WHAT ABOUT BOB?

  It took me a while to embrace Google. It all seemed a bit too easy, a little like Cliff Notes- those ubiquitous yellow and black classic cheaters of my youth. Did I really want to make life that easy? The short answer- yes. The library at your finger tips that is Google is now part of my every day internet activity. I'm not supposed to tell anyone that I received a National Security Letter (not even my lawyer), so I won't. Google it and find out why. You can't tell the future with it....yet, but almost everything else is possible.
   My 71st birthday is coming up. So Shewho asked me what I wanted? I thought hard and came up with the titles of two books: THE NEW JIM CROW by Michelle Alexander and THE I AND THOU by Martin Buber. I remembered the later title from Seminary and wanted to revisit it. I've forgotten way more than I learned in seminary, so I Googled Martin Buber. I'll leave it to you to find out exactly who he was, but in my search for information a familiar name came up. Turns out Martin Buber was friends with Helena Rubinstein. Once again- Google her. The reason I knew who Helena R. was is family legend had it that she was friends with my great uncle Bob Osterhout. Here's where it gets interesting.

Bob Osterhout was my paternal grandfather Wray's brother. I met him only once, on Cape Cod, when i was about 13. But I grew up hearing stories about Bob. He was a soldier in WWII. One story had it that , lost in the jungle, he had unknowingly ingested the meat of a Japanese soldier, prepared by the natives of New Guinea. Bob said it was tasty. True story? I have no idea. That's not why I was fascinated with Bob. The reason i hung on every word when it came to "Bob stories" was the fact that he was an artist. Growing up in a small town there weren't any artist role models to emulate. The other thing about Bob that set him apart from all the rest of us was the fact that he didn't wear socks or underwear. This may or may not be true, but it took me years to figure out that this was code for something else. Uncle Bob was gay.
    Buber led me to Helena, which led me to Bob....and Peter. Bob worked for Peter Hunt in Provincetown, on Cape Cod. Peter Hunt was famous and maybe Bob's boyfriend. Google did not tell me that. Reading between the lines, Peter Hunt, Bob and many others basically started the "gay scene" on Cape Cod. And, low and behold, Google led me to a 1969 review of a show Bob was in at a Palm Beach, Fl gallery. And there was a photo of one of Bob's works. It was a reproduction of a portrait, in profile, of a high collared man, painted on something other than canvas. In fact Bob was known, like Peter Hunt, as a "primitive" artist who would paint on anything other than canvas. And yes.....they were all friends with Helena Rubinstein. I have no idea if he knew Martin Buber. If you want more information you can Google it.