Bob

Robert "Bob" Booze

 

 

I lost a great friend this week. He was way too young to die. They say only the good die young and I believe that is true in this case.
 

 

In October 2007, I started my new job here at the coop. I went from having a ton of friends and always having people around in college, to moving out to Dodge City to work out there for a couple months, and then moving here to a new town with no friends. I do have family here and that helped me a lot but I didn’t know anyone my own age.
 

My first day at work I was introduced to the fertilizer guys: Jamey, Lynn, and Bob. He was extremely quiet at the time. I don’t think he said three words to be in the first couple weeks I worked here.
 

 

Later in October, Jamey and his wife Kaleena got married. I was invited to the wedding by JoAnn so I rode along to see how it was. We went to Larned and I remember Bob sitting outside smoking cigars with his buddies. He is Kaleena’s cousin. I think he might have said “Hey” as we walked by but that’s about it. That was a good party to crash. They floated the kegs by 10 pm. And the bride was sitting out the in the grass smoking a stogie later in the night!
 

As the guys got more comfortable with me, they started hanging out in my office more and more. They didn’t have the internet down at their office at the time so they would come up here and ask me to Google things in order to settle arguments. Some of the things I remember are “Fraggle Rock” and “How many peanuts does it take to make a gallon of peanut oil?” They also enjoyed saying to me “How are you still here? We thought you would get fired by now?” What a couple of turds.

 

Bob continued to get more and more comfortable with me. He invited me to a couple parties at his house at Zook. That house was scary and smelled strongly of Propane. LOL.  He also invited me to a bonfire at the Miller boys’ house. I’m pretty sure Bob started his jeans on fire that night. J

We went to eat at Mom’s many times throughout the years. He worried when I first started dating Michael that he was going to get beat up. We had a fun friendship.
 

He would come in my office and knock things off my desk. Or he would eat a candy bar and leave the wrapper on my desk or on my filing cabinets. Or he would drop things over the edge of my computer onto my keyboard and move the screen while I was trying to work.  He would drive my pickup like a wild man and scare the crap out of me. One time he ended up with four perfect fingerprint bruises on his arm from my grabbing him while he drove like a crazy person down the dirt road. He loved it when I would get to the point of telling him to “get out!” of my office. That meant he had done his job for the day! We had our days of not getting along but we always just got over it and moved on and back to normal.
 

Bob would come in and want to talk about things but I would have to drag it out of him. We talked about everything from weight loss plans to relationships when he finally met his girlfriend Jess. I will never forget him telling me he was going to be a Dad. I am so sad for him and for his unborn son that they will never get to hang out and get to know each other.
 

Bob was the person who I have been friends with the longest since moving here. I keep expecting him to some stomping in the door and yell “HI CAMMIE” like he always did. Or say “morning!” at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Or throw something at me from across the room. It just doesn’t seem real at all.

 

 

We lay Bob to rest this afternoon. Afterwards we are going to celebrate his life the way he would have wanted, with a huge fish fry and evening of beer drinking as friends hang out and tell stories of the old days.
 

 

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die."

-Mary Elizabeth Frye

 

RIP Bob Booze