A boy named Bobby

​I was lucky to be surrounded by at least one funny person – if not more than one – at all times growing up. When I started kindergarten, I quickly met a boy. Let’s call him Bobby. Bobby was very amusing, so where I left my dad for the day to attend school and he work, Bobby picked up the responsibility of making me laugh.
 
Now, we always maintained a very sibling-like relationship. I felt as if I spent more time with Bobby than my actual brother, and maybe I did. This may have helped me with my volleyball spiking game later in school as I had to keep Bobby in line, and the only effective way was to smack him in the face. That sounds brutal and harsh, but it wasn’t. Each smack carried the same minimal impact but yet forceful enough, making him act somewhat civilized. I couldn’t have hurt Bobby too much as it was a continual battle to keep him in line.
 
It was “Bobby, sit down” “Bobby, turn around” ‘”Bobby, stop it” “Bobby, don’t tie the kid’s shoestrings to the bus seat” “Bobby, leave the kids alone” “Bobby …just don’t do whatever you were about to.” Bobby had a formal last name, and it wasn’t “sit down” or “stop it” however, at times it felt like it was.

I remember one day in grade school that someone had to fill in for the PE teacher. One of the elementary teachers volunteered. This particular teacher was on a diet. She was abiding to a strict exercise regimen in order to lose weight after going through a divorce, I believe. (Why I knew this at the time, I don’t know.) We gathered in the school gym, where we spaced out and proceeded to follow Ms. grade schoolteacher jazzercise. Oh, yeah. She was sporting the appropriate 80’s workout attire, which included the sweatbands for head and wrists. We jazzercised to The Heat is On song. I remember thinking how I wish this could stop and we could play basketball or something. I felt like we were being punished, and then Bobby glided in front of me, pumping his fists, bopping his head back and forth while yelling things like “Keep it up, Ms. grade school teacher” and belting out a few whews every now and then. Bobby had a natural way of either making everything better, more tolerable, or did the opposite as he could also prompt you to say, “Bobby, stop it.” We all need a Bobby in our life. 

First grade Anna McKay