Tiger Beat - April 1969

The Bobby Sherman Story - Chapter 2

I was a creative child...but sometimes my imagination got out of hand like the time I nearly set our house on fire!

As you may have guessed from the first chapter of my life story where I told you about my invisible friend, Frank, I was no ordinary child.   From as early as I can remember I chose to be just a little different than everyone else and I liked it that way.

Like the games I would play.  Even when I was very young I liked making up my own games.  The first things I can remember doing are making buildings out of cardboard boxes.  Of course, I could see all the apartment buildings and houses that surrounded our home in Hollywood, but I would always build special buildings like the ones I had seen on my trips downtown with my mother and father.

SPECIAL TREAT - One day as a special treat we were in downtown Los Angeles shopping and my mother could see how excited I was about all the tall buildings.  I really could get excited over some weird things.

"Mommy," I said, "if I could stand on top of that building could I see grandma's house?"  My grandmother lived back East, but all I knew was that it was a long, long way off.

"No, dear.  Grandma's is too far away to see from here," she told me.  Then she turned to my dad and said, "Honey, why don't we take Bobby to the top of City Hall.  It's such a clear and beautiful day even I'd love to see the view."

In Los Angeles you can take the elevator to a special observation floor of the City Hall building, 22 stories up!  Now that may not seem too high to those of you who have seen the Empire State Building in New York, but to a six-year old adventurous boy named Bobby Sherman it was the most exciting thing in the world!

DAD SAID OKAY - Well, my dad said, "why not?" and off we went.  On the steps of City Hall I looked straight up and couldn't even see the point the building came to on the top.   So, in we went and as we stepped into the elevator my dad warned me:   "Now, Bobby, I want you to hang onto the guard rail real tight because this is the fastest elevator in the city.  If you don't hang on, you might hit your head on the ceiling because it goes up so fast."

Wouldn't you know it, I hung on as tight as I could, a little frightened even, and suddenly the elevator doors closed and it began its climb.   My dad, the tease, was at it again!  He had been in City Hall before and he knew it was the slowest elevator ever and here I was hanging on for dear life!  It is so funny to think back on now.  My dad was always that way - making even everyday things into more fun.

INSPIRING VIEW - After what seemed like a long time, we reached the top.  The doors eased open and out I ran to the closest window.  My mom had been right - it was an especially clear day.  Not only could we see all the way to the beach, but 26 miles beyond that, all the way to Santa Catalina Island.  It was right then that I decided to build some skyscrapers of my own.  From the cardboard boxes, I made "tall" buildings and even painted in windows and people.  It was always such fun for me to be creating things.

As I got a little older, it was my dad who sparked a new interested in me.  Before my dad got his dairy he had studied electronics and learned the mechanics of a television camera.  I had always been intrigued with how pictures appeared on the TV screen and he would explain it to me, as well as I could understand.  So that's when I began building TV cameras, instead of skyscrapers, out of cardboard boxes.

JUNIOR CARPENTER - My parents were happy to see me spending my free time creating things.  At school I was doing well because I liked being with my new friends and I liked to learn about the different kinds of cows to the experiments we would have in science class.  Because of all my buildings at home, when I was eight my parents gave me a Junior Carpenter's Set for Christmas.  It was a fantastic little set - complete with a small hammer, nails, a saw and wood.

But I wasn't completely satisfied with just being a Junior carpenter - I wanted to be a real carpenter.  So with my tool kit in hand I went down the block to where some workmen were building a gas station and they let me hammer nails into blocks of wood that they would never use.  At the time I really thought I was helping to build that gas station!  And do you know, when it was finished I was so proud of that gas station, as if I'd built the whole thing myself!

SPECIAL GAMES - School was especially fun for me during these growing up years because my friends always treated me as someone special, just as I had dreamed with my invisible friend, Frank.   I spent so much time alone in my younger years that I would dream up wonderful games to play.  Then when I started school, everybody wanted me to teach them my special games.  Like we would play army, but I would spice it up by making up different strategies to make it more interesting. It was more fun for me that way, as well as everybody else.

Sometimes my curiosity and imagination would get out of hand.  One time I really got a jolt was when my friend Billy and I were playing in my back yard.  We had an incinerator that sat at the back of our lot.  My dad had just taken some trash out and was burning it in the incinerator.  Then when he went inside the house we decided to take a closer look because we were fascinated by the dancing flames and the curling paper.

FIRE!  FIRE!   FIRE! - I said to my friend, Billy, "I wonder what would happen if we throw a board in there?  Do you think it will catch on fire?"   Billy said, "I don't know, let's try it."  I said, "okay," and I picked up a board from the wood pile right next to the incinerator and threw it in.

The board caught on fire all right and as the flames died down once the trash was burned, we thought the fire was out, so we put the board back on the wood pile.  I remember we were playing nearby and when we looked over at the incinerator, the whole wood pile was on fire!  That's when I panicked!

This is a fine time to run out of space, but I love adventures, don't you?  I'll finish this exciting tale from my past and also tell you about my favorite pup, Suzie, all in the May Tiger Beat.  Until then, remember I love you.  Bobby