time (which he had plenty of!) to decorate the envelope, there’d be a better chance I’d follow through with a deposit.

Neil seems to be sober these days although his health isn’t good.  He’s become more spiritual and recently told me his spirit guide is Archimedes.  When I mentioned that to Dave as we were writing this song, Dave said “wasn’t that the guy with the lever?”.  We looked up Archimedes and sure enough, he was the ancient inventor, philosopher and mathematician who said “Give me a lever and a place to stand and I can move the world”.  Archimedes also invented the auger, a screw enclosed in a tube which can move solids and liquids.  Neil and Archimedes were both screw-makers!