Bob’s parents were married in 1963. Dad was 29, mom was 16. Married in father’s parents’ house where his mom had a job cleaning for them. Bob was born November of 1964.
His paternal grandfather passed away November of 1964 and his business (Allied Van Lines moving franchise) was handed down to his mom, dad, 2 brothers and sister. His dad’s older brother took over and his dad ended up working for him.
His parents attended Stop 9 church of Christ in Beyesville, Ohio. No dates given. Pastor was his mother’s cousin, Flavel Miller. Had a son named Mark who was born premature. Mom would talk about him, dad wouldn’t.
Bob wanted to be a police officer as a child. He also had a highway patrol uniform and a toy machine gun that he believes shot out a car tire because he “shot” at it and they came home with a flat. He also wanted to be a doctor because his mom had a medical book, until he had a dream that scared him about a head becoming a skull and coming to life. He also talks about wanting to be a bus driver when he grows up (because he liked riding the bus)
Bob had to have a tooth taken out as a child but it came out and shot across the room before the dentist touched it. The dentist still charged them for opening the office after hours.
Father was injured on the job working for the AJ McKim Transfer and Storage in Cambridge, Ohio. He spent a few weeks in Bethesda hospital after a freezer fell on his back and was unable to work again. He ended up on SSD and Worker’s compensation.
Bob has his tonsils removed when he was 5 in the Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
Bob’s house growing up was next to both his paternal and maternal grandmothers.
Bob was picked on by neighborhood bullies. When he was in first grade, some bullies stopped him in an alley and were going to stab and kill him with a knife until an older lady came out and scared them off by saying she had called the police. The police took him home.
One time when his cousin Theresa was watching him, he found her upstairs on the floor next to his parent’s bed and couldn’t wake her up.
Bob got punished as a child for cutting his friend, Buddy’s, hair. His aunt whipped him with a switch and then put him in the corner. The only time he got into trouble for helping someone. “No good deed goes unpunished.”
Bob had lots of pain in his knees and elbows when he was growing up. The doctor said he was accident prone and had a lot of sprains. He also got sharp, stabbing pains in his lower right side. Doctor Agricola said he had appendicitis and he went to the Coshocton hospital for surgery. While he was being operated on, he woke up and asked how things were going. The anesthesiologist gave him more gas and he saw a rainbow going round and round in circles and a ringing sound. He would see the rainbow and hear the ringing for years afterwards.
Bob had problems in school and a learning disability. He was in a learning disability class so he had to go to school in Cambridge, Ohio as they were the only ones who had the class. He had speech problems as well, saying his R’s as W’s. He saw a speech therapist as a child.
He was approached by a church bus from the Trinity Baptist church to attend their Vacation Bible School. His parents were okay with it so he went and stayed at the church. He was also the children song leader. He graduated to the adult church and was unhappy and left.
Parents sold their house on South Sixth Street in Cambridge, Ohio. They lived in a few places in Cambridge, one across from a glass blower shop.
When Bob was 8 and in 2nd grade, they moved to Kimbolton, Ohio. They lived in a mobile home next to a big pond or a small lake (Bishard’s Lake).
When Bob was in 4th grade, they moved to Byesville, Ohio. He was put in a regular 3rd grade class until they got his records at which point he was moved into a 4th grade learning disabilities class. Because he was in the third grade, he was bullied by some of the kids; Lee Parry in particular. When he told his teacher about it, she said he just needed to be toughened up and made him go to the gym before school to punch padded walls and skip rope. Another teacher took him by the ears and pushed him into a wall. His parents had a meeting with the principal regarding that and the teacher tried to demonstrate on Bob’s mom. He was removed from the school and they moved.
Bob and his parents moved to Florida in 1974. The realty agency made his parents pay $50 before they could even view a place to rent and it turned out that the place was an old mobile home in a rundown park. Bob’s parents were upset and went to the fire station to call the police. The police couldn’t help, but the fire fighters gave Bob some toys and helped raise money for his parents to get home to Ohio.
On their way home to Ohio, a bird hit their windshield and people stopped to help them and called an ambulance and the state patrol. His parents went to a hospital to have glass removed from their eyes and skin. They got a motel room after and they told the owners what had happened and they gave them a night for free and got a hold of a garage to work on their vehicle for them. People in the motel took up a collection to help them pay for their vehicle and get back to Ohio.
Upon returning to Ohio, they rented a 3 room house in Newcomerstown on Oxford Avenue. While Bob lived here, he had a 5 year old female friend named Kathy who he would play with. She also had a little brother and sometimes Bob would watch them while their parents were out. Bob was 10 at the time. She had an attachment to Bob and would sometimes cry when he had to go home.
While they were playing house one day, he was playing the daddy and she was the mommy and she asked him to kiss her like she’d seen her dad do. He was worried about what people would think, so they went outside to the trees where no one could see them and he kissed her. He also saw up her shorts on a different occasion and she said it was her “butterfly”. He then asked her if she wanted to see his private but she said she had already seen her brothers. He then asked her if she had seen a boy pee and when she said no, he peed while she watched. He was just being a boy and wondering what girls had and they did some show and tell.
Another time, he had to use the bathroom at her house while she was taking a bath. Her mom let him because Kathy knew what boys had so he used the bathroom while Kathy watched and they talked. On another occasion, he watched her and her brother in the bath when her mom had to step out.
Bob learned how to masturbate by seeing his cousin do it in the bathroom.
Bob started 5th grade in Newcomerstown and attended the Scripture Holiness Church with pastor William Gamble. He was a good singer and sang a solo in the Christmas play at West School. They later moved and rented a farm from a member of the church. His family lived there through his 6th grade of school. He had night time heart burn while sleeping on his left side and dreamt often of being a bird.
One of his neighbours offered Bob a free horse. His parents talked to the people and they had the horse brought to their place. His name was Lightning and he was not saddle broken. The horse had a bad eye and a fear of snakes. While the previous owners still had him, teenagers were feeding him beer and chewing tobacco. The horse had to be put down while Bob was at school. Bob’s family also owned 4 cats named after the kids from the Waltons.
While living there, Bob had 2 friends that were brothers that lived over the hill from him. One winter it snowed so bad that the national guard had to come to dig out the roads. The brothers had a club house in their barn and they had Playboy magazines that they would all look at and masturbate together. Nothing other than masturbation ever happened.
They lived there from 1975-1977 at which point they moved to Florida to be close to his dad’s sister Marge. They had to get rid of all of their animals. One of the chickens had just had chicks and they got rid of all they could and his cousin Brian took the rest to set free on a back country road.
While preparing to move, Bob got hit in the back with a doorknob and everything turned white and he couldn’t see. He was weak and felt better after laying down. He’s had other spells with getting weak, shaky, light headed, sweaty and feeling like he was going to pass out but doctors couldn’t diagnose him.
In the summer of 1977, they moved to Port Richey and New Port Richey in Florida. Aunt Margie, uncle George and their family moved there as well to buy a house made for disabled soldiers. They rented a trailer until a house near aunt Margie came available at which point they moved to Holiday, Florida. They moved yet again to a place just up the road from the sister.
While at school in Florida, Bob was put in regular classes due to a lack of learning disability classes. There was a bomb threat one day. No idea what ever came of that or why. His locker was also broken into and the lock taken off. His binder and notes as well as free lunch tickets were taken. He put the lock back on and went to the principal to report it. They thought he was making it up and that he sold the free lunch tickets. “Why do people always want to think the worst about you when you are the victim? I have noticed that people have been changing from a spirit of trusting to a spirit of fear and distrust.” He hurt his knee at school one day after falling and had to be taken to the ER. The doctor said he had water on the knee and he had to walk on crutches. One time, the bus driver drove him all the way to his house instead of dropping him at the end of the road at the bus stop.
Once winter hit, the rent for their place went up because of people coming down to live for the winter. Because of this and the issues at school, they decided to move back to Ohio in January of 1978. His cousins Brian and John helped and they drove back without stopping. They stayed with his paternal grandmother until they rented an older mobile home in Newcomerstown on Canal Street.
The great blizzard of 1978 happened shortly after they moved back. Mobile homes were evacuated due to high winds and the main electrical box shorted out. They had to stay in a church until a neighbor agreed to put them up. A man with a CB showed up possibly from REACT or an amateur radio club which sparked Bob’s interest in radios.
Bob was called Preacher Boy in school because he would took a bible to school and read it in study hall and on breaks. A student was picking on him once for carrying his bible and trying to get Bob to hit him. He punched Bob in the nose while the principal watched and the boy was sent to the office.
His family moved again to an unspecified place that had a coal furnace and then moved again to a place a pastor had next to his house because it cost too much to continue living there.
There was a girl named Marybeth that he met in school but also lived across the road from him. He spent the summer hanging out with her and her two sisters. One time while she was over and his parents weren’t home she tried to initiate sexual relations with him. She lay on his lap and started to moan. He was interested in girls and having a girlfriend but was scared of having sex. She also wanted him to watch her get into her swim suit on a different occasion and got upset when he wouldn’t.
Bob’s girlfriend was in special education classes and had mental issues. Bob told her that he was going to become a doctor to help people like her which made her angry.
In November of 1978, Bob was set up by his mom to work a job delivering newspapers for the Times Reporter from New Philadelphia, Ohio. It was route 700A on North Cross Street, Greenwood Drive, Parkhill Drive, Crestview and Manor area.
His parents bought a mobile home and rented a lot across from the police/fire station. He still had the newspaper route and earned carrier of the month in October 1979. He was also selling grit on the weekends at the local grocery store and Blair products.
Bob was studying to become a preacher as he felt God wanted him to become one. He asked Reverend Gamble a lot of questions and Gamble showed him a publication put out by a bible college in Cincinnati called God’s Revivalist Magazine. He was also a member of Jim Bakker’s PTL club which gave him 2 bibles and the Rex Humbard Prayer Key Family.
His parents also purchased 3 more mobile homes while living there. The first one had thicker walls than normal and they had new windows put in which caused them to go bankrupt on the windows, a car, and some credit cards. They took $500 that Bob had in savings to pay off a car so that they could buy a K-Car which they lost in the bankruptcy.
The original car that they paid off using Bob’s money had a leak in the air vent and his dad couldn’t find it so they went to bed and slept on it. While sleeping, Bob dreamed that he solved the problem by pouring water in the air vent and it coming out on the floorboard. The next day, Bob’s dad checked and there was a hole that went through the firewall.
Bob’s dad sold a shot gun to Bob’s grandfather and used the money to buy Bob a car so that Bob could drive them places since they had no car due to losing theirs in the bankruptcy. It was a Ford Pinto wagon.
Bob bought a class ring using his money from his newspaper job and making payments on it every 2 weeks while the jewelry store held it for him. He also got a chequing account and a credit card with a $300 limit.
A local drug store let Bob and his family get medications and other things on credit.
Bob traded the Ford Pinto wagon for $250 on a 1977 Chevy Malibu.
Bob graduated in 1983.
Bob joined REACT in 1984 after his parents bought him a Radio Shack handheld 4 channel police scanner and he bought himself a used CB base station. He enjoyed helping people and going to events to help out by parking cars, helping with parades and helping with radio communication and security. In 1984, he took CPR and first aid from the Red Cross and he also did first aid at a Steam Show where he was originally helping to park cars.
Bob had a pen pal from Ennis, Texas named Karen. She was half indian. She was very pretty and Bob fell in love with her and wanted to move there to be with her, but she talked him out of it. He put an ad in the newspaper looking for a woman and got a letter from Barb Kedigh and he met her. She lived in town and he knew her uncle as her uncle worked for the street department and was a CB friend of Bob’s. Him and Barb hit it off and after a month they started dating. He asked her to marry him after 3 months. Nobody approved of the marriage because they didn’t like her parents and even his newspaper customers didn’t like it. They were married April of 1986.
So long as Bob is telling the truth about the extent of the interaction she should have been. Problem is though, that Bob isn't exactly observant with the "Tell the Truth" commandment.
