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closeBob Davis and I have several things in common.
His birthday is July 24. That’s the same day as my wedding anniversary.
My office is on Broadway. He grew up at the other end of Broadway, back when the pavement ended there.
He lives in Dexter. I have been to Dexter, home of the Possum Hollow Fair.
OK, maybe some of our similarities are a bit of a stretch. But we do share a love for reading.
Bob and I connected the very first time we met a few years ago. He called to ask if I knew where he could find a copy of Joe Parham’s book, “What Is In My Heart.”
Parham, the longtime editor and columnist for the old afternoon newspaper, The Macon News, died in 1980. The popular collection of his columns is now out of print.
I told Bob I would be glad to give him that book. I always try to pick up a few extra copies when I find them at the Friends of the Library Old Book Sale.
I still hear from Bob every now and then. And I know if we ever build a hall of fame for loyal Telegraph readers, his name would be on a star on the sidewalk out front.
Bob is 73 years old and has been reading The Telegraph for almost as long as he could read. He remembers when the huge golden eagle (now on display in our lobby) was mounted on top of the newspaper’s former offices on Cherry Street.
Bob is a self-professed “reading nut,” devouring just about anything he can get his hands on. Every morning, he embraces The Telegraph from cover to cover.
He reads the back of the cereal box, too — an old habit of mine. (However, Bob has recently switched over to Fiber One for breakfast, and I just can’t go there yet, although I’m sure the words are extremely ... er, moving.)
I’m saluting Bob today as a loyal reader, the ground-breaking of what I hope will be a long line of dedicated readers I plan to feature on Mondays twice each month.
These will be folks who consider the newspaper an essential part of their lives. I plan to tell you a little about them and why.
Bob was born in Macon, where his father ran a local grocery store. He found out later he was adopted and tracked down information about his birth mother. Although Davis was his adopted name, he found it interesting to note his birth mother was from Davisboro.
His family moved to Dexter when he was in the third grade, and that’s pretty much been home for him ever since, except for a few years spent in Macon.
He has held a number of different jobs, including parking cars at the Dempsey Hotel garage. He only lasted a day after it was obvious he couldn’t operate a stick shift.
He held a civil service job at Robins Air Force Base, worked for the city of Dublin and had a job in a shirt factory. He also worked at the Piggly Wiggly. He retired after 16 years with a company that delivered institutional medicine to nursing homes, jails and prisons. He traveled about 1,000 miles a week.
His wife, Sally, died in January. Bob has had open heart surgery, so he is careful about what he eats and tries to live a stress-free life. (On second thought, maybe he should stay clear of some of those letters to the editor.)
Just keep on reading, Bob.
We appreciate you.
Reach Gris at 744-4275 or gris@macon.com.
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