July 29, 2003

Tuesday July 29, 2003 • Howard Tayler

Some of my earliest memories of watching television are black-and-white snippets of a young Bob Hope in some film with (I think) Danny Kaye. Mister Hope was wearing a pirate hook as part of a disguise, and it fell apart. He looked underneath it to read a label, and then muttered "Made in Japan." My Dad was watching with me, and he explained to me how back in the day "Made in Japan" was synonymous with "Piece of Crap," and how the joke was even funnier now that Japanese cars were supplanting American cars all over the U.S.

Assuming I've got my mental landmarks right (the house, the furniture, etc.), the year was 1975. Bob Hope was already old then, although on screen he was decades younger. In 1975 he was 72 -- a statistically significant age around which most folks are dying. He was older than either of my parents would live to be, but still had over 25 more years in him.

I've never been a soldier, but many of my readers have been. To them, Bob Hope is a hero. He's the only man Congress has ever made an honorary U.S. Veteran. He devoted roughly fifty years of his life to entertaining U.S. troops abroad, and saw more wars than most generals do.

He died Sunday night. It's in the news. You've probably already read about it.

I'm not depressed, or anything like that. I'm inspired. He fought the good fight with a smile, and left us with more memories than we could have hoped to expect. Oh, and he proved that not only is it possible to live to be 100, it's possible to be funny the whole time.