I first met Bob when I was 7 years old and he was 9. We lived three houses apart in the Hillier Crescent - St. George Street area. We both went to Coronation school. With other kids, we played sandlot baseball in the field behind his house and we dug mazes of tunnels in his backyard. That's right. His parents let us dig tunnels in his backyard! I never thought much about it then, but Bob's parents must have wanted him to have a happy childhood. He did. New homes were being built all around us back then in the mid-fifties. We played in the excavation holes and climbed around in the houses on weekends when the builders weren't there. One day I saw Bob and a boy that I didn't know sitting on a hill of dirt beside a new excavation. I went over but the other kid said, "Two's company; three's a crowd." I had never heard the expression so I just stood there trying to figure out what it meant. Then Bob said, "Naw! Three's company; four's a crowd. Sit down, Garry." Bob was like that. He included people. He was friendly. Bob and I were together in Grade 8 but after entering High School I hardly ever encountered him until 10 years ago. In 1999 I looked out my mother's kitchen window and recognized the man next door as Bob Lester! He lived there with his second partner, Connie Carr. They were good neighbours to my mother. Now I live in the house and they have been good neighbours to me. I will miss him. Lots of people in Brantford knew and liked Bob. On summer evenings his backyard-garage area was a social gathering place. Last September I joined him and some of his friends for a beer. At one point, he looked around and said, "Surrounded by friends! It doesn't get any better than this!" "Shooting the breeze' with people had to have been one of Bob's favourite activities. For a few years he had a fruit and vegetable stand on Dundas Street. He made a few dollars at it but I think talking with his customers was the biggest payoff for him. I've never known him to get angry and on the few occasions a couple of his friends started to head that way, he knew how to defuse things. He knew how to calm down people who were getting "hot under the collar". This skill might have stemmed from his days working for Union Gas when he had to nicely remind people that their account was overdue. Bob knew that life was too short to spend it getting angry and upset. If there is a shade tree in heaven under which our departed loved ones gather to have a drink and "shoot the breeze", Bob will be there. And if a lonely soul stands apart from the group, he will call out to them, "Come on. Join the party." Bob is like that. He includes people. He is friendly. Garry Kennedy
