“You know you’re my friend!”
I first met Mr. Green in the Fall of 2018 at the information booth entering Florida Gulf Coast University. As you enter the main road to campus, you pull off to a building just big enough for one person. The miniature dark green metal roof and white walls match the rest of the campus. The sliding door opens and a great big voice wraps its arms around you, “Well, hello…” An even bigger smile greets you with genuine joy.
As a visitor to campus, I was meeting a professor for a tour with the hope of possibly volunteering to host storytelling events. Mr. Green gives me directions and a visitor’s parking pass. He is the face of the campus for me. On future visits, his smile grows even wider as his eyes light up with recognition. You feel his joy spread across the short distance as he remembers your last conversations. The booming voice rings out with his famous line: “You know you’re my friend!”
I’m not a visitor to campus anymore. I have a paid parking pass as a part-time professor on campus since Spring 2019. I don’t need to stop, but I look for his car and periodically pull off to visit Mr. Green. His booming voice greets me and brightens my day. It feels like being hugged by sunshine on a cold crisp morning—something rare in Southwest Florida.
This week, I stopped for a few minutes. “I’m just here to say ‘Hi,” I say, “I don’t need anything.” His smile grows impossibly wider than the Cheshire cat. We chat for a few minutes.
“You know you’re my friend, don’t you?” again his familiar voice booms and wraps its arms around me. “Remember,” he says, “it’s all about mutual respect.”
His interview with WGCU, the campus radio station, just re-aired from Summer 2019, he tells me proudly.
Listen to Mr. Robert Green on NPR’s “Three Song Stories” podcast for inspiration, and let his voice give you a great big hug.