THE BOP WITH BOB

     Bob Bueghly, my cousin, probably had the greatest influence on me if for only one reason. He taught me self-confidence in an indirect way.

     I was around ten years old and rock and roll had just begun-the early days. Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Bill Haley and the Comets. The golden years of Rock and Roll was on its way-the early 1950's.

      To dance rock and roll was to take a little from swing and jitterbug of earlier years, but, with a new and exciting BEAT. Bob lived in the big city of Marshalltown, Iowa. He was four years older and much wiser as to the ways of what was hip at the time. He was like the "Fonz." He knew how to dance, and when you knew how to dance you knew how to get the ladies attention!

     Bob was my aunt Vivian's son, my mother's sister, and they lived on north 2nd street. We visited there a quite a bit and it gave lots of opportunities for Bob to teach me a thing or two.

     He had one of those small "45" record players in his room and proceeded to teach me how to dance or as he called it how to "BOP." That's what of a lot of people referred to it instead of R&R. Even the song by Danny and the Juniors was originally called  Do The Bop." Dick Clark talked them into changing it.

     I know it sounds a little odd for one guy to teach another guy to dance, but he did and I was a good student. It did teach me self-confidence in many ways that I'll never know. It most certainly helped me to overcome my rural and small town shyness that has not entirely gone away my entire life.

     But, learning to dance and taking speech at Marshalltown Junior College taught me to not, at least, be afraid to confront people. And, best of all, to walk right up to a "chick" and ask for a dance!