WILKES-BARRE — On Tuesday, during a walking tour with Mayor George Brown, Larry Newman, executive director at the Diamond City Partnership, and Department of Community and Economic Development Acting Deputy Secretary Mandy Book, one of the stops was at Nucleus Raw Foods.
The business, owned by Kamri Ramirez and Danielle McGrogan, is an organic, raw, plant-based, gluten-free, soy-free café located in the Luzerne Bank building at 67-69 Public Square.
And there is a phone booth in the middle of the business that caught my attention. As I began to look at the contents of the phone booth, I noticed a drawing of a cottage business with a sign — “O’BOYLE: James O’Boyle Fine Teas.”
I had an uncle named James O’Boyle, my father’s brother, but I am pretty certain he never had a store that sold fine teas. Then I took a closer look and there it was: “Step 1: Bring a pot to O’Boyle.”
Get it?
Then I saw the artist’s picture above the phone booth — it was my old friend Bob Heim, Wilkes-Barre’s talented and clever artist, cartoonist and journalist.
Then I learned more. Kamri Ramirez informed me that Bob comes into her store all the time and he has several items of his work on display — all are for sale, of course.
And Kamri then tells me that the phone booth is the “Bob Heim World’s Smallest Museum.”
I chuckled because it is so Bob Heim. There is no way of verifying that the phone booth at Nucleus Raw Foods does, in fact, qualify as the world’s smallest museum, but who cares? Let’s just go with it because, at age 88, Bob Heim should have a museum of his work and why not a phone booth and why shouldn’t we call it the “Bob Heim World’s Smallest Museum?”
Works for me? Perhaps the Guinness Book of World Records should also take note?
So I met Bob inside the lobby of the Luzerne Bank building Saturday morning. We were hoping to meet inside Nucleus Raw Foods, but it was closed.
Bob and I took the opportunity to catch up. He recapped a lot about what he has been up to lately and his witty stories always are well worth the time spent.
Bob has worked at several jobs during his life, one stint was at the Sunday Independent, where he toiled as a reporter and copy editor from 1968 to 1973.
Here is a typical Bob Heim gem.
When the notorious Charlie Manson died in prison in 2017, Bob called me to inform me of a local connection to Manson.
Bob told me that the jury foreman in the sensational Manson Family trial in 1971 grew up in Carey’s Patch in Ashley, and later moved to Wilkes-Barre Township.
Herman Tubick was born Sept. 30, 1912, and died on Dec. 24, 1985, at Monterey Park, Los Angeles.
Tubick was a mortician who, according to published reports, liked to live a quiet life. That all changed when he was selected to head the jury of one of the most publicized trials in U.S. history.
Bob, who lives on South Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre, had interviewed Tubick twice about the Manson trial — in 1971, shortly after the verdict was announced, and again in 1976, for Heim’s Northeast Magazine’s inaugural issue.
Tubick played on the first high school football team at Wilkes-Barre Township High School. He left Northeast Pennsylvania in 1931, settling in California where he became a mortician.
In the interview, Tubick told Heim that he became foreman of the Manson trial jury by a coin flip.
Manson was the notorious leader of the “family” responsible for the August 1969, grisly murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others.
Heim was able to get Tubick to relate the story of how he became foreman of the jury of seven men and five women. The 12 jurors voted for a foreman and Tubick tied with Alva Dawson, a former deputy sheriff, who wanted to concede to Tubick. Tubick insisted on another ballot, and again it was a tie. So a coin flip was used to decide who would be foreman and Tubick “won.”
In the Heim interview, Tubick said he was proud of his Northeast Pennsylvania roots and said he benefited from all the people he had met and the contacts he made while growing up in Wilkes-Barre Township.
Only Bob Heim could localize a story like that.
Bob is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and he also worked as a commercial airplane pilot. He also worked as the public relations director at First Eastern Bank.
In 1963, Bob married Ruth Pezzner of Ashley, who he has dearly missed since her passing. Bob lives on South Franklin Street and he continues to “draw and doodle.” He has had his cartoons published, but he longs for the day that The New Yorker finally recognizes his talent.
“It would be nice to be a New Yorker cartoonist,” he said.
But for now, Bob is more than happy to have his “Bob Heim World’s Smallest Museum” at Nucleus Raw Foods. He said he is available for tours.
“I’ve done one tour so far,” he said with that gleam in his eye. “It didn’t go well. We couldn’t turn around.”
Classic Bob Heim.