Bob Harsh, 100. (Tom Russo -Daily Reporter)
FORTVILLE – Bob Harsh may have just turned 100, but he still lives independently, drives around town and even mows his own grass.
The centenarian is able to recall stories of the Great Depression and World War II with ease, but his most fond memories are of family and adventures around the country.
Harsh has lived in the Fortville area about half his life, after having lived and worked on Indianapolis’ east side. He recalls his family being fortunate during the era of the Great Depression: his parents worked in a silk stocking factory, and women still bought stockings so they were unscathed.
It wasn’t until the bombing of Pearl Harbor that his family’s jobs were affected; silk from Japan was no longer coming in, so his father had to find work elsewhere.
Bob Harsh graduated from Arsenal Tech High School in 1942 and was drafted in 1943. Trained in the U.S. Army to be a truck driver, he traveled by steam engine from basic training along the Florida coast to a station. He was fortunate to be able to stay in the states in the final years of the war.
Harsh returned to Indiana; got a job and married Thelma in 1945. The two had met in high school, and shortly after that the couple went to Indiana University to achieve an education funded with the G.I. Bill signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The couple lived in California, but when Thelma became pregnant she missed home terribly. He chuckles, remembering the day they arrived back in the state by airplane. Thelma was wearing white shoes, but it was only Mother’s Day weekend. Back then, he said people smirked at ladies who wore white shoes prior to Memorial Day.
Tugging on his WWII Veteran baseball cap, Harsh says back then he would have looked funny too. Men in the 1940s didn’t wear baseball caps unless they played baseball.
Snickers aside, the family settled back into the Hoosier lifestyle easily. Son Ron was born in 1947, and three years later they welcomed Roberta. Both have Bob’s same initials – R.E.H.
“That was her idea,” Bob clarifies. “I didn’t have much of an input on it at all.”
He worked for a publishing company for plumbing and heating devices for 20 years, and then the U.S. Post Office for an additional 20 years.
“It kept me healthy,” he said of being a letter carrier out of the Lawrence branch. “I got hired right off the bat because I was a veteran. I got four weeks vacation, and so I just stuck with it.”
Over the years, he traveled to 48 states; many times to visit family in California. Daughter Roberta said there were many fond memories of camping along the way, sometimes in a tent or sometimes out of the station wagon.
“He was always there for my brother and I, and he would do anything for you,” she said. “He was just a typical dad. Growing up in the 50s, we didn’t have much but we had enough to get by on and he was a hard-working dad. The type of person that’s dependable, and I respected my dad a lot.”
She added that her parents were very much in love for their 65 years of marriage, and loved to travel together as a couple to see the Grand Canyon, historic sites, battlefields and national parks.
Thelma passed away about 14 years ago, but Bob is still enjoying five generations of his family. He is invited to all of the family birthday parties and events, and they came together to celebrate 100 years Saturday at the Fortville American Legion.
His health was probably in thanks to the long walking routes as a letter carrier, which he enjoyed daily – except of course when there was a bit of a pause during the blizzard of ’78.
“I didn’t have colds and things other people do because I was exercising and doing the things that kept you going,” he said. “It’s been an adventure for me to go through different stages. You can’t pinpoint one thing and say that this is it, what I like is I go to my regular doctor and he says, ‘I’ll see ya in a year’ and I go to my heart doctor and he says, ‘I’ll see ya in a year.’”
He still thinks of Thelma often.
“The thing I don’t say is, ‘I want to see you one of these days.’ There’s no sense in that,” he said. “When I have my head on my pillow, I thank the Lord for today. Not for tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself.”
