Happy Birthday Bob Ross

Sitting at a table covered in glue, paint and dried colored tissue paper in a small classroom at Dunbar Elementary School in downtown Phoenix. My teacher, Mrs. Dixie Parrish, wheel in a large TV that was strapped down to a tall cart. On the shelf of the cart sat a VHS player. In the VHS player was a video of Bob Ross. Why? Because today was arts and crafts day and we were going to learn how to paint trees.

Today the world celebrates the birthday of Bob Ross. Known in America as an artist, but known to me as the big haired tree guy.

I recall sitting in that classroom and when the big tube TV and VCR was wheeled into the room I knew that soft spoken big pouffy hair'd guy was going to teach us how to paint. He would use oil paint and water colors. It was one of the most memorable moments of my childhood.

At the end of the day, my teacher would take us back into the arts and crafts classroom to get our paintings that were drying under a wood clothes-pin tied to a cotton string that stretched across the classroom. I would take my painting with pride, run home to beg my mother to put it up on the wall so everyone could see what Bob Ross taught me to do. There was even a time in my young life I wanted to be a painter because of Bob Ross.

My mother, to this day, has a painting in her files that I painted on arts and crafts day after watching Bob Ross. I was only in the 4th grade.

Happy Birthday Bob Ross, thanks for all the great memories of watching with baited breath as to what all those colors were going to be. You painted the world, one stroke at a time.