The night I saw Bobe Hope

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Do you think he will come here?”  “I heard he is going to Osan Air Force Base tomorrow night.”  “Mr. Morford can’t you do something about it.”

“He’s coming tomorrow.“  “How do we get tickets?”  “You said at the gym on the Yongsan main post?”

I got there early as I could and was toward the beginning of a very long line. The wide entry way to the gym had a soldier posted in the middle holding a rifle the length of his body swaying side to side so you did not enter but were catapulted through the door by the crush of those on line behind. We sat crossed legged on the hard floor and a full-bird colonel got up in front and said “Move up we’ve got to get more of them in.”  We all crunched forward.

Bob Hope came striding out big as life with the biggest smile I ever saw carrying a golf putter and did an hour with Rosy Greer and a female quartet named the Honey Bees that had all of us rolling with laughter. At the end we all sang “Silent Night” during which one of the Honey Bees locked eyes with me, which made an extraordinary evening extra extraordinarily special. That 47 years later the evening is so vivid in my memory bears testimony more than words what that night meant to me sitting half a world away from home in Seoul, Korea.

When an entertainer of his magnitude gives up Christmas with his family for so many decades to entertain our troops all over the world, I find it difficult to find the appropriate words of appreciation and gratitude. Except to say the Bob Hope was truly a great American.

Howard Ring lives in Riverdale. “Point of view” is a column open to all. 

Point of View, Howard Ring

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