NPR : Morning Edition

Filed Under:

A Father Reflects On Strength And Meeting His Match

By: NPR Staff // September 2, 2011
Play associated audio
comments

Robert Stover grew up in the late 1930s, and as he remembers, he never really had a hometown.

"My father was a salesman with the Hoover vacuum cleaner company. He could move into a city and sell out its potential fairly rapidly. So I lived all over," Stover tells his daughter, Valerie Anderson.

Making friends wasn't easy.

"When I would get to a new town, everybody had to see who could whip the new boy," Robert says. "I was willing to stipulate that they all could — including the females. But it had to be proven."

"If you're born puny but born bright, teachers tend to like you and they call on you a lot. And I was so stupid as to volunteer the answer when one of the other kids couldn't."

And a boy named Buffalo Kowalski didn't care for that, he says. "He was very sturdy, very big for that age. That's how he got the name Buffalo; he was built like a damn buffalo. He used to beat me up going to school, at recess, coming home," Robert says. "And I had no chance against him."

One day, he remembers, he happened to be taking a Gene Autry cap pistol to class, and in desperation, as Buffalo was hammering him, he swung it and hit him in the face. "And I broke his nose. He thought it was a good move. You know, he said, 'Way to go, boy!' He quit beating me up, and I got to know him. He wasn't that bad a fellow."

"Daddy, you were always very strong," Valerie says. "But I have to say, my mother was equally strong."

Beautiful, but scrawny and strong-willed — that's how Robert describes his wife, Kay. "When we bought this farm, we had people who paid monthly rent. But typically, they would be behind a month or two, so Kay said she would go out and get the cash. She said, 'You're too damn nice to those people,' " Robert says. "So she took her revolver, strapped it on, went out and got the payment on time." From then on, she collected it.

"She was my match," Robert says. "Some days, she was more than my match."

Produced for Morning Edition by Jasmyn Belcher.

Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Arts & Culture

NPR

Fictional 'Mothers' Reveal Facts Of A Painful Adoption Process

After years trying to conceive, novelist Jennifer Gilmore and her husband decided to adopt. What they thought would be a relatively simple process was instead a long and painful one. In her latest novel, Gilmore channels these autobiographical experiences into fiction.

Food

NPR

How Genomics Solved The Mystery Of Ireland's Great Famine

Although scientists have known that a funguslike organism caused the potato blight that triggered the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s, they didn't know which strain was the culprit. But they do now, thanks to the genes in some 19th century potato samples.

Politics

NPR

Libya 'Talking Points' Emails Put Petraeus Back In Spotlight

The role former CIA Director David Petraeus played in creating the discredited U.S. "talking points" about the violence in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including a U.S. ambassador, last year is under new scrutiny, as a Washington Post story suggests that Petraeus sought to shape the resulting memo to favor his agency.

Technology

NPR

Apple CEO Defends Tax Practices At Senate Hearing

Apple CEO Tim Cook faced tough questions on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. He defended a tax strategy that allows Apple to avoid taxes on tens of billions of dollars of profits. Cook also called on the Congress to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.