"Cogwheels in his head"
Like many men in his Zimmerman line, "Pauly" (as he was known to his closest friends) was slightly built. It has been said that if you get shortchanged on certain physical attributes, the Lord provides you with something else to cover for it. Paul's "something else" was a mind that could figure out mechanical means of compensating for his lack of brawn. As this became obvious to those around him, Paul developed a reputation for having "cogwheels in his head."
By the summer of 1946 - the first summer of the nation's post-war boom - Paul's reputation as a trustworthy maker and repairer of agricultural machinery was known throughout the area. He had even become a go-to guy for mechanical parts. Paul's hard-earned reputation, and the jobs neighbors were bringing to him, got him thinking that he might be able to make his living running a shop instead of a farm.
