People fascinate me…large, tall, teeny tiny, loud, shy, expressive, slow, quick to react, bouncy, snail like, sad, happy or somewhere in between…people watching is my thing. Never hidden within the limbs of an aging tree like that of an incredibly marked grey wolf whose dark salt and pepper mask hides the eyes of a mind as the world walks by…or that of an impatient blue jay constantly pushing his way through leaps and bounds of week old weeds and grass, fallen rose petals and unstoppable amounts of bird clutter.
Like a lion I sit in plain view, be it a dingy brown deeply weathered park bench, a well scented outdoor restaurant, casually eating ice cream at the nearest mall, taking glossy foot long tickets from anxious passerby’s at a world movie premiere or electing to stand in the farthest corner of the back row in martial arts, whatever the inlet, the educational waterway completely engulfs me like a Hawaiian ocean wave tubing surfers toward a incoming shoreline…
Comedian/impersonator Rich Little once said, “If you want to make everyday fun…study the lengths, widths and depths that create the shapes of other people’s lives.” Most anyone can impersonate a television, movie or political character…it takes concentration combined with ambition with several touches of intrigue and inspiration. Influenced is the minds eye which convinces the rest of the body to cut then paste the characters shoulder movements, shift in the eyes, swagger in the stroll or constant need to pull up his or her drawers.
You might know him but in his nearly eighty years of ups, downs, twists, unpredictable turns, mountain climbs, desert crossings, land speed records in a bronze pickup truck, through every record collecting skip, stumble, and fall Mr. Bob Katz has made his way through a few neighborhoods leaving what I call a mile maker on the chapters he didn’t ask anyone to write yet in his own unique characterized way he’s become part of it.
Every neighborhood features a BK. Fun loving, ready for a challenge, loves to collect hard to locate music on old 78’s and 8-tracks, builds giant brick walls to protect never before seen flowers and vines, rakes leaves and weeds into the street while parking not in his driveway but on a hill nose down because that’s the way they did it back home in the land of extremely strong Yankee accents.
BK is the man everyone loves to impersonate. He carries with him that single most valuable energy that somehow harnesses the imagination of a coworker, cousin, uncle or in BK’s case, from every school his grandchildren attended to my hood to the Republican headquarters. Once you’ve met BK you stood there wanting to impersonate his loyally determined persistence which never steers away from the man he is and has become.
BK makes people laugh, whisper and think; it’s as if you’re looking through the eyes of people you’ll never meet. Once the story is complete, he moves to the next group of listeners who set aside their sweet tea, hotdogs, BBQ sauce and wine to swim within the imagination of a single man with the courage and energy to be his own character.
Robin Williams, Mike Myers, Seth Rogan, Tracey Ullman, Tim Allen and Rosanne Barr gained fame becoming replicas of their favorite characters. One of the funniest comedy routines performed on stage is Eddie Murphy describing what it was like when his parents were going out for the night and the kids through amazingly loud and obnoxious fits. The way Eddie paints the tale of that infamous shoe coming off his mother’s foot burps up tremendous laughter nearly thirty years after it was delivered. Someone had to cough up that sort of action for him to gain access into our everyday pages to get a reaction. We all have parents that do strange things to keep kids moving forward.
BK is that man. The ten to fifteen kids on the block that leaped from size two shoes to eleven or smaller will probably one day sit with their friends pulling off that high atop his own rolling hill northern accent, “I’m so disappointed with my team right now! I can’t believe out of all the people that could’ve become my next leader…that’s who they chose! I oughta run myself but can’t! This world couldn’t stand that much change!”
“Who bought all this ice cream? Holy cow I need to go home and get a bigger bucket! Of coarse I’m going to take too much! There’s always more room for later!”
“Hilary Clinton just angers me! I don’t want to talk about! Don’t get me started! I will fight you all day! Honey! Tell these people to get away from me because if I start talking about Hillary I’m just not going to let it go! I’m telling you this girl’s got me riled up and ready for a fight! Did you hear what she did last night? I promise I won’t talk about it but wow…it needs to be discussed!”
“I can’t believe that jerk who hit my truck was uninsured! I’ve spent my entire life pulling off a great job and raising what I think is a beautiful family and my truck is taken out by an uninsured driver! I just sat there looking at him!” “BK…when was the accident?” “Ten years ago! I hope that crazy jerk knows what its like to be the other driver when his uninsured habit collides with mine!”
“Wow! BK that new flower garden is the size of a super Wal-Mart!” “Let me tell you something! Everyday I drive up that hill I want to see accomplishment. I want to see something that makes my heart stop. If building a flowerbed the size of three houses makes me stand up proud and scream I love America then let me plant everything that’ll grow under this sky!”
BK’s lifeless body was found in that garden bed this past Saturday afternoon. Like a true Hollywood romance he took the time daily to create a world that made “him” happy leading toward a slow dance with a neighborhood, family and community that’ll last forever, making the forest to which we live within that much more special.
BK wanted to be nobody special he had a passion to be himself and through each endeavor be it seeking every opportunity to figure out how to get old albums burned to CD’s to always picking the underdog in the Super Bowl, grabbing more BBQ and potato salad than most because he’d take it home for later…his final resting place takes with him the hearts and songs of hundreds of people he challenged while sending each of us home with our bellies full of laughter…I can still hear his voice, “For crying out loud! This is the way I’ve been all my life! I am me! Did I tell you what Hillary did today! Don’t get me started! I just can’t believe that girl!”
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
In loving memory of my favorite character Bob Katz who never turned his back on his grandson. We promise to take care of David!
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