A Bit More About Oom the Omnipotent

With all due respect to , his research leads many to believe his work is the definitive work about Oom.  

Well, to answer a critic about my sources: Mr. Love read about Oom... I met him and lived part of his story. Here's what I have to share:

To a young boy growing up in small town South Nyack, the car seemed huge—long, sleek, black and so shiny. (Years later I found out it was a Lincoln Tourning car.) I got to sit in the front seat of the mammoth auto, on its plush upholstery, to accompany my dad on trips to pick up passengers at Nyack's train station.

While the Clarkstown Country Club was in it final days, "Doc" Bernard still welcomed occasional weekend guests at his club and home. He almost aways greeted them graciously in the grand portico of the main club house on South Highland Aveune. I remember Doc Bernard—my dad always called him "Boss"—frightened me a bit, but not on purpose. It was the way he looked at people.

He was a large man, portly by that time, yet heavily muscled. His head was covered with close-cropped hair. His grayish-green eyes were so sharp that they seemed to look through me as he handed my a quarter tip for helping with the luggage. My dad made these weekend trips meeting the New York trains long after he stopped driving Bernards Elephants to join circus' around the east coast. By the time I came along, Pop was a part-time chauffeur, the elephants were gone and soon the club would be sold.

But I got to hear the stories for years. Two of the men my dad talked about often were Henry Goldmark, designer of the locks of the Panama Canal. I can remember listening to stories about this dashing man who told amazing war stories on his visits to the CCC.  Pop was thrilled to meet Francis Yeats Brown, author of the "Lives of the Bengal Lancers." He told me that story over and over.

His favorite stories were about the baseball games. Professional teams like the Pennsylvania Redcaps, the Cuban Stars and the Bearded Boys from the House of David came to the club and played well into the summer nights on the make-shift ball field in front of the main club house.

Pop was told me stories of Lou Nova, the famous heavyweight boxer. Pop got to watch him train a CCC for his fight with Max Baer; "Doc" Bernard helped with the training teaching Nova his Yoga techniques of relaxation and muscle control. Bernard told Pop to place a "bundle" on Nova as he predicted his yoga techniques would end the fight in the seventh round. Pop followed Bernard's advice and placed a whopping $10 on Nova. (He was only paid $25 a month as a part-time driver.) He cleaned up, as Bernard was not far from wrong—Baer found the canvas in the eleventh round.  

So, there is research and then there is "things" that are not written down—at least not until now. I have all of the letters my dad wrote home from across the country as he drove Bernard's Elephants. Might make a book of my own some day: Tales from the Elephants Trunk.