(The following column is a continuation of last week's Over 60 column.)

I was ten years older than Bobby was at the time. I was involved in the usual 15-year-old things - basketball, baseball, the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees. In the back of my mind, though, I wondered what kind of person Bobby was going to grow up to be. When he got older would he shriek at the world? Would the world kowtow to him and run and put on his favorite television program? There appeared an even bigger issue at stake here. Was it possible to control our own house by screaming louder, acting fiercer, holding our breath longer, and turning bluer quicker than everybody else? Most importantly, maybe such tactics could control the world! And what if the Baby Bobby terrors of TV centered homes gained control of the world?

I knew I could never control anything in my house. My father said "sit" and I sat. My mother said "eat" and I ate.

But not Bobby. He ran a tight ship. It was his house and his world. What an awesome power to give a 5-year-old.

Ugly urges to subdue Bobby came over me when it was just he and I, alone, in his living room. No adults to interfere or ignore Bobby because of his age. Oh, how I longed to apply the calm technique of "physical restraint" to Bobby! But, alas! I was afraid. Why afraid? Remember Bobby was a shrieker. And such a shrieker resulting from my "gentle" persuasiveness would surely bring his mother running and my case would close down. And back to the "darkness" and imageless hole of my room and radio. Miss TV? I? Well, better to grin and bear it they say. Bobby reigns supreme, hogging his TV, shrieks and all.

Psychiatrists tell us "Don't suppress, speak out. If something is bugging you, get it out in the open." But I did nothing. And I think I would have continued to bear the scars etched on me by the 5-year-old terror if fate had not intervened.

Bobby's family moved away and I never saw them again. They now lived in Queens someplace. I lived in the Bronx. Queens, in those days, seemed farther away than it does now. The automobile had not yet begun to dominate our lives.

To be continued next week...