George Arvin Robinson - page 1

George was born Jan 16, 1937, in Tulsa, Ok. It was a fluke. I forgot where his parents were headed, but their car broke down in Tulsa. That's where they stayed and settled down.

That's where his saintly mother, Nora Knight Robinson, had to work like a DOG to keep her children fed and clothed. Every piece of clothing they wore, INCLUDING THEIR UNDERWEAR, she made by hand. She didn't even have a sewing machine. She planted a garden every year and bought milk from a neighbor.

Then when the oldest three boys got to be teenagers, they changed their clothes two or three times a day. She washed, starched, hung on the clothesline, and then ironed every single one of those shirts and jeans every day! That was on top of having THREE jobs: Cook at a school, Avon saleslady, Babysitter. Rest in Peace, Mom. You deserve every moment of it!

Meanwhile, old man Robinson was giving most of his money to radio preachers. I don't know how many times my heart broke as I watched his youngest son, Dwight Larry Robinson, sit up against his door and cry his heart out, begging his daddy to let him in. The bastard wouldn't!

Old man Robinson was always a radio freak. That's where George's middle name came from: Arvin Radios!

This is a 1940's radio, but it is similar to the one George was named after.

George was a 1955 Graduate of Tulsa Webster High School which sits along side the old Route 66. He was called "Red" by just everybody but me and his family. That was the year I was chosen to go to Girls State. Then I graduated the following year.

George and I planted a red bud tree on Arbor Day at Webster in the approximate spot where that tree is on the right. I don't know what kind of tree that is, but I don't think it's the one we planted.

It was at Webster in 1955 or 56 (can't remember which) that Elvis Presley came to Webster to pick up some girl who'd gone backstage and kissed him the night before. I just cannot remember her name. I wish I could.

George played left tackle on the football team. I only saw him make a tackle one time. It was the last game, and I watched like a hawk. Coach Marvin Martin always told his players to act like "a gentleman and a scholar". I think his influence was directly responsible for many of the successes of Webster alumni. He was a wonderful man.

It was easy for George to be so rowdy; he could feel no pain. He even had a tooth pulled one time with no deadening agent, because he was afraid of the needle, ha ha ha ha Another time at National Guard Camp, he got a fish bone lodged in his esophagus. He sat there with his mouth wide open while they "fished" that bone out. Apparently, he had low gag response, too.

The school's vocational programs were excellent. George graduated as a draftsman, and I graduated as a secretary. Because of our marriage and children coming along immediately, George wasn't able to go to college. I couldn't go either. We were both extremely devastated.

“In the long hallway of his life, there is no door closed to him. If a door is cracked, he's in the room.”

The above quote by Dr. Bill Frist's wife of her husband certainly applied to George.
(George was a hybrid of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.)

George was extremely "hungry" for the high life and was intelligent enough to get it. He just wasn't smart enough to know that it would destroy him in the end. His body was wracked with the ravages of alcohol. He was so weak that he couldn't even fight off that little mosquito bite, in spite of the malaria medications they gave him. The last "door" George went through is certainly not one he expected so young in life. And it was too late to "Let's Make a Deal".

George died.

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