Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Our Venerated Town Scribe

By Vern Hansen

The secret of successful writing lies in striking the right keys on the typewriter.

If that hadn't come from lexicographer Evan Esar, it might well have originated with Robert Streeter Aldrich, youngest son of one of America's best-loved Midwestern writers, Bess Streeter Aldrich, whose novels and short stories of pioneer life placed her in the Lincoln, Nebraska, Hall of Fame.

"My mother encouraged my writing," he said, "but I didn't exactly follow in her footsteps. She sold everything she ever wrote."

Nonetheless, before he reached 40, he had crafted and sold more than 200 short stories, many to the pulp magazines, from which emerged Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler and many other good writers.

"Most of what I sold to the pulps--like Bluebook, one of the better paying ones, and Dime Western, which actually sold for a quarter--were Westerns, some mysteries," he reflected in a television interview years ago.

Self-effacing almost to a fault, Bob might have become a well-paid and well-known Hollywood screenwriter had he pursued such a career aggressively. Some of his mother's work has been filmed, with more in the offing, such as her novel Miss Bishop which was titled Cheers for Miss Bishop and starred actress Martha Scott.

Reticent and somewhat withdrawn, he would have been uncomfortable in Lotus Land.

With Bob's white thatch of hair and his thick-lensed glasses, if you saw him on the streets of New York, you would take him for New Yorker writer James Thurber. And the resemblance doesn't stop there.

Both men had great talent as humor writers, and when Bob put his mind to it, his words flowed in a steady stream of amiable--often dry, but rarely mordant--wit.

For years he contributed humorous essays to "The Phoenix Nest," a column in the Saturday Review, which was edited by Martin Levin and which subsequently appeared in newspapers.

One of these, a hilarious piece called "The Rover Boys Almost in Space," was widely circulated and dramatized by the Mask and Wig Club.

An intense and abiding interest in American history led to Bob's writing a book-length history of Nebraska in connection with that state's centennial.

Journalism wasn't a sufficient outlet for his creative imagination, because, Aldrich said, "you have to stick to facts." So he left Omaha to attend the University of Oklahoma's Professional Writing School.

"I first saw Los Gatos on New Year's Day in 1955," he said, "and came with the intention of staying only a few days to see some friends." He stayed at the Lyndon Hotel.

What began as a week lasted for 42 years, much to the benefit and enjoyment of Los Gatans who followed his Our Town column and his many feature pieces in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.

He confided "I've been here so long that, like Margo in Lost Horizon, if I tried to leave, I would 'age' instantly at the mountain pass."

Bob's father, Charles S. Aldrich, was an officer in Cuba in the Spanish-American War and a U.S. commissioner in Alaska. He and Bob's mother, both Iowa-born, began their married life in Cedar Falls, Iowa, then moved to Elmwood, Neb., where his father opened a bank.

Unlike Bob's parents, my mother and father began their married life in Nebraska and moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa.

But our paths never crossed until the 1960s, when we met at a local writers group here called Authors Anonymous which met regularly in Los Gatos members' homes.

At that time, a prolific writer of nature and adventure books for young adults, the late Rutherford Montgomery of Los Gatos, was teaching a night class in writing at Los Gatos High School. Bob succeeded him for a time as a teacher and often amused his students with his sallies with "Monty," as friends called him.

"I said to Monty," Bob reported, "What do you do when you reach a block in your writing?"

To which Monty tersely replied, "Start another paragraph."

In addition to his reporting and writing, he appeared in a few plays at the Old Town Theater, and he devoted much time to work as a board member of the Los Gatos Museum Association.

He was a regular at the monthly meetings of a group called Poetry for Everyone, founded and hosted by Mary Foster, Forbes Mill Museum curator. The group meets at the museum and holds an annual "open" poetry contest.

Bob won the contest twice and was named Poet Laureate of Los Gatos for 1993 and 1996.

He chose to wear out, rather than rust out, continuing his weekly column right up until the time of his death on June 14, 1997, just a week short of his 77th birthday.

The life and work of Bob Aldrich will echo for a long time in the town he so loved. The Weekly-Times is publishing a book of his pieces that townspeople are sure to enjoy rereading. It is unfortunate that he did not live long enough to see it and sign it for friends and fans.

What we do with what we have right where we are is all that is required of us. That was Bob Aldrich.

To do well within our own orbit is possible to every one of us, as did our venerated town scribe, Bob Aldrich.

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