POV

ROB: My name is Rob Rigano.

PHIL: What's your relationship to me?

ROB: We're brothers, unfortunately.

Yes.

[laughter] PHIL: My brother, Robbie loved coming here.

And our family had had an Airstream trailer, so taking Robbie to StoryCorps was a natural fit.

What's your earliest memory, Rob?

ROB: I rolled my Uncle Charlie's Dodge into the street light.

PHIL: Wait, what happened?

ROB: Went down the driveway, I jumped out of the car, and it went down the driveway.

PHIL: Into a telephone pole?

ROB: Yes.

[laughs] PHIL: Robbie is what they call developmentally disabled.

He knew he had limits, but he had a way of just melting your heart.

Do you remember, uh, one time in, Mom's station wagon...

ROB: Yeah, I fell out.

PHIL: Yeah?

And what were you doing, playing with the doors while the car was driving?

ROB: No, the locks were defected.

PHIL: So you weren't playing with the door handle?

ROB: No.

I think they had trouble with the locks on that particular model car... PHIL: I know you had trouble with the locks... [laughter] ROB: And then another time I bit a horse.

PHIL: No, you didn't bite a horse, Rob.

ROB: I thought I did?

[Phil laughs] PHIL: The story was you wanted to go up and pet the horse and the man said, "Oh, that's okay, he can pet it, the horse won't bite" and mom said, "I'm not afraid of the horse biting my son, I'm afraid of what my son might do to the horse."

[Rob laughs] PHIL: Besides these shenanigans, he ended up working at the Department of Public Works for 30 years.

Where he got to walk around the streets picking up litter, cleaning, sweeping.

And he got to know nearly every resident.

He was often referred to as "the real mayor" by the people.

In fact he would go around our neighborhood to look in on our older neighbors.

And he would say, "Well, who else is going to do it?"

He just has that sense of what's right.

PHIL: What's your happiest memory?

ROB: Well uh, my happiest memory is when Dad took me to learn how to swim.

But my dad's a little excitable.

PHIL: Why do you think that is, Rob?

ROB: I think that's his nature.

PHIL: Yeah?

Not your nature, maybe, you know, doing things?

ROB: No no, that's his nature.

PHIL: Rolling cars into trees?

ROB: I don't do that anymore.

PHIL: Oh okay.

PHIL: I was listening to this recording with my wife, and she said Isn't it great to hear Robbie being Robbie again? Because he came down with COVID more than once, And his illness has really taken a toll on his sense of humor.

He is not as effervescent as he used to be.

We miss those things because he was always a glue that bound the family together.

He is a gem of a guy and we all helped polish him.

PHIL: Anything else Rob?

ROB: I think that's about it.

PHIL: That's all?

ROB: Yeah.

And next year we could have stories about you.