To be in the audience of Sun City resident and storyteller Bob Gordon is to be in the presence of a master. Turning one hundred on December 23, Gordon has tales that span both the decades and the globe, and he regales his vivid and often humorous anecdotes with near perfect recall.
A veteran of World War II in Guam, Gordon detailed his years in intelligence.
WWII veteran Bob Gordon is turning 100, but his youthful disposition and funny stories never abate. He’s featured below with his granddaughter Amanda Becker. (Photos provided)
“I was drafted, and there was no in between on that,” said Gordon. “I had a background in engineering that put me into the Twentieth Air Force with a new type of plane designed for combat at twenty thousand feet.”
Gordon’s task was an exercise in precision.
“They made me a supersonic mapmaker. The simulator that I had to make would put all the mountains in, the villages in, the towns in before they had a bombing. I became very proficient at it.”
Although earning two stars, Gordon remarked that his years in the service “didn’t change a thing.”
“Let’s talk about something else,” said Gordon, switching gears to his growing up years.
“My mother used to play the organ at church on the south side of Chicago. It was an organ that you had to pump to get the notes to work. I used to sit in the back pumping. One Sunday, my buddy said, ‘I’d like to go with you.’ So, the two of us are in the back talking, and the organ quit. We weren’t pumping.”
Did he get in trouble?
“Trouble? The kind that you’ve never seen!”
Cruising through his tenth decade, Gordon’s youthful spunk prevails. Before he voluntarily gave up his license at 96, Gordon was popular at the Woodstock DMV.
“My wife was in the backseat, and the sister was in the front when we got to the driver’s ed. Now comes a woman instructor, sits next to me, and tells me where to go. Turn left here, stop at that stop sign. When we got all through, she said, ‘We didn’t have a bobble, did we?’ I said, no, we didn’t have a bobble, and you weren’t about to get one because I listen to women telling me where to go every day.”
Her response?
“I got the license.”
Keeping busy after retirement, Gordon consulted part-time until age eighty. He also taught water aerobics.
“Now, I’m looking at the hundred. I don’t go anymore. I was an instructor for thirty years, and I had a hundred moves. Now my moves are from the bedroom to the bathroom.” Gordon laughed. “End of story.”
Gordon lived through heartache, too, losing his first wife to cancer and his second to aneurysms. What keeps him going now is sharing his Sun City home with his 107-year-old sister-in-law, Lucille.
“She lives in the front of the ranch, and I live in the back. My whole life is with her. She’s a good cook, a grownup farm girl. Fried chicken. Pot roast. You name it.”
And breakfast?
“Oh, I make breakfast, what the hell. Cornflakes. That’s easy.”
And what is a favorite activity of this centenarian?
“Watching Jeopardy. I’m a Jeopardy nut. My dear roomie does the same thing. We watch it together.”
And, in his hundred years, what is he most thankful for?
“Oh, boy. This granddaughter sitting next to me. And her sister. And her mother is unbeatable. I’ve got a good background and a good grounding.”
Asked if he would do anything differently if he had the chance, Gordon was firm.
“No, I can’t change it. I wouldn’t change it. I ended up with a beautiful family. So, you don’t change that. Ever.”
