From rodeo bull rider to Petaluma business owner

In the late 1960s, Norm Johns was working at a machine shop in Walnut Creek when he decided to go into business for himself. As a journeyman machinist, he felt he could do better on his own.

But first he wanted to leave the crowded East Bay region for a smaller town.

Petaluma, with a population of 25,000, appealed to him. While searching for potential sites, he met with Mert Preston, owner of Preston Automotive Center on Petaluma Boulevard North.

“Mert was one of the most likable and honest people I’ve ever met,” Norm recalled. “We made a deal to set up my shop behind Preston’s. There was no lease or contract. I went into business on a handshake. That was in 1970.”

About four years later a large East Bay trucking business offered Johns a sweetheart deal if he’d come and work for them, but after consulting with Preston, he turned them down.

“I really liked Petaluma. That’s why I decided to stay,” he said. “When Mert sold his business in 1988, I thought I had the same deal with the new owner, but it didn’t pan out, so I moved to 814 Petaluma Boulevard North and we’ve been here ever since.”

When Norm’s Auto Machine started out, automobile engines were generally considered worn out by the time they reached 80,000 miles, which meant business was good at machine shops that performed valve jobs, engine boring and honing, and flywheel grinding. With technological improvements, many modern engines can last over 300,000 miles.

“We still rebuild engines and do a lot of agricultural stuff,” he explained. “But with engines lasting longer, our daily workload and future is in restoration projects. We don’t do late model types.”

While staying in business for more than half a century is an achievement in any business, it takes perseverance and optimism to succeed.

“While it was tough going at times,” Norm said, “one thing in my favor was that Petaluma had lots of commuters. Another was having my son join the business.”

Norm the younger was about 13 when his dad began teaching him the trade, starting with tearing down and reassembling small engines. Following a divorce, the boy lived with his mother until moving here in 1979.

“Although I’ve been in business for 54 years and have never advertised, my true success came from teaching my son a trade that no one can take away,” said Johns Sr.

It was happenstance that he became a machinist in the first place and, surprisingly, it was his love of sports that pointed him in that direction. He was born in Beatty, Oregon, to Native American parents ‒ his mother was Modoc and his father a Chippewa. The family came to California when he was 10. At Pittsburg High School, he was a three-sport standout, lettering in football, basketball and track and field, where he was the Contra Costa County discus champion.

“The only reason I went to school was to participate in sports,” he said. “I went to Oregon Institute of Technology, in Klamath Falls, to study electronics and play basketball, but I was starting to miss a lot of classes. I was told to drop basketball or choose another major, so I went into machinery. Having grown to 6-foot-4, I’d earned a full-ride basketball scholarship.”

After college, he began working at a machine shop in Martinez.

“We ground flywheels for an auto shop downtown and I was working towards becoming a journeyman. In my early 20s, I started going to rodeos. All my cousins were rodeo performers and as a kid I rode calves and did ‘mutton busting’ on sheep. That’s how I became a bull rider.”

Johns joined the California Cowboy Association and performed in rodeos throughout the western states in places like Woodland, Dixon, Truckee and Merced.

“There were too many rodeos to keep track of,” he said. “I worked during the week, and on weekends I headed out somewhere.”

Rodeo contractors provided the livestock and through random selection bulls and riders were matched. One year, Johns drew the ferocious “Sleepy,” five times and was tossed each time.

“I never rode him for eight seconds. I think he got to know me,” quipped Johns. “I rode the senior pro circuit until I was 52. I got kicked by a bull and was laid up for a while, so I decided to hang up my rope and chaps.”

Fun-loving and spirited, Norm Jr.’s adrenaline rush was fueled by competing at Petaluma Speedway. A builder of his own racing engines, “Stormin’ Norman” was a six-time winner in the street stock division before switching to open-wheel racing and notching 15 victories in the 360 sprint cars.

Now, with modern engines lasting longer, automotive machinists have had to refocus their business on the older models.

“I really like working on the older stuff,” said Norm Jr. “I don’t think classic cars are ever going to go away.”

Although he builds high-powered engines and still drives his 1959 Ford pickup, Norm, Sr., in good health and great shape at 83, prefers to ride his bicycle to work every day.

To view more photographs, find this story online on Petaluma360.com. Harlan Osborne’s “Toolin’ Around Town” runs the second and fourth Friday of the month in the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Contact him at harlan@sonic.net.