Bob’s party February 16, 1986
It was Bob’s day in old Fotomat – non regulation, of course,
and quite absurd.
Planning a party for him in his area without his knowing it,
is like setting off a bomb and not expecting anybody to notice.
The question is just how much did he know in advance and how
much was actually a surprise?
I’ve got a feeling that there is more to this than many
people are willing to admit.
He knew, for instance, where the party was scheduled to take
place.
We couldn’t hold the event in Passaic without every dirty
old man coming over from the go go bars to watch.
But how did Bob know about the stripper the staff hired for
the party?
It is not something he could have easily guessed – not with
all the born again people involved in planning the party.
To tell you the truth, the whole thing startled me as well –
especially Bob’s reaction.
I should not have been. Rumors about Bob have circulated for
some time. Chris once claimed she suspected Bob of having AIDS, hinting he
might be gay, while others believe he was exactly opposite, calling him a lecherous
old man (who was not that old) who stares down the shirts of female employees
and is suspected of making obscene phone calls to those employees.
There is evidence to support both arguments.
No one, for instance, has ever seen Bob involved with a
woman romantically, and it is well known that he has a hard time dealing with
women in or out of the Fotomat setting. He gets uncomfortable when hearing
about women’s issues, emotional or professional. Each time he has to confront a
woman employee, Bob gets very tense.
Once, he when he had to investigate a woman employee at the
Rutherford store, Bob actually vomited blood.
Most of the issues I’ve had with Fotomat have been connected
somehow to Bob’s ability to deal with women. Last June, when I got manipulated
out of the Hackensack store, I asked Bob to intervene. He told me he would, but
when the smoke cleared, it turned out he had not.
During this time, Bob hinted at his sexual habits, when he said
he occasionally went to New York to get sex. He did not say if this was with a
man or a woman.
In the middle of this, however, he did have at least one
serious relationship with a psychotic psychologist (many of them are), driving him
to a point where he had to cut it off, only to have her haunt him. But he still
aches for her.
He told me he had a serious relationship with another woman
last spring which ended with him smashing a phonebooth in Florida when she
ended the relationship.
Like many men, Bob tends to be most comfortable around other
men with whom he often confides, raising suspicions of the female employees who
think he hates them and favors us.
Pauly and I are closest to Bob, with me even closer. We’ve
smoked pot together and gotten drunk with him, even gone hiking together.
So, some of us looked forward to his party to see just how
he would react to the stripper. More than 40 of us showed up for that reason,
more than to wish him good luck.
At some point around 8 p.m., the organizers snuck the
stripper through the back door of the Belleville store.
They sat Bob down in a chair, when out of the bathroom came
someone dressed like a gorilla, handing out bananas to the guests.
When she finally started to strip, Bob’s face went vivid
red, although he could not hide the lecherous look.
I got embarrassed and left. Reports later said Bob got
rather gross after that, posing with the stripper in a variety of perverted
poses as everybody took pictures, using these as proof as to which side of the sexual
fence Bob landed on.
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