Third year at Penn State I was still on the fifth floor of Mifflin Hall rooming with Jeff, as we were getting along reasonably well, but there was a new influx of students to fill in the for the ones who had moved on for one reason or another.

We also had a new RA, Connie (short for Cornelius), you’ve met him previously, who was in charge of both the fifth and sixth floors.

Two of the new guys on the sixth floor were Bullet Bob and his roommate. Bullet Bob wasn’t his real name, of course; that was the nickname that his roommate tagged him with for some reason and it stuck. I no longer recall Bob’s last name so I can’t even attempt to look him up, alas.

As to Bob’s roommate, I have completely forgotten his name, along with several dozen other fellows that I knew back then, so I’ll have to refer to him as Bullet Bob’s roommate, or BB’s roomie for short.

Anyway, BB’s roomie was one of those socially inept guys. I realize that’s not saying a lot as probably most guys that age are at least somewhat socially inept. At 75 I’m still somewhat inept myself. But BB’s roomie was especially so. It didn’t help that he wore his hair in an extremely unflattering style, even for the early 1970s. His hair was somewhat bushy to start with, and he let his sideburns grow long down to his chin and sweep across his cheek almost to his mouth. 

So of course he had a difficult time getting dates. Finally, I believe someone set him up on a blind date, and he was excited about that. But as I said he was not the suavest of persons. I don’t know where he took his date, but he managed to get the conversation around to his favorite subject. On learning that his date was no longer a virgin and thus had some experience in the art in which he had none, he couldn’t help himself and he blurted out, “Could you help me out?” 

The next day his date told the story to her roommate, and before long word of his faux pas was ricocheting around not only the coeds’ dorm but ours as well.

But I was talking about Bullet Bob.

Bob was an amateur photographer and had all sorts of camera equipment with him. He was always snapping photos and developing them. I guess he must have been using the university’s dark room facilities to develop them, wherever they were.

I often used to go up to the sixth floor to see Bob, and he’d always have samples of his latest photos hanging around. He was very good, as far as I could tell.

On Sunday April 26, 1970, the Fifth Dimension was scheduled to appear at Rec Hall. I told Bob that I was especially looking forward to that concert, and I also mentioned that I particularly liked Marilyn McCoo, who sang many of their lead vocals.

When concert time came around, Bob took his camera, of course, and snapped a bunch of photos.

A few days later he handed me a photo containing a blown up detail of one of the pics. I still have it, as you can see below.

I also told him that I liked Mary Tyler Moore, but she never came to campus so he never got a chance to snap her photo for me.

I wrote the above several weeks ago and as it was waiting in the queue to be published I was browsing through an old checkbook as part of my research into the series that I’m planning to write about that period, and I came across a check that I wrote for eight dollars made out to a Robert Lenhart.

Robert Lenhart? Could that possibly be Bullet Bob?

I think it was! It sounds right, and I can’t think of anyone else that it could be, although why I would have written him a check for eight dollars is a mystery. I’ll say I’m 90% convinced that Robert Lenhart is Bullet Bob.

Anyway, I tried searching the web for a Robert Lenhart, but it turns out that it’s a very common name and there are no shortages of Robert Lenharts who were born in 1949 (I’m not sure if Bullet Bob was my age or slightly younger). I’m also not sure where he was from but I think it was from the eastern part of the state, probably Philadelphia, but I’m not positive, not that that really narrows it down much.

All I can say is that if you come across a Bob Lenhart in his mid-70s who is either a professional or amateur photographer, ask him if he went to Penn State in the late 60s, and if so, if he remembers making a blow up of Marilyn McCoo for me. Thanks!