Roger’s Remembrances

My brother Bob was four years older than I. Up through junior high we fussed with each other a good deal of the time — about normal I suppose. Even so, Bob made some things for me to play with. When I was about four, he took an old tricycle, reversed the front wheel, made a single back wheel — and I had a low “bicycle” to ride. I learned to balance on that job, and had no problem when I got my first regular bicycle when in the second grade.

Bob also showed me how to make a “rubber gun” with a trigger. I don’t know if Bob invented the trigger arrangement or got it from some one else. It consisted of three small sticks nailed to the side of gun at the rear. Each piece pivoted, and they interacted something ← ← like this ← ←:

. . . . . .. . . . . (Photo left to right: Roger.Caroll Bell, Bob, Henry Barb)
Some of the guys at first just mounted a cloths pin on the rear of the gun. The rubber band was placed in the cloths pin and stretched over the front of the gun. To shoot, you pressed the cloths pin. The problem was that sometimes the rubber band slipped out before the gunman was ready. We did need a better trigger.

Every one in the neighborhood had a rubber gun, and we had a lot of good gun fights. The rubber bands stung a little, but you had very little chance of any real injury.

Once when Bob and I had had some sort of falling out, Bob got my rubber gun and broke the handle so it would not work. When I found what Bob had done to my gun, I took his gun and sawed it into several pieces. The next day Bob had a change of heart, got the pieces of my gun, and made a reasonable repair job. But oh my! There was no way I could possibly repair the damage I had done to Bob’s gun! I was really filled with remorse, but I can’t recall what I said to Bob about it. That showed me at an early age about problems caused by “returning evil for evil”. And though I couldn’t see it at that age, it showed what a kind and generous guy Bob was.

At junior high age Bob was the head guy in our building a shack in the back yard. We thought it was a real beauty. See “1914 Models” in AUNT ETHEL for her account of some letters received from Bob while she was in Gunnison.

As we got into the car-driving age, Bob and I started to be real friends. See some more comments in BOB AND ROGER CARS. I can’t recall a single serious dispute we had from about high school on.

Bob went to Hutch Junior College and then took some courses in the Business College. Some summers he went out to Grandma’s farm and helped the renters, the Greesons, with the farming.

His major job before joining the Navy was with the Hutchinson Cider and Vinegar Works. This is where he met Olive Ogle, his wife to be. Part of the time he drove a semi-trailer out to Colorado and New Mexico. I was intrigued with his stories of how he had to coax the old “corn binder” over Raton Pass. That’s the OLD pass, not the super highway one.
[The "corn binder" had two wheels at each side in the rear arranged in "tandem" (one in front of the other), not in the more common arrangement of dual wheels. It was a unique truck, and Bob was proud of it.]

I was really proud of the things Bob could do and his common-sense ingenuity. We each came to appreciate the abilities of the other. It was a good relationship.

During the WW II years Bob was in the Navy and I in Chicago. On the few occasions when we saw each other, the greeting was with a big hug. (One such event was in Bloomington as related in CHICAGO DAYS.) After Mary and I came to Lincoln, we could visit Bob and Olive and family with some regularity. My kids all liked their Uncle Bob. He was a very likable guy.
[Left to right in photo: Keith, Bob, Peggy, Curtis, RC, Phyllis, Marilyn,Mike]

One of my favorite recollections of Bob occurred after Mom had died. Mary and I were driving around Hutchinson with Bob and Olive after having eaten and talking “business”. The four of us were trying to decide whether to take in a movie or (I forget the alternatives). After a few minutes of this, Bob turned to me and asked, “What do you want to do?” I said I’d rather go to the movie. Whereupon Bob said, “We will go to the movie.” I know it doesn’t sound like much. It was just Bob’s direct way.

My not-so-favorite recollection of Bob was the night he had his final heart attack — though I think God’s Hand had a part in getting Mary and me and Bob and Olive in the same place at the same time. (Bob and I were both in Hutch attending class reunions. Further, some details required for Bob’s three boys and their wives to come to Anthony just seemed to “fall into place”.) Bob heard that the Class of 1936 was meeting out at the Holidome and decided to come out to see if little brother Roger was attending. I was astounded when I looked across the room and saw Bob sitting at one of the tables!!! He had decided to wait and see if I would spot him.

We had a good talk. (I now wish it had been longer.) Then Mary and I went to our room.

We had been in bed just a short while when the phone rang. It was the manager of the motel where Bob and Olive were staying — it was only two blocks away!! — asking us to come over and get Olive. They had just called the ambulance to take Bob to the hospital with a heart attack.

Olive knew that Mary and I were at the Holidome. Mary and I dressed, got Olive, and drove to the hospital. After some time the doctor came out with the news that Bob was gone. Poor Olive.

Mary and I went on down to Anthony for Bob’s funeral. It was a sad time. Even so, there were light moments as we got better acquainted with Bob’s three boys and their wives. My Mary often quotes the time when Neva, Mike’s wife, said, “I’m just thinking about that pie out in the kitchen!”. And there was RC who, after listening to Curtis go over the schedule for the next day, said “You must be in Management?”.

At the funeral the minister commented that Bob would be missed by a host of friends. “Never was a truer word spoken”. My brother Bob was a great man.