16 SPEC - March 1972

"Run Away With Me!"

I guess all of us - at certain times in our lives - feel a need to escape from the pressures of everyday life, to get away from it all to a new and different and pleasant environment, to some dream world. At least, I felt that way recently - and it sounds terrible, but - I ran away from home!

I'd better start at the very beginning. Until a few months ago, my everyday schedule was a hectic one. After getting up very early in the morning, washing and dressing, I would take my dogs out for a romp in the yard. I'd grab a quick breakfast and then be off in my car to the ABC-TV studio, where we taped the show Getting Together. My entire day was spent there, and often the taping would continue into the early evening. Of course, I loved the great bunch of people I was working with - Wes Stern, Pat Caroll, Susan Neher and the others. And knowing that I was going to be viewed by you gave me such a warm and pleasant feeling of being loved that it was easy to carry on this exhausting schedule. In fact, driving home at night after taping another show, I'd often think about you and wonder what makes you laugh, what makes you tick, what makes you so wonderfully loving. The very thought of you at those times would set me glowing inside, just as if I had drunk a mug of hot chocolate - only better, cos this was an emotional feeling, not a physical sensation.

This schedule continued until one day in November when the bad news came. I had just finished my morning shower when the phone rang. My manager, Ward Sylvester, sounded like the voice of doom as he said, "Well, Bobby, I've got bad news - Getting Together has been killed." (That, of course, is show-biz slang for the tougher words: the weekly series I enjoyed doing so much was not going to be filmed anymore. The television network had decided to drop Getting Together from its schedule after a half-year trial.)

I felt lower than a worm's stomach, and that's pretty down - believe me! In fact, you might almost say that I began acting somewhat selfishly and irrationally. I was hurt and - rather than face my friends, like Wes, and the people I loved, like you - I wanted to get away all by myself.

I packed my bags quickly and called the airport to put me on the next plane out of Los Angeles - which would take me far away from the source of my hurt and embarrassment. I wore dark glasses to make extra-certain that no one would recognize me and try to cheer me up - I was enjoying my self-pity! And so I "escaped" to Hawaii, unrecognized, for a vacation - a vacation from reality and what I considered the cold, cruel world of rejection.

I suppose it was childish of me. In fact, now it reminds me of another time I ran away from home - when I was just a little boy! I guess I was eight years old at the time. I had been terribly mischievous and naughty that day. I remember distinctly - my friends and I had discovered a great place to play. It was on a building site, so there was lots of mud and dirt and deep, interesting holes to explore. I was peering down into an especially deep hole one day when my friend gave me a slight push - and whoops! - I fell about five feet down into a filthy mud puddle! I wasn't hurt, but it was embarrassing. A man from the construction crew had to rescue me!

When my mother heard the story, although she was glad to have me home uninjured, she was more upset than I've ever seen her! Wow, did she scream at me, cos she didn't want me to ever get into such a spot again - and besides, I had ruined my clothes!

I felt indignant - I had suffered enough that day and my mother's temper was just too much to take. So I packed my first "suitcase" and "ran away" from home! (Actually, I just visited a nearby aunt, who called my mom to tell her where I was.) I slept overnight at my aunt's house, though, and she taught me an important lesson.

She said that the times when we're upset are when we need the people we love most of all, and that we must trust them to understand our feelings and comfort us. Friends and relatives and other loved ones are there for the purpose of helping, she said, and we betray that trust if we run away from the very people who can help us. And you know what? She was right!

That's why, when I ran away this time - so many years later - to Hawaii, I was able to remember my aunt's lesson and see how wrong I was. You see, I should have had you with me - to comfort me with your love - instead of hiding out alone. I needed your comforting shoulder to rest my head on - and I needed you to tell me that my career as an entertainer will still continue successfully. I needed to look at your friendly face and know that there beside me was someone I could rely on and trust. I needed your love!

And so I promise you that never again will I run away from those I love and try to escape from my problems - unless you are with me! I'll never run away to a dream world again - without you by my side!!