THE EARLY YEARS

Back to Gainesville where I started the first grade. At this time, I was known as Bobby to everyone and only my principal called me Robert. During this year, I spent a lot of time on the playground either playing kickball, dodge ball, or baseball. Our first grade class presented a play on American presidents and I got to be Abraham Lincoln. My lines were short and simple and, since there were no blacks in my school, we had a boy with a painted black face playing a slave that I freed.

This house was next to a cemetery. Here was the first (and last) time Dutch whipped me. The reason is lost to history but the beating isn't. He and Mama had a big fight that day about the beating. Another thing about this house was the Halloween that Yvonne and Judy were visiting and they, and Butch, took me to the cemetery and left me. I was scared and only Yvonne showed any sympathy. Butch had pigeons in the back yard and brought some flying squirrels home from some hunting trip he and L.V. went on. They had killed the mother and brought the puppies home. This house was where Luann and I both cut our forehead. We were playing on a bed and accidentally pulled the Venetian blinds down. They were very sharp and caught both of us. A few days later, Luann was playing on the front porch, swinging on the side, and slipped. She cut her forehead again only this time the cut was exactly opposite the other cut. This left an "X" in her forehead from the cuts.

This is the house where we got our first dog, Lady (in fact, almost all of our dogs were named Lady). She was a collie that her previous owner didn't want anymore. We had to leave her in Gainesville after we moved.