Bo Man

Today is Bo’s birthday. He is 29 today. That makes me feel a bit old because I can remember Toby’s 29th birthday. He went to have his haircut. While the hairdresser was working on him he said, "Today is my 29th birthday." She said, "No! Really, how old are you?" She would not believe Toby was only 29. She thought that he was just "holding at 29." He had to get out his driver’s license and prove it to her.

When I look back at pictures of Toby at 29, I think, "Wow, what a baby he was!" It is difficult for me to judge Bo’s age by his looks, because he will always be my baby. I chose this photo of Bo taken before his 2nd birthday while when we lived in Vernon, TX. I wanted to show how much he and GBN2 look alike.

A Bo Story to go along with my RR stories:
Although my dad was an educator, during the summers in RR, he did carpenter work. He would spend the summer working on our cabin or he would often hire out building cabins or doing odd construction jobs. Mom was usually working in the beauty shop, so Dad had "charge" of us kids. We had free rein to play all over the mountainside or to run around town on our bikes – such is life in RR. It was one of the magical things for kids in RR – freedom. The town was so small and everyone knew everyone and people looked out for each other’s kids. There was some problems with that scenario, but I will address that later.

One of the things Dad liked to do on whatever construction sight he was working on, was he would build Craig and I playhouses from scrap lumber. Sometimes he would nail boards up in a tree for us to have a tree house of sorts or a "helicopter" as Craig and I called our tree house. He also gave us scrap wood, nails and a hammer to let us build whatever – usually small boats to float down the river. He would cut the end of a small board into a point and let us nail on little pieces of wood to make our boats. Then we would take them to the creek and play with them. He also made us rubber-band guns. Sometimes Dad took a small square board and nailed two pieces of rope to one side for our arms to fit through so that we would have a "shield." Then he would take a long thin piece of wood, nail a crosspiece to it so that we had a "sword." Then Craig and I could hack each other up. What fun!

In 1986 Dad helped us turn an old building into a café. We had lots of construction going on. During this time, he made Bo and Jesse a playhouse with scrap lumber. I probably have a photo of it somewhere, but it will take some effort to find. Basically, it looked like a lemonade stand with an enclosed lower portion and a roof to shade the kids while they played. Bo called it his "Store." He wrote out a sign and hung it up on his store. The sign said something about rocks for sale, and it had their prices. He had "colored rocks" that he had colored himself with Crayons, "silver rocks" that were covered in duct tape, and a few regular rocks, but the best part of the sign said, "and you can watch hummin birds free." Bo took his store very seriously sitting in it all day, working on his rocks and other kid stuff. One day we were pulling out of the driveway when I noticed Seth Hardy sitting in the "store." I stopped and told Seth that Bo could not play that we were going to Taos for the day. With a very serious face Seth said, "I know. Bo asked me to watch the store." It was difficult to keep a straight face, but I did. The truth was that Bo actually sold some rocks now and then to people coming to our cafe. They got a big kick out of Bo, his rocks, and his store.

Bo was always my more serious child. We often called him "the little professor" or "Mr. Statistics" or "Bo Man." For all his seriousness, he had a great sense of humor – Happy Birthday, Bo!