Bob Silver
Interviewed by Adam Glassman on November 30, 2000
Adam Glassman: Thank you for doing this interview with me this morning.
Bob Silver: Pleasure to meet you. We are happy to do so.
AG: Where and when were you born?
BS: October 1, 1924 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
AG: Did you stay in Indianapolis?
BS: I stayed in Indianapolis through my junior year in high school and then my family moved to Akron, Ohio where I completed my last year of high school.
AG: What was your family life like?
BS: I was an only child. My mother was from Kansas and my father was from Boston, Massachusetts.
AG: How far did you go in your educational career?
BS: I got a masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
AG: Obviously, you got married. When was this?
BS: October 15, 1949.
AG: When did you venture down to Miami?
BS: I had come down to South Florida when I graduated from college in February of 1949. After spending the summer of 1949 here, we formalized our engagement and I went back to Michigan and we got married October 15 of 1949.
AG: What were some of your reasons for coming to South Florida?
BS: I had a car and I knew Spanish and I was going to go to South America. So, I decided I would go as far as I could in my car and then go on to South America. And, I never went further. I didn’t realize that if I waited long enough, South America would come to me.
AG: What were your reasons for wanting to go to South America?
BS: I had a master’s degree in Business Administration. I knew Spanish and I thought that’s where my future was going to lie.
AG: Any specific idea as to what you were planning to do there?
BS: No idea whatsoever.
AG: What did you do when you returned from the boat trip?
BS: I had been looking around to find something to do in South Florida as opposed to going to South America. I ended up going to the office of the life insurance company that my family had always dealt with. That company had a salesman with whom they had very close ties and that man knew me very well and had a major influence on my life, I’m sure. I associated myself with that life insurance company and that began my occupation as being a life insurance salesman.
AG: Discuss a little bit with me how and why you got involved in World War II.
BS: The U.S. Government, the War Department, had a program for college students that said if you chose to enlist in the Army Air Corp, you could stay in college until you finish and then you would go into the service and do your service time. There was a little clause at the bottom of this agreement that said if the Secretary of War deems that the national emergency is great enough, we could call you in before you finish your college career. So, I enlisted in the Army Air Corp student program, if you will, in December of 1942 and in February of 1943 the Secretary of War deemed that the national emergency was such that they would terminate the student program and I went into the service then.
AG: What were your feelings about that?
BS: You have to understand that the national sentiment was exceedingly strong in terms of patriotism and defense and I think I was probably very enthusiastic about going in, even though my college career had been cut short at that point.
AG: What were some of your specific duties in the war?
BS: Well, I became a pilot on a four-engine bomber flying out of England with bombing missions over Germany. The four-engine bomber was the biggest aircraft of its day and it was called the flying fortress. Its numerical designation was B-17. That’s what I ended up doing.
AG: In 1995, you went to Holland to commemorate the war effort that you were a part of. Could you discuss that and explain that situation to me?
BS: Yes. We received a telephone call inviting us to attend. There were forty Americans invited. Sixty British former flyers also, making a total of one hundred people. With their spouses, it made about two hundred people. We were there to commemorate that in World War II, the R.A.F., the Royal Air Force, and the American Eight Air Force, flew food into Holland. The war was still going on and the Dutch people were being systematically and purposefully starved by the German occupation troops. People were dying in great numbers from starvation. So, food was flown into Holland. We dropped the food; we did not land the aircraft. We flew those missions at two hundred feet of altitude. And the Dutch people have never forgotten that. It’s just an amazing thing- their appreciation for the delivery of that food.
AG: What are some of your memories of that specific ceremony? What was that like?
BS: They took us to eight different towns where food had been dropped. In each town, there was a parade and people that lined the streets pressing up to try to touch us and give us handshakes and hand us flowers and crying and saying thank you. It was a very moving experience. The last day of the 1995 experience was another parade and after seven days of this already, I, perhaps like some of the others, had reached the point of ‘oh boy, ho-hom, another parade.’ This parade was in Rotterdam. We had a police contingent with us for security purposes and they told us that there were over a million people on the streets all trying to reach out and touch us or hand us flowers. The majority had been crying saying thank you for the food fifty years before.
AG: Was there ever anything like that done in South Florida commemorating local heroes?
BS: That’s an interesting question. I can’t quite remember right now how it evolved, but there was Dutch club in Miami that learned about my trip to Holland and invited me to make a talk to the Dutch club. I did and as a result of that talk, a newspaper, which has now gone out of business called the South Miamian, did a feature article on me and my food dropping experiences.
AG: Can you discuss any of the politics of South Miami over the years? Does anything specific jump into your memory banks?
BS: Doris and I were very active in the Coral Gables organization known as the junior chamber of commerce in the early fifties. This was a non-political organization but with ties to all of the politicians in the area, both Coral Gables and county government. So, I knew all of the people who were in power in those days. I worked for many different campaigns because of our friendship and acquaintanceship with many politicians.
At this stage, I don’t have any particular memories of any issues that were dominant in those days.
AG: How did you help other candidates you were involved with?
BS: The only one that I recall right now is the first time that Dante Fascell ran for U.S. Congress. I did the little things that were done like walk the streets and hand out leaflets. There was a little phrase that they had ‘ring the bell for Dante Fascell’ so we were ringing a bell on the streets. That’s really the only campaign I remember. I never had a management role in any campaign, just as a worker perhaps.
AG: Any reason that you got involved in that- the junior chamber of commerce and some of the different political campaigns?
BS: The reason would have been that A, I didn’t know anybody in South Florida and B, somebody told me that joining the JCs would be a good thing to do and C, it became the center of our social life.
AG: Talk to me a little bit about the war in Vietnam. What were your personal thoughts on the war? What are your memories of that time?
BS: I’m sure I was ambivalent on that issue in terms of an underlying sense of patriotism but also a high level of awareness that it was perhaps not the right thing for our country to be doing. That was influenced by the fact that we had a son who was about the age to be drafted into the military. He never was drafted, but he was at that age. In retrospect, today, I guess I have the feeling that we should never have been there because the losses were so horrible. I have some contact with a couple of veterans who are still suffering from their experiences in Vietnam.
AG: OK, what do you remember of the civil rights movement? What are some of your specific memories of that?
BS: I recall being in a restaurant right on the edge of Coral Gables and South Miami called Tyler’s restaurant, where I ate many of my lunches because I had an office in the Riviera theatre building adjacent to that. I was having lunch with a friend and we saw the first black person that we had seen in Tyler’s. He was third generation Miami family and he said ‘ok, that cuts it.’ That’s an exact quote. In other words, that was his reaction to seeing the first black person in Tyler’s. Now this was probably after the civil rights movement, per se, but it was a result of the civil rights movement.
Our children both attended South Miami junior high school on Ludlam Road which is still a very active school. It was a very successfully integrated school. It was one of the first mixed race schools in Dade county. It is my recollection that it was a very successful undertaking from the time it became such a school. Our children went through kindergarten all the way through in Dade county schools and we always felt that there was never a racial problem. I think that integration and the civil rights movement, from my perspective, went smoothly as far as it touching our lives.
In 1965, I had been a scout master of a boy scout troop, which met at David Fairchild school right over here on the edge of Coral Gables. When I gave up being scout master of that troop, I was asked to start a boy scout troop serving the needs of the black community in South Miami. So, it was Bob Silver, former scout master of one boy scout troop now with a new boy scout troop of all little black kids. That experiment did not succeed. I think the fundamental cultural differences from the families I was used to dealing with to those in South Miami…it just sort of never succeeded. There was no trauma involved in its lack of success. I think the boys from the black scout troop just didn’t stay with it. That’s my memory of that event. I made a lot of good friends though. The boys and I were good friends in those days. And there’s still one family in the black community in South Miami that I have a friendship with as a result of that boy scout troop.
AG: When you say you don’t believe that worked out because of fundamental cultural differences, what do you mean by that? Can you give some examples?
BS: The idea of working for badge advancements, rank advancements if you will within the boy scout system, lining up and standing at attention, saluting the flag— I have the recollection that the boys from the black community just didn’t have the background in that sort of thing than the kids I was used to dealing with had.
AG: What are some of your impressions of the integration that took place in the schools?
BS: Very successful. Very successful.
AG: What were some of your feelings and reactions to that at the time?
BS: We welcomed it. Glad to see it. Believed in it. I never took any leadership position in it, for which I feel a little guilty, maybe that’s not the right word, but in retrospect, I wish that we kind of led the effort. My wife and I were co-presidents of the PTA at South Miami junior high school. So that put us into the South Miami Junior High School environment a little bit more deeply than others perhaps.
AG: As co-presidents, did you have any role in the integration movement?
BS: No role in the integration movement. There was a major Dade County teacher’s strike at the time we were co-presidents. The principal of each school had the obligation to try to keep his/her school operating. A lady named Ms. Young was principal of South Miami Junior High. So, she scouted out among the parents for those with a sufficient education to be substitute teachers because the other teachers were out on strike. Doris had an education degree from the University of Michigan and had taught school at the elementary level when we first moved to Florida. So, she had classroom and teaching experience. I never had any. But, we both volunteered to play a role for Ms. Young in keeping the school open. Of all of the anomalies of life that you could imagine, I was assigned to boys wood working class. I am the most unmechanical, inept person you ever saw in terms of working with tools. My main job was simply to keep order in the classroom and I’m sure we didn’t do much woodworking.
AG: What do you feel is the current status of race relations in South Miami?
BS: I think it must be good. I don’t have the feeling that race relations are bad, but of course, I’m not on the short end of the stick like people in the black community are. I’m sure in terms of economic opportunity it’s not there for the black citizens like it is for the whites and now the Hispanics. But I get the impression from occasionally watching the channel five on our cable system that broadcasts South Miami city council meetings that racially things are good in South Miami.
AG: How do you feel immigration has changed over the years in South Miami?
BS: Well, of course, the white Anglos, which we have always been, were members of the majority group and now we are members of the minority group. It’s been a historic change of direction in our society to the degree that there are now more Hispanics than Anglos.
AG: How has that affected the community?
BS: I think it has made it economically more vibrant. The Hispanic segment of the population has a much higher work ethic, perhaps dictated by their need to succeed having come from a base of less economic affluence. But I think its made South Florida the economic strong point that it is and I’m not sure that South Florida would have been as strong had it not been for the incoming wave of Hispanics, as a matter of fact I’m convinced it would not have been.
AG: When you first came here, how was the Hispanic situation different than it is today? Obviously, the numbers were different, but…
BS: Well, if you knew a Hispanic, they stood out like a sore thumb because they were the only ones you knew. I’m not sure that we knew any Latinos or Hispanics for the first, perhaps, twenty years that we were here. Oh yeah, we had one close friend who was married to a gal from Mexico and she was perhaps the only Hispanic that we knew in the early fifties.
AG: Do you have any specific thoughts or reactions to the Elian Gonzalez saga that took place several months ago?
BS: I think it’s astounding to the degree to which that little boy has changed the course of history to a degree because I think the deep, emotional feelings that so many members of the Hispanic community had certainly resulted in a stronger vote in this recent election for the Republican candidate than would have been otherwise.
AG: Do you remember any of the community reactions?
BS: I vividly recall what we all saw on the news with the ( ) around the house on southwest sixth street and the demonstrations of the burning of tires and trash in the middle of intersections when the crisis was about to reach its peak. I certainly recall the Elian thing very vividly in many aspects.
AG: Do you remember hearing anything specifically in this community? Any reactions in South Miami?
BS: I believe that there was a demonstration in downtown South Miami. I didn’t see it but I saw it on the news. After all the Cuban flag stuff in Little Havana, there was an American flag activity that was pretty much spontaneous. It was in effect saying opposite views to the Elian supporters. We heard about it on the news. That’s about the only thing that I remember that was close by here. [Pause].
AG: Do you remember having discussions with any of your neighbors in this community or with friends close by about any of their thoughts on the issue?
BS: I don’t believe so. [Laughter]. Well, my wife has a difference of opinion. Doris obviously has some thoughts here and I think she should jump right in.
Doris Silver: We had friends who were against it and thought that he should be sent back. We had a lot of discussions about him going back to Cuba.
BS: OK, well, I don’t recall those off-hand.
AG: So, is it difficult to compare the reactions of here to a community like Little Havana? How so?
BS: Well, emotions were very high in Little Havana. The people we were discussing it with might have expressed views that Elian’s life should be back with his father in Cuba but it was not emotional in nature, I don’t believe, like it would have been in Little Havana. I think most of our friends felt from day one that his rightful place was to have been with his father in Cuba, as did we.
AG: Is there anything else that you feel has changed dramatically?
BS: Oh yeah, that’s interesting. My wife jumps in with a suggestion, which I wish she’d do more often. But, this house was…Well, let me back up for a moment. One of the reasons I don’t buy many new cars is that I have great difficulty paying more for a car than we did for this house. We paid $13,250 for this house. It was Doris who had the vision to buy this house. When we first came out to see it when it was still under construction it was surrounded by nothing but rock, which is the white rock which Miami is built on. But, she had the vision to realize that the lake would be an interesting aspect and it’s the lake that has really kept us in this house.
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