Friday, June 22, 2007

Bob Evans

I finished up a shoot for July sweeps and I go into the station to dump my video in the system when I see Frank and he drops the bomb on me. "Bob Evans died." As a former Ohioan I was shocked at the news. I knew he was old, but it's Bob Evans. He's restaurants are littered across the state.

For my family though Bob Evans means a little bit more. After my father left the ministry he was hired as a manager for a Bob Evans. He even got to meet him a few times. It does not end there, all but two of my family (my mother and my sister Julie) has worked at a Bob Evans and we joked we could run a store with nothing but us. My Dad can do anything, my brother Steve could run the dish tank and grill, my sister Amy can wait on tables, my sister Christi can host I can do dish tank grill and wait as well.


Two years ago I went to the Bob Evans farm for a ceremony where they named part of a highway after him and got to interview Mr. Evans a few high level executives. He was a wonderful man and seemed full of life. I even mentioned my dad was a salesman that sold cleaning products to a large number of stores to the current head of the company. "He was one of our men?" The executive was not just a suit he was a former manager that new the system and that impressed me about the company Bob Evans created.


So the next time you are wanting breakfast go to Bob Evans order up some sausage gravy and think of Mr. Bob Evans.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That story you did about the highway naming aired on 10TV News HD yesterday. Well, I'm not sure if it was that story, but we did run a Fortney interview from a couple years ago. I remember something about the highway renaming being in the interview, so I'm pretty sure it's the one you shot.

J Dog said...

Hey! Where's my money 10TV! Do I get money for stuff that I shot over a year ago? Probably not.

Unknown said...

I mentioned to each of the kids about Bob Evans passing and they both said, "He was a real guy?" I'm told them I was embarrassed for them.

It's less than two miles to our local restaurant and we'll be there Sunday morning.