Rialto Car Show 2002
Twice As Much Bobby!!
When I found out that Bobby would be appearing at the Rialto Car Show at noon, rather than 10:00 as previously announced, I couldn't imagine why we were still leaving at 7:30 a.m. As much as I love Bobby, if I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, I'd prefer not to. When I asked , all I could get was that it was a surprise. hmmm... Of course, my mind was running wild...breakfast with Bobby perhaps?!?!?! As we drove, we passed Rialto and then I saw the sign for San Bernardino...okay, now I was positive that Bobby was going to give us a tour of the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department!! Uh oh...we're past San Bernardino and heading into Yucaipa. I'm sure Anne and Karen, who were following us in another car, wondered why we overshot Rialto and were pulling up at Charlyn's house...as were we!! hmmm...Debra said something about breakfast at Charlyn's. I thought she was kidding, but maybe...ooooh and maybe Bobby's there!! We went into Charlyn's house...no Bobby. Bummer!! Okay, so why did I get up at the crack of dawn if Bobby's not going to be at the car show until noon?!?!?! Ah...the surprise was that someone had gotten wind of the fact that Bobby was going to be appearing at the Y.A.P.S. Pet Fair BEFORE the car show!!! Bobby TWICE in one day?!?!?! I don't know if I can take that!! Anne barely could take that!! She had been relatively calm thinking she had a couple hours left until her life long dream of meeting Bobby would come true...now it was only a few minutes away. Okay, it wasn't to the point of us hosing her down or anything, but she was QUITE nervous. We drove over to the pet fair and headed towards the field. I was scanning the area trying to spot Bobby. We knew he was there already because we saw his car in the parking lot. Finally, someone spotted him in the middle of the field talking to some people. This was Anne's first sighting of Bobby!! Chris had to hold her up!! Everyone was kind of dilly dallying...yeah, love you guys, but Bobby's over there, so I'm outta here!! I was the first to approach Bobby as he was talking to some ladies with a baby. I fought the urge to jump on him (LOL!!) and waited patiently (?) until he looked up from the baby and saw me. "Oh, hi, Ginny"!! Sigh!! When he was done with the other ladies, I gave him a big hug and told him how great it was to see him...gosh, it really was. He looked FANTASTIC and very happy. At about that point, the rest of the girls finally came up and Anne looked like...well, she looked like the rest of us looked the first time we saw Bobby in person!! Someone told Bobby that it was Anne's birthday and HE SANG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HER!! Oh, you LUCKY girl!! Boy, I hope someone got that on tape!! You couldn't have wiped the smile off her face...or any of our faces for that matter. We all took our turns talking to Bobby and taking pictures with him. I had just gotten a new digital camera and went wild...it holds 256 high quality pictures and I took 243!! But he just looked soooooooooooo cute and since my camera has a rapid fire feature...I couldn't help myself!! Finally, we said our good-byes to Bobby because we wanted to get over to the car show so we could greet him there when he arrived...yeah, I know it sounds silly, but we wanted to!!
As we drove over to the car show, I deleted all but the best pictures...difficult job, believe me!! But I wanted to be able to take pictures at the car show too. As we pulled up, we saw that Bobby was already there!! Hey, how'd he do that?!?! Yeah, we took a wrong turn at one point, but we didn't get too turned around and he didn't look like he was ready to leave the pet fair when we left, so I'm wondering if he had a police escort or something to the car show. We met a lot of the gang there, and since we had already had our shot at Bobby, most of us hung back a little. Another "Bobby Virgin", Barbara, had her turn with Bobby. Funny, her reaction was just like Anne's!! LOL!! Talk about a HUGE smile...she was practically glowing!! Finally, I saw my opening to give Bobby all the cards and letters that a lot of you had sent me to give to him. I didn't give them to him at the pet fair because...well, because I wanted to have another excuse to talk to him again at the car show!! So sue me, okay?!?! LOL!! I went up to him and explained that there were a lot of his fans that couldn't be there but that they wanted to say hi. He looked confused at first because he was probably thinking ALL of these cards were from me!! But when I explained what they were, he looked touched and said how sweet that was of everyone.
I met up with a friend of Susan P.'s named Tara and she called Susan so that we could talk. We chatted for a few minutes and then I saw Bobby was open again, so I told Susan to hold on...there was someone who wanted to talk to her. I handed Bobby the phone and told him that it was Susan and that she couldn't be here today, but wanted to say hi. I heard him ask her why she wasn't there and then he said something like "can't they go hungry for a couple days"? As it turns out, Susan was working at a restaurant and I guess Bobby thought she should have abandoned her customers!! LOL!! He has such a wonderful sense of humor. I have a feeling that next year Susan's customers are going to have to find someplace else to eat!! LOL!!
There weren't many people at the car show last year, so I was very surprised at how many people showed up this year to see Bobby. Fred certainly had a big job keeping all of us Bobby Babes in line and making sure everyone got their chance with Bobby...even the shy ones that were too scared to go up to Bobby without some prodding. Good job, Fred!! Once most of the people cleared out and things were a little more relaxed, we asked Bobby if we could do a group photo. So, we all crowded around him and naturally EVERYONE wanted a picture taken with their camera. Fred was sweet enough to take all the pictures. Since I was right next to Bobby with my arm around his waist, I kept hoping for more and more pictures so I could stay next to him!! But eventually Fred ran out of cameras and we were done...DRAT!!! Fun while it lasted though!!
And then it was time for Bobby to leave. He got in his car with Fred and as he was pulling out, Bobby announced over his car's loud speaker that "this is an unlawful assembly" and that we should all disburse!! Oh, that wonderful sense of humor again!! We all waved goodbye...still with HUGE smiles on our faces long after Bobby had driven off into the sunset. Gosh, he's a doll!! I just love that man, in case you haven't figured that out by now!!