Bruce Collins
Bruce's Latest Interactions
Dec 10, 2014 at 4:32 PM
SCOTT SIEGLER from our class asked me to post this on this page. Scott had a computer connection problem so he emailed me the following:
Mostly I remember his eyes always moving. We would be talking, but his eyes would be darting to the edges, full of mischief and wariness.
He had that big, perfect smile and a raw, ready laugh; those combined with his physical strength and sudden, quick moves to make him unpredictable and explosively fun. He hinted at a parallel, more secret life than the one he shared with rich white guys, but that was not a world he chose to show me or that I could have entered comfortably. There was nothing spoiled or bratty about him, and he had probably gotten laid more by 1965 than I had by 1995, so he always felt more adult to me than my other friends.
I moved to Los Angeles in 1977; working in the entertainment business I met managers and producers - quick-witted and bristling with energy - who reminded me of Bruce, and I wondered how he was doing and thought how well he might have done in Hollywood.
We did not speak directly about race very much, but this was Cleveland in 1965 and we both knew that life was going to be harder for him than for me. That was unspoken and assumed, and it created an invisible gulf that both separated us and held us together.
In the summer of 1965 I was having an outdoor party at my parents' home on Shaker Blvd, and things started to get out of hand when a carful of thugs drove up and wanted to join the festivities. We were relieved once they left, and the party began to break up. Bruce said good bye and started to leave; he sheepishly returned a minute later and told me that he'd forgotten something. He walked into our garage and retrieved a pistol he'd stashed behind my dad's stack of firewood. I looked at the gun; Bruce looked at me; I looked at Bruce, and in that moment I saw the invisible gulf that separated us.
Scott Siegler
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Dec 07, 2014 at 8:32 AM
http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?n=bruce-e-collins&pid=173384723&fhid=16109
The above link is Bruce Collin's Obituary.