Attribution: Photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in welcoming yet another great “Bob” with Chicago ties onto the scene, but he cautions Pope Leo that he will never have the clout in the keeper’s life that his old pal Bob Shephard had.
From a snowy Korean hillside with artillery overhead, the keeper and Bob Shepard did their part after Pres. Truman said, “Integrate the Army and do it now!”
Thus began a lifelong friendship in which Bob in his wonderful casual way “integrated” all the members of the keeper’s family, many of his friends, his elderly father and his pal, and anyone Bob encountered in the keeper’s too white world.
Whether it was on that white turf, or on his Black Chicago territory, Bob stepped across racial lines as if they did not exist and by example suggested that others do the same.
When the keeper was with the Chicago Trib he often stayed with Bob in his neat little South Side home, and Bob often cooked one of his tasty dinners and introduced the keeper to his crowd and a great variety of soul food type dishes.
The keeper will never forget the undisguised platter of pig ears on the table one night without introduction or explanation.
So, Pope Leo, there is that earlier example of how to handle things as one “Chicago Bob” did it. You might take a look at it. It was wonderful and borders on miraculous. And it didn’t matter if you were “colored” or Catholic.
The keeper thanks HST for the long-ago Chicago Bob introduction and if he were still around, the keeper would ask Bob, as he did at the time, to please never again serve him any more pig ears. Bob nearly fell off his chair in one of his raucous laughing fits.
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