Tiger Beat - July 1969

The Bobby Sherman Story -
Chapter 5

There was a time in my life when I had few friends and the kids my age really didn't accept me.  So, I always forced myself to work harder and be better than anyone else.  It's just this drive that had a big effect on my life today!

In the last few chapters of my life story, I've been telling you about some experiences I've had and one thing I've forgotten to mention up to now is my school days.  When I was young I really loved school.  There was always so much to learn that I was usually engrossed in some new subject.  Later on, when I got into high school, other things like football were more important than the scholastics, but still I always kept my grades up.

It's funny, in grade school and junior high school I hated math, but I did very well in it, probably because it's scientific in a way and I dug science.  History never seemed too important to me because I didn't feel it would have any value to me later on in life.  How wrong can you be?  Here I am right in the middle of history by playing a logger in 1880 Seattle!  Whether or not I liked a subject, I always tried to apply it to the things I would do outside of school.

MY OWN OBSERVATORY - Like I said, I loved science and one Saturday my family and I went to the Griffith Park Observatory and I really dug it.  While I was watching the show they have at the observatory I decided I wanted one too.  As soon as I got home that afternoon I began thinking of ways I could earn enough money to buy a telescope.  My first idea was to cut lawns, so I went all around the neighborhood for the next few weekends and after school cutting lawns; and my mother also let me do some odd jobs for her like washing windows and things like that.

Before long I had enough money to buy a cheap telescope.  But as you may have guessed, this wasn't enough for me.  I had to have a whole observatory of my own!   So, naturally, I went to work building one from cardboard boxes until I had my own little observatory right in our garage.  It was really a gas!  I set the telescope facing right up to the moon and I'd spend hours in the evening watching the stars and the moon.

FIRST ASTRONAUT - Because this had really sparked an interest in space, I was terribly excited about the first astronaut going up!   My mom was so groovy, she let me stay home from school the morning the astronaut went up and I watched the whole thing on television.  It was fantastic!  After the spacecraft came back down, they showed the inside of the cockpit on the news one night and I remember wanting desperately to build a cockpit of an astronaut's capsule.

The reason I spent so much time building all these things was because I never spent much time playing with other kids in my very early teens.  Looking back I think the reason I didn't have many friends is because I didn't really try to have them.  I was so wrapped up in my own little world of fantasies that I was just content to be alone.   It was during this time that I built the project I'm most proud of.

DISNEYLAND REPLICA - I had been to Disneyland many times and I always thought it was a magical and wonderful place.  It was one rainy afternoon that I got the idea to build a Disneyland of my own.  The first stages of the park were started with the little bits of wood and things I found in our garage.  As I really began to get into the project, my dad would take me down to the lumber yard to buy the right kind of wood and glues and things I'd need to make it really special.

The whole project took several months to complete.  I did it when I was 13 and 14 years old.  This project was tougher than any I had done before, because it was very much smaller than the actual size.  Before I had always made things out of cardboard boxes which were very easy to work with, but my Disneyland replica was very tiny so that the whole park could fit onto a series of huge boards.  When I finally glued the last details on the front and painted the last little building, I could hardly believe I had done it.  My parents were so proud, too, that they called the newspaper office and a reporter and a photographer came out and did a whole story about it!  Wow!  My first taste of publicity!

PROUD OF MYSELF - There was something much more than a feeling of accomplishment that went along with completing the Disneyland replica.  It was because of this that I began to think that maybe I had something to offer the world too.  I believe every person on this earth has something to contribute to our world, whether it be kindness, a special talent or anything like that.   Everyone has some special little talent, all his own, going for him.  Finally, I realized that I had something too.  I was no longer a nobody.

Now that I finally realized it, I felt I had to let the kids I know realize it too.   To make them notice, everything I did from then on I forced myself to do better than anyone else.  I became interested in baseball for a while.  For me it wasn't just enough to make the team, I had to work so hard that I skipped the Little League and was playing with guys much older than me.  I'd catch the ball even though it hurt sometimes, just to prove that I was as good as or better than the other kids.   I really took things to an extreme, but I don't think it did me too much harm, because it began to bring me out of my shyness.

CHANGED MY LIFE - This great drive I had also had a good effect in that it made me realize that I could apply this energy to anything I wanted.  It's sort of like the power of positive thinking.  If you really believe in yourself and believe that you can do something, you will do it.   For a while I dreamed of being a psychiatrist, then a television cameraman, then a producer and then a director.  Today I'm doing all of those things in one way or another.  I can play psychiatrist by analyzing the parts I play.  I can be a cameraman by sitting behind the camera on the set when they're not shooting.  I produce some of my own songs and I can direct in my own mind as we shoot "Brides."

I've often thought about what I would do today if I could choose any job in the world I'd like to do.  And every time I think about it, I come to the same conclusion - I wouldn't change what I have today.  I'm doing everything I ever dreamed on doing all wrapped up in one super job!