Tiger Beat - October 1969 (typed by Cindy M.)

My Son, Bobby (Part 1)
By Mrs. Robert Sherman

Beginning with this fascinating story from Bobby's childhood, each month Bobby's mother will recall some interesting facts from Bobby's past and tell them to the readers of TiGER BEAT.

One phase I can remember Bobby going through as a child was "Army". A friend of ours who lived a few blocks away was a retired Army Colonel. Every time we would go to visit him, Bobby would get so excited because the Colonel's house was always a fascinating place to our wide-eyed son!

He was only about six and a half years old and all the war stories the Col. would tell would just enthrall Bobby. Then he'd look at all the photographs on the wall in the Col.'s den of the Col. With past presidents and Generals and he would want to know everything about being in the Army.

ARMY BOOK - One thing the Colonel had was a book that told all about the infantry, the foot solders. Well, Bobby couldn't even read yet, but he looked through that book every time we'd go visiting and he felt he knew all about the infantrymen. That's when he decided it was time for him to join the Army too.

So we took him to the Army-Navy Surplus Store and got him a knapsack, a helmet, everything, and he would fill that darn knapsack with bricks because we were building out there, and the bricks would make it hard on him and this is what he wanted so he could be like a "real" soldier. So he would go on hikes and when he'd get back his face would be all red and he'd just be worn out. But to Bobby, everything had to be just like the Colonel told him, right straight to the letter, so he worked very hard at being a soldier.

TRIP TO THE AIRPORT - Bobby's father and I were the start of another one of his "great inventions." We decided it would be interesting, educational and just plain fun to attend one of the open house days at the airport, so one Sunday afternoon we packed a lunch and drove out to the airport. The tour was quite fascinating even if you had done some air travel, because they took us through the behind-the-scenes portion of the terminals and through several different kinds of aircraft. But the thing that fascinated Bobby the most were the helicopters. He got to sit inside the cockpit of one and that's all it took to start the ball rolling.

When we got home, Bobby announced that he was building a helicopter of his own in the back yard. They were building a tract of homes near us at the time, so the workmen were more than happy to give Bobby all their extra pieces of wood. He was about nine years old at the time and he must have worked on his "helicopter" for months. He would work on it every day after school and before long, we were surprised to see that it was really taking on the shape and look of a real helicopter.

HUGE "TOY" - "Bobby was always very thorough when he'd be working on a project and this was his biggest and best so far. His helicopter took up half of our back yard! No kidding. The cockpit was big enough for the four of us to actually climb inside and sit down. And he had the whole thing perched on one big block of wood so as you sat in it, it rocked back and forth and it really felt as though you were going to take off!

I was working at the Valley Green Sheet at the time, which is a small San Fernando Valley newspaper featuring lots of advertising and down at the office they had a broken pair of headphones from a stereo set, so I brought them home to Bobby so that he could pretend to send signals back and forth to the control tower, just like he'd seen at the open house at the airport.

UP, UP AND AWAY - Toward the end of this work, the thing was just looking great and as the final touch, Bobby took his bicycle apart and connected the bicycle chain to the rotor blades, which he had made on the top, and it actually turned around! I can remember the day so clearly that he finally had everything together and he was ready to make his first flight.

It was so hot and he'd been working all morning on the thing, since it was summertime. He came into the house and with his great big blue eyes filled with tears, he was just about to bawl. He said, "I can't get it to fly!" He was so upset, and I said, "Honey, you can't fly anyway." And he said, "Why not?" So I told him he had to have a license so they would know he was in the air. He said, "I can't fly it?" And I said, "No." Well, his heart was just broken. He really thought it would fly!

NEIGHBORHOOD ATTRACTION - He had tried so hard and he was just ringing wet from working so hard. I was so afraid that he would be sick he had worked so hard, but nothing I could do would make him stop while he was working on it. Everybody in the neighborhood was here at one time or another getting in that thing, because it would rock and because it was a great sensation. I was so proud because Bobby had thought the whole thing up himself. He never asked for help and if he made a mistake, he'd do it over until it was right.

One other thing I can remember Bobby doing about that time was having his first show. He was crazy about Jack Webb because of his "Dragnet" series and one Sunday afternoon Bobby was watching television and there was Jack Webb on a telethon for crippled children asking for donations. Well, Bobby wanted to contribute, but rather than going around the neighborhood collecting money, he decided to put on a play.

He sat down and wrote a play, very much like one of the Dragnet shows he'd seen on television, but with many of his own little ideas added and he wrote all the children in the neighborhood in to the play. They all had a part and some lines, including this little girl who lived next door who was so young, all she could do was jabber. He said, "She's Spanish" because he couldn't understand anything she said.

So all the neighbors came and we served them lemonade and cake. They put on their little play out in the garage and made quit a bit of money and Bobby took it down to the television station and got to present it to Jack Webb on television and I don't think he had ever been so excited.