Bottle Bill

Bottle Bill

Thanks to Governor Robert D. Ray
Iowans who litter have to pay
for each container a dime,
toss your empty - no crime,
You're just throwing your refund away.

Bottle Bill is another one of my brush with greatness limericks.  The following is a note about my most recent encounter with Iowa Governor Robert D. Ray:

Bob Ray

Brush With Greatness - Dave Threatens Governor Ray

While he was running for Governor of Iowa in 1967 and 1968. Robert D. Ray (known to me then as Bob Ray) was my Sunday School teacher. He and another Bob, Bob Bergland, taught my class of High School seniors at what was then University (now First) Christian Church in Des Moines, Iowa.

University Christian Church, Des Moines, Iowa

Bob won the election. I went to Iowa State where I met Dee Ann and we married in the Spring of 1970. During a trip to Ames to visit Dee Ann and me, my brother Dave ran short of cash for his trip home. In those days, prior to ATMs, the easiest way to get cash for Dave was for him to write a check made out to me that I could exchange for cash at the Iowa State Memorial Union. Dave waited for me in a narrow hallway outside the second floor cashier's office at the Union while I was inside performing the transaction.

Iowa State Memorial Union

Across the hall Governor Ray had just finished delivering a speech to a packed ballroom and he emerged into the narrow hallway while the crowd behind him in the ballroom was still applauding. Dave immediately recognized him and stepped forward to greet him. At that instant I came out of the cashier's office to the sight of Dave standing toe to toe and chest to chest with a burly highway patrolman, Governor Ray's bodyguard. The patrolman, seeing Dave as a threat, had stepped forward and sandwiched himself between Dave and the Governor. Bob had not recognized Dave but he immediately recognized me. He stepped aside of his bodyguard, greeted me, and shook my hand.

Dave

I quickly introduced Dave who managed to get an arm far enough around the bodyguard to shake hands with the Governor. There we were wedged in the tight little closet sized space exchanging pleasant greetings, Bob asking about how my Mom and Dad were and where they were now living since he remembered that they had moved from Des Moines. Me asking about Billie (Mrs. Ray) and his daughters. We were joined by Bob's aide who had also squeezed his way out of the ballroom. The aide and Dave had earlier been acquainted at Drake University so now the four of us were amicably chatting in the narrow hallway while the perturbed looking bodyguard remained conjoined at the hip with Dave. Meanwhile the packed room full of people who had attended the Governor's speech had stopped applauding and were unhappily bunching up at the rear of the ballroom blocked from exiting by the bottleneck that we had created.

The Governor noticed the disquiet in the doorway behind him and ushered me though another door leading to the stairway. Bob's aide, Dave, and Dave's new best friend, the bodyguard, followed. This relieved the pressure in the hallway and a trickle of people were now able to exit the ballroom. We continued to chat with Bob and his aide as we slowly descended the stairs and exited the Union. Outside on a bright spring day, we stepped away from the door to clear the way for those exiting behind us, exchanged another round of handshakes, and said a final goodbye. Only then did the bodyguard peel himself away from Dave's side and resume protection of the Governor from other more serious threats.