Dr. Robert Strozier (left) tells his former student, Roger Smith, about his older brother Frank who, when they were growing up in the 1930s, was his “totally fearless” protector.
Originally aired May 15, 2009, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
Robert Strozier (RS) and Roger Smith (RSmith)
RS: Frank was a big guy, he weighed 13 1/2 pounds when he was born and one day I was about 9, and we had these little neighborhood gangs back then, they were these little kids all about the same age who played together all of the time but then all of a sudden they would have raids on each other. And one day we were out playing marbles when we looked up and the Hill gang came around the corner, it was about five or six of them, and so we picked up some rocks, they started throwing at us and we started throwing back at them. I was pretty athletic when I was little and at the time my hero was Bob Feller, and I was going to be a major league pitcher like Bob Feller so I picked out Freddie Armond, who was the oldest guy, and uh, I hit him right in the middle of the forehead and it decked him.
RSmith: Did it draw blood?
RS: It drew plenty of blood. He was screaming like crazy and all of the other kids disappeared and we were about ready to disappear ourselves. Freddie came out with his father, Mr. Armond, and Mr. Armond called me out. He said, I’m going to give you a whipping. I was scared to death. About that time my brother, Frank, came down the side of the house on his bicycle and skidded into the front yard and dropped the bicycle and said, You know, What’s going on? And so Mr. Armond said, Your brother has laid open my son’s head and I’m going to give him a whipping. And so my brother Frank said, No sir. And he said, What do you mean sonny? He said, My name’s Frank, sir. And you’re not going to give him a whipping. Frank was about 5’9 and Mr. Armond was probably about 5’8. His son was standing there and my brother said, You’re going to have to whip me first sir and I don’t believe you can do it. My father can take care of this and my family can take care of this, and I will not let you touch my brother without coming through me first. He backed off and they left. Frank was a very authoritative kid. I’ve never known anybody as totally fearless as he was and Frank was just a wonderful big brother.