Priceless Memories - Bob Barker [52]
The next day I went out to the base, and Jack said, “Did Dorothy Jo tell you I came by to say good-bye?”
I said, “She told me, and I loved it—but you will have to stay away from the landlady.”
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When we arrived in Michigan, Dorothy Jo worked another one of her patented miracles. She found a place to live within easy walking distance of the base. It was an enormous old frame home, and there were eleven fighter pilots and their wives living in every room that could possibly serve as a bedroom. We all had kitchen privileges.
I can understand why you might cringe to think about living under such conditions, but we were all young, we were all in love, and there was a war going on. And, best of all, when I looked up, all I could see was F4U Corsairs landing, taking off, and flying all over the sky. Grosse Ile was a Corsair base. I would go to sea in a Corsair squadron. I would be flying one of the finest fighters of World War II off a carrier in the Pacific. Not bad, particularly for a guy who had become a naval aviation cadet because he wanted to go to war looking like a naval aviator whose picture he had seen in a magazine.
But, folks, it was not to be. Oh, I checked out in the Corsair and had the thrill of logging a few hours in it. But I didn’t go to sea. I will explain for you what happened, just as I explained it for members of The Price Is Right audience when someone asked what I did during World War II.
I was a naval aviator, a fighter pilot. I completed all facets of my training, including my qualifying landings on a carrier. I was all ready to go, and when the enemy heard that I was headed for the Pacific, they surrendered. That was the end of World War II.
8
Let Me Tell You of Dogs, Cats, Rabbits, and Ducks
For as long as I can remember, I have always loved animals and I have lived with them all of my life. Long before my “spay and neuter” sign-offs on The Price Is Right or my animal rights protests, I felt a special bond with numerous four-legged (and sometimes two-legged) friends. There is no doubt that the roots of my passionate feelings about animals began in these friendships, and because they have been important parts of my life, I want to share some of these friendships with you.
• • •
Although I honestly have no memory of the relationship, my mother showed me a photograph of me at age two or three and told me that I had a dog that I named Bo, who looks happy in the picture. My grandmother had a farm in Houston, Missouri, and I was living there with my mother, father, and Bo at the time the picture was shot. When I was six, soon after my father died, a neighbor gave me a puppy. I asked my mother if it would be all right if I named him Barney, which was the nickname many people gave my father. She said, “Yes, I think that Daddy would like that.” So when Mom and I left Missouri for Mission, South Dakota, where she would teach, Barney went with us on the train. In Mission, when my mother was looking for me, she would go up on the roof of the hotel where we were living temporarily and look for the pack of dogs that I always had with me. That’s how I checked on Barney, too. I usually spotted him out on the prairie at the edge of town, cavorting with his canine companions. Barney loved life in Mission.
• • •
Not too many years after I started hosting The Price Is Right, I acquired a dog in a most unusual manner. The front doorbell rang and I went to the door. When I opened it, there was a young lady standing there holding a puppy in her arms, just