When I was just a youngster growing up in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, I was quite naive. Not much has changed with me in that respect. Most of the time, I still have no clue. But I don’t let that bother me. On the contrary, because I am so naive, I am continually amazed with life and its complexities, which makes me laugh. And that’s usually a good thing.

But I digress…back in the 1970’s I can remember riding in the car and hearing one of my parents say “there goes OB Joyful.” The words rang together for me, like “OhBeJOYFUL.” I never questioned my parents about the name, which in itself is amazing, because I ALWAYS question EVERYTHING. Yes, I was the child who constantly asked “But, why?” until it got to that inevitable point of “BECAUSE I TOLD YOU SO!”

Anyway, back to OH BE JOYFUL. I thought my parents were generically referencing someone who was carefree or who didn’t have a thing in this world and didn’t care about it. The name was an expression for me. That’s the way it was for me growing up in the late 60’s and through the 70’s. Most people were described by their nationality back then. “We’re going down to that Pollack’s place for a haircut,” or “Stop at that Frenchman’s store on the way home.” It’s just how it was, it wasn’t a bad or even prejudice description. At least I never took it to be that way.

People were also described by their trade or past time. “You know Joe, he’s the one who threw that curve ball to Eddie at the fair last year.” And yeah, everybody did know Joe.

But OBJOYFUL was different. That was a name I thought was just used to describe someone’s attitude.

Silly me, it never dawned on me that there was an actual person with that name!

Forty years later I’ve now found out that, yes, indeed, there was a man whose name was Obe Joyful. I discovered this when one of my cousins sent me a video of nostalgia from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In the video there is a picture of a man and under it was his name “Obe Joyful.” No kidding. Apparently he was a local “hobo” who lived in the area. I’ll have to do some research when I get time and find out more about the man.

But in the meantime, I’ll sit here and wonder why I never figured out that there was an actual person by that name. And I’ll probably still use that name as an expression because old habits are hard to break.

It probably won’t be a surprise to me that one day I’ll be talking to someone and say “Come on, who are you trying to be, O B Joyful?”

And then I’ll laugh when I realized what I’ve said. And life will once again be funny for that moment. And do you know what will be even more funny? I’ll probably find out that, somehow, I am related to that “ficticious character!”