Heroes

In this period where we are all looking for heroes, and not finding any, I was surprised to come across one last night while in line at Kentucky Fried Chicken at Tri-County: My friend Bob Johnson, the very first pick by Paul Brown and the new Bengals. Bob has a chemical engineering degree from Tennessee and has apparantly been a successful businessman, running an adhesive company that was later merged into Newport Steel, which itself has merged into somebody. Bob is a churchgoer at the Glendale Presbyterian Church, and a contributor at the Glendale Lyceum, and in general an active contributor to all things Glendale, the little community I live in. He was in line with Jane, his wife, and daughter Anna's adopted daughter, age two I would guess. The grand-daughter, I believe, was adopted, and she looked to be Japanese, perhaps. As you would expect she came up to Bob's knees.

Bob's son played football at Indiana. Anna does a lot with horses, but I forget exactly what. Show, maybe.

Bob and I have something in common. Houses for sale. It took him over three years to sell his previous house, which (perhaps--I don't know where I got this) was originally priced over $1 million. He even tried an auction which didn't work. He sold the house but bought another, smaller one in Glendale. Still a nice house to be sure.

Bob played pro football at a time when the salaries were wonderful but nothing like what they are now. I'm sure he kept his money and made good use of it. He's probably one of the smartest people I know. But Cincinnati, with GE and Procter and many universities and graduate schools, is blessed with many smart and good people.