Gator Bob, The One-Armed Banjo Player
(Overcoming the Odds)

Medium: Steel Bar and Steel Plate
Dimensions: 6.5'h x 3'w x 3'd (approx)
Created: 2000

Every once in a while a person runs across an inspirational story that should be portrayed in sculpture.

When Robert Kirk was thirteen, he went alligator hunting one night with his uncle, Maynard Link.  How it all happened is a little vague.  Maynard tries to make it all sound like it was an unavoidable accident.  Other alligator poachers say that Maynard was very careless.  Regardless, Maynard pulled the still-alive alligator, whose mouth was not well secured, into the boat with the boy.  Bob's arm was too badly mangled for the doctors to save.  Bob's mother, who was not overly pleased, gave Maynard the nickname that he is still called -- the missing link.

When Bob is told that if he had his other arm that he would surely be one of the top banjo players in the country, he philosophically uses the old saying that he is playing the hand he was dealt.

All of this is more than you probably wanted to know about this singer-musician; however, the next time you wonder who is in the Kitchen with Dinah it may be a good bet that it is Gator Bob Kirk.

P.S.  It seems to me that you should be concentrating on how the man plays the banjo rather than counting how many toes he has.  It is called "sculptural license."

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