TRANSCRIPTION
What are your earliest childhood memories?
Being part of "knothole" gang at the San Antonio Missions games. The "knothole gang" was a group of us that would sit behind a tall wooden fence in deep center field and see the game for free through a hole in the fence.
What did kids do for fun in San Antonio
Rode Bicycle, Slide down slides with wax paper. It made us go really fast down the slide. Also make darts out of needle in a match stricker and throw them at each other. Also dress up as ghost to scare the littler kids
Where there any hangout spots back in the day?
Went to the boys club to swing on ropes,play pull and about 2-3 times a week they would drive us to go swimming
Where there any memorable days that you can remember the most?
The day that I can remember the most was the time when we bought 1 carton cigarettes off my mothers charge account at the grocery store. Momma went a couple days later andd the owner said "your kids just came and bought you some the other day. When daddy got home man we got our asses reamed we were grounded for a good long while.
Did you have any jobs as a kid
No, not really my parents said that my job was to be a kid and explore things.
When did you get your first job?
When I was 16 at the "Sunset service station"
When you got your paycheck from your job did you have to give any of it to your parents for rent or to help out with some expenses
No I didn't I was lucky that all my parents made me do was save some of it for future emergiencies and as long as I did that I got to keep it most of it
What kinds of racial issues were going on in San Antonio at the time?
Back in my childhood there was really no racial issues we had black people going to school with us,hell we didnt care. It was when we got to highschool all of the racism really occured/.
When you got in your teens were there any organizations or teams you were a part of?
Yes I was the starting catcher on my High School team at East Central.
Back during that time although you really did not expierience racial issues at school being on the baseball team with some blacks were there any issues that came about with other opponents?
Well when we were traveling back from a game one day going through Seguin we stopped at a diner. We had a member of our team that was black and they wouldnt allow him to enter through the front door. So we all decided to get up and leave
Earlier in the interview you eluded to working at Central Frieght Line can you elaborate on what you did at Central?
I unloaded loaded the frieght from the trucks the actually refered to s as strippers because we would strip the trailors.
After retirement what did you do in your spare time?
I enjoy building classic cars with my buddies. One of my mentors and buddies was the late great Spook Smith we would sit out at his paint and body shop and work on building and refurbishing old cars. Unfortunatly he passed away last year so we no longer have the pleasure of working together.
Were there any accomplishments or awards that you have won?
Yes in 1958 I won the title of "Mr East Central" which goes to the most popular boy in our school for that year . The ironic thing is that the year after I won the award my brother had won it the next
After playing baseball did you take your talents to coaching baseball?
Yes I was the head manager and sometimes assitant of my sons ball clubs when he played for man years in different age groups
Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview?
Yes sir, normally people refer to me as "fatman" no one really knows my name is Bobby Peppler. I had been called Fatman since middle school and the name has stuck ever since.
