Little Bobby O’Malley

Daddy Comes Home At the age of three, Bobby didn’t know anything about the world, but he already thought he must be the most important person in it. His every need was taken care of by a woman called “Mommy”. There were also two bigger girls who both had the title of “sister”. He didn’t know when he learned it, but he knew his name was Bobby and his sisters’ names were Pat and Beth. Besides Mommy, Pat, and Beth, whose job it seemed was to praise and take care of him, there were many other ladies who appeared from time to time in his world to offer praise and exclaim how adorable he was. Suddenly one day, a man appeared in the house with a dog. Bobby had not had much experience with men or dogs before, but this man and his dog seemed very important. His mommy and sisters were hugging and kissing the man and the house was soon filled with people showering him with attention. Finally Bobby was lifted up by Mommy. “This is your daddy, Bobby,” his mommy said with a happy smile as she handed him to this strange man. Bobby twisted his body to reach back for Mommy but turned back when Daddy began to speak. “What a handsome big boy you are. At last your daddy gets to hold you.” Here were two words Bobby never heard anyone use before when describing him; handsome and big. Everyone else used the terms cute and little. “What a cute little boy. He looks just like his daddy.” Bobby heard that comment many times, but Daddy seemed to be an imaginary person. Now there was a real person to connect to the name and Bobby suddenly became very curious about this man everyone was calling his daddy. For the next two years, Bobby would get to spend a lot of time with his father and learn a lot about this new man in his life. To this point in his life, Bobby lived with only his mother and sisters in a housing project in Detroit. At first, auto workers and their families lived there, but now it was home to defense workers and their families, or military families whose husbands and fathers were fighting in the war. Bobby gradually learned about that war and the important role his daddy played in it. He began to understand that the world was much bigger than the world he thought revolved around him. In those days, children didn’t learn about world events as they happened. No one in Bobby’s world had ever seen a television, much less owned one. Bobby was curious about the war, and although his daddy avoided talking about it, other people told Bobby stories about his father and the family dog.