Robert E. Bickford

Bob and I have known one another since age one maybe two years old (Mothers pushing us in strollers) Birthdays one month apart, and growing up one house apart.
Close enough for our soda can/tennis ball cannons to reach each other.
From fishing Valley Falls stream, to the old drive-in at Bolton Notch, and on toward Manchester. Hanging on the pipes inside the tunnel, (Tunnel Road) bet some are still there! Maybe it was chasing cows in the fields off Valley Falls Rd (or were they chasing us). Watching the Ice cream truck take a break for his personal stuff, where he thought no one was. (would you leave an ice cream truck unattended with young boys around??). Woodchucks in the garden, (we got his Dad on this one). or making cave in's at the sand pit, and riding them down to the bottom, had to dig each other out sometimes (what were we thinking), The street sign switch in front of his house.
Another time had his dads boat, flipped it, engine came off, retrieved it, dried it out, and got it started, good thing, Dad would still have us grounded to this day. Watching the drag boats race on the Ct river in East Hartford.
There were many more, all have much longer stories behind them, most we could still laugh about, and others had ending consequences, like Riverside park asking us to leave.
We still called each other on birthdays, the start of the new year, and other times just because..
With birthdays coming up again, I may not call but will still think of all the adventures we had.
A Life long friend
Ed Lavigne

Thank You Roxanne for being the lake neighbor that most would want, many times when I called, we would talk, as you were checking in, or grabbing him to go to a lake function, or what ever.

Will try to send pictures of Bob in the "Bob built" hydroplane boat, from around 1970 maiden voyage at Crystal Lake, too much throttle and it almost flips over.
And Bob and my car buried in mud behind Valley falls park, as many had.

I took him an a couple of trips on my boat. He did from Westerly RI to Marshfield Mass. We were surfing the boat 8 foot swells in a following sea. It was a valuable learning experience. Joe Parrett god some good pics of the CG helicopter you went out of their way to look down at us and shake their heads no. We made it to Marion Harbor were we poached Herardo Rivarias mooring.
Bob also helped me bring the boat up From FL part way to New England.
He met me in Charlestown SC and had to leave after we made it to Norfolk. We hung out for a couple of days in Myrtle Beach. Black Bike Week was in full swing. We saw every thing a guy and 2 women could do on a moving motorcycle at high speed. No helmets, NO NOTHING 1 in the afternoon.
We had to hide from the Grouper Troopers in Norfolk because my reg on the boat had expirer. It was Memorial Day weekend. Had a good lunch at the Hooters at the marina.