Fave - August 1971 (Typed by Carol R.)

The Five Fan Letters Bobby Cherishes Most...
And Why! - Part 1

Everybody has a treasure-box where they keep mementos, bits of tattered paper, pieces of old theatre tickets, stubs of ragged snapshots, letters from people who are no longer near (and some who are) and all the other precious odds and ends of a person's emotional life. These things wouldn't be worth five cents to anyone else, but to the person who owns them, there isn't enough money in the world to pay for them! And I'm no exception! There's a battered old box I keep in the highest, darkest corner of my closet, a box in which I've got my first pair of cowboy boots - when I was nine years old! It's torn and crumpled now, and the lid doesn't really fit it anymore - it sits at an odd angle like a crooked hat - but I wouldn't give up that box for anything I can think of!

SPECIAL TREASURES - It's my memory box. In it are all the things I've really treasured for the past ten years or so - ever since I started saving things. I came across it when I was preparing to move into my new house not long ago, and what I found inside it made me stop and sit and spend several beautiful hours that I've just got to tell you about!

Actually, there are a dozen stories in that box, but the one I want to talk about today is about fan letters - five of them, to be exact. I've received thousands and thousands of fan letters (and quite a few not-fan letters), and I loved all the ones that were nice to me, but the five in this box are the most special of all!

These are the letters I'll keep forever. I'd like to keep all of them, of course, but I don't think it would be such a good idea - eventually, I wouldn't have any place to sleep! I read them, remember what I can, answer the ones I can, and send my love to the writers of all of them!

The first one restored my faith in human niceness at a time when I needed it most. I was really in a down period - after Shindig and before Here Come the Brides. The constant inactivity had really gotten to me - I have an enormous amount of energy, and if I'm not working, I get pretty jumpy. All my thousands of fans, who had been writing me hundreds of letters every day, had evaporated into thin air, and I hadn't gotten a single letter in over three weeks.

LET DOWN BY FRIENDS - And then, one more thing was hurting me deeply. Many of my so-called "friends," who had always wanted to spend time with me when the show was on the air, suddenly disappeared. They weren't home when I phoned, and they didn't call back. It didn't take me long to figure out that I had deeply misunderstood the motives of these people who I thought were my friends.

I began to feel badly about everybody - my fans, my friends, everybody. And then, one morning, I went out to my car, and there was a note folded up under the windshield wiper. I opened it up and leaned against the car in the bright morning sunlight, and this is what I read:

"Dear Bobby,

Maureen and me (that's my friend) have been in Hollywood for a whole week with Maureen's parents. We found out where you live from a cousin of Maureen's who works at the studio, and we wanted to see you. We have hidden in the driveway across the street every day for a week to watch you go out and get into your car. We have seen you six times.

We have never talked to you or anything because we thought you probably got grabbed at by your fans all the time and didn't like it. Also, we thought you might be upset about your show going off and all. Anyway, we didn't want to bother you or force you to be nice when you actually might be feeling pretty rotten!

By the time you read this, we will be in Minnesota, home again. We are leaving this morning, but we wanted to say that we loved seeing you, and we didn't want you to feel like we had spied on your without your knowing it.

And we also wanted to say we love you very much. We know everything will be better than you ever dreamed.

All our love,
Wendy and Victoria"

After I finished reading the letter, I just stood and grinned - and suddenly the morning sunshine seemed warmer and friendlier and I felt about a hundred pounds lighter! At a time when I felt like everyone was deceiving me, using me for selfish purposes, here were two people who cared enough to do that - and not even try to meet me! If they're reading this, I sure hope they write and tell me so I can thank them. I don't even know their last names!

The second letter I'll always cherish came at an exactly opposite kind of time. It was right after "Hey Little Woman" had hit number one, and the television show was doing very well. I felt like I was on top of the world...concerts, TV guest spots, movie offers...and I think I lost sight of a few things in that first rush of excitement at the idea of having a hit!

SOMETHING WAS WRONG - I had just played a concert at Denver, and I was being rushed back to the airport to catch a plane to the next city on the schedule - I don't even remember now what the name of it was. It was my fourth or fifth show in as many nights and I was feeling pretty tired. Also, there had been standing ovations after each show, and I was actually so tired that they had ceased to mean very much to me! (I should have known something was wrong right there, but I was just too distracted by all the excitement to think about much of anything.)

There was a small crowd, mostly girls, waiting at the airport, but I was tired and my head ached, and I brushed right through, assisted by four or five airport security guards. One little girl, about eleven, watched me go with giant sad eyes, but I didn't really give her more than a glance. All I wanted to do was get into that airline seat, push the "recline" button, and go to sleep!

I did...and the next thing I knew, the stewardess was shaking me gently and asking me if I'd like dinner. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and she handed me a piece of lined notebook paper, folded four times. She explained that a girl had given it to her to give me.

The stewardess went for my dinner, and I opened the letter. What I read there made me think for weeks and weeks.

"Bobby (I don't feel that you're very 'dear' right now)

I was in the airport as you crowded through, and it really made me mad! You acted like a big snooty star or something!

We don't love you because you're a star, you know. We love you because you're a certain kind of person - the kind of person I wish everyone was! That's what makes the difference between you and the kind of 'stars' our parents like!

Here's what I'm getting at. Most of the girls you hurried through had been waiting for hours. The kind of person we think you are wouldn't treat girls who had waited for hours like that!

If you're not the kind of person we think you are, we'll just stop loving you, that's all. And if we don't love you anymore, then you won't be a 'star' at all.

I hope it isn't true, Bobby, and I don't think it is or I wouldn't bother to write this note. But I'm worried about what happened in the airport tonight. I hope you are too!

Love (I hope),
Alissa"

Well, I certainly was worried! Alissa's letter made me take stock of myself in a way that I've never forgotten. I've had three or four letters like that - where a fan will suddenly show me something about myself that I've never seen - but Alissa's was the very first.

After I read through Alissa's letter, I looked on through the "memory box" and came upon a small, crumpled piece of red construction paper with a bit of blue yarn around it. I've had it for two years, and I knew what it was without even opening it, knew every word it said. It's Marcia's Valentine.

Marcia is six and lives in Lexington, Kentucky, according to the envelope, which had a picture of Marcia drawn in blue crayon. The card is red and heart-shaped, cut out with a pair of scissors, and the heart is uneven, but it's the most beautiful heart I've ever seen! On the outside, it says "Bobby," and when you open it, you read this message:

"Dearest Bobby,

I am black and you are white. Can I love you anyway?

I do, you know,
Marcia "

Yes, Marcia, you can love me. And I'll always keep your letter to remind me that everybody should love everybody!

Behind Marcia's valentine there were two other letters, and one of them is the most important fan letter I've ever gotten - but I'm out of space. Listen, though, I promise to come back to this very spot next month and tell you about them!

Peace and Love,
Bobby