Rob Bradford was certainly one of the nicest guys in the whole elementary school. In fact, he was probably a little too nice for the likes of me. But that notwithstanding, I went through periods of time during my days at Fairbrook Elementary when Rob and I were the best of friends. In fact, I’d say that he was probably about my best friend during our fifth grade year in Mrs. Owens’ class, where we had become the two resident chubby boys. And with the short similar names, people were always getting us confused with each other.
Rob lived in my neighborhood just a few streets up on Pine Bluff, so I would often venture up to his place to see what trouble we could find. Yes, I said that Rob was a nice guy, but he also had a great sense of humor. I remember at least one particularly rambunctious birthday slumber party at his house when his Dad had to get up during the small hours and try to get us off the fireplace mantle and quit strumming on the ukulele.
Although Rob and I drifted as friends a little bit by the time sixth grade hit and Eric Welch became my new best friend, Rob and I still associated on the bus rides home to our mutual neighborhood. He was also on my sixth grade basketball team. Even in Junior High we remained friendly and often had lunch together in the cafeteria. I was particularly delighted when, without warning, Rob smashed our friend Steve Johnson’s Little Debbie to smithereens.
We were also on the sixth grade basketball team coached by my Dad and Frank Rosati. I’ll never forget any of these kids: me, Tim Coleman, Steve Deeton, Eric Welch, Rob, Jason Painter, Neil Kingery, Ron Reid, and Mike Sparks
And still in high school, we shared classes now and then, always remaining friendly with each other. I recall being indebted to Rob when he purchased a copy of my Brashley comic and asked me to autograph it, assuming that I might become a cartoonist by trade at some point. We’re both still waiting…
Rob’s senior picture: he wrote on the back “It seems like just yesterday we were going to the 1st grade. Oh well. Take care & good luck”
Rob disappeared from my life when he headed off to college in Cincinnati following high school, while I stayed more locally at Wright State. He didn’t resurface until late last year when he showed up in the place where everyone now seems to show up – Facebook. In reality, Rob had had a huge year around 1995 when he graduated from college, got married, moved to Chicago, and took a job with United Airlines working in the marketing department. He has been living there quietly with his wife and two kids, a one-year old daughter and five-year old son. So after I found all of this out when we began communicating on Facebook, I made sure to let him know that I would be visiting his city on Saturday, March 21, 2009.
Rob was kind enough to come out on that Saturday night and meet up with Heidi, her friends Jennifer & Vincent, and me, as we were enjoying drinks at Dunlay’s after dinner. We had a great time doing some reminiscing (still relishing that crushed Little Debbie), exchanging tales of travel (he survived a monsoon in Mumbai), and just generally catching up on work, kids, family, and life. Heidi accidentally referred to Rob as “Brad.”
It was great to reconnect with Rob. He rarely makes it back to Ohio, generally meeting his family at his sister (and one of my sister Denise’s friends) Lydia’s house in South Bend, Indiana. Although he hadn’t been back to Beavercreek in over five years, I insisted that he look me up the next time that he visited. He was still the same great guy – nice, funny, and with the endearing trait of slapping the table while he was laughing. I kept all desserts out of his range.
Return to the Chicago trip…
Continue to the next reunion…
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