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Well, it was still early in the pregnancy, and at some point we went in to hear the baby's first heartbeat. Do you know what a baby's heartbeat sounds like? It is like a trip-hammer, ta-da-ta-da-ta-da....know what I mean? Well, after the doctor finished this heartbeat session, he moved the microphone over casually to her side and of course we lost the heartbeat. Just as he was about to lift it off of her, to everyone's surprise, we once again heard the ta-da-ta-da-ta-da and the doctor suddenly lost that big smile he had on his face. Concerned, he quickly suggested that we all head off to the ultrasound room, which we did, eventually confirming what we had already suspected. Thar were twins in them thar hills! Of course, this meant that it was now a high-risk pregnancy, as all such multiple births are." Well, at least it didn't come as a total shock. Besides, you had already been through a similar thing with the birth of your first son. "You know Jimmy," Bob continues, "with Brooksie, the doctor had asked me if I wanted to be a part of the actual birthing inside of the birthing room. I had thought about it for a second, and said, 'Nah, I don't think so.' I mean, I had always kind of envisioned myself sitting in the waiting room with a box of cigars and passing them out to all of my friends. The doctor said, 'Well why not?' I told him that it was because of me feeling like I would just be some sort of a 5th wheel in there, getting in the way and just standing around like some dork. He said okay, but just think it over for a while and let me know on your next visit.
One funny thing about Brooksie, as I waited with him while the doctors cleaned him off, I had to pat him on his broad chest to calm him down. He was still pissed off from being born, I guess (laughing). Well, finally a doctor came to check him out. He articulated his arms and legs and pronounced, 'He's perfect, Mr. Reed.' Still
concerned, I asked the doctor to take a look at his hands. I had been
looking at them --balled up into tiny baby fists as they were, and
they had seemed extremely large to me. Don't his hands look too big?
You see, he was like a puppy dog to me. You know how when you see
a puppy with big paws how they are gonna be a big guy? Well it was
like that. The doctor then held one of Brooks' hands in his, looked
at it and said, 'Wow, he really does have big hands!'" Here it was, two short years later, and you are going to go through that whole process once again, only with double the work this time. Now that you had deduced that mom was carrying two babies instead of one, did you know if they were male or female? "You have to remember that this was twenty-two years ago," Bob says. "But even back then, they had high-resolution ultrasound, especially for high-risk pregnancies, and when that time came (around 20 weeks) you could easily tell if one was a girl and one was a boy. Katie came first, as she always pioneered the way. She came out all red and roughed-up from her difficult travel down the birth canal. Lucas, just like he always seems to do, came out all clean and perfect like a caesarian baby (laughs), as his sister had done all of the work for him. My wife and I thought, 'Wow, this is all just so wonderful.' Two peas in a pod, really. They always slept in the same crib together, until they just got too big for the crib. And after that, they slept in the same room together, until the point that I moved Lucas in with Brooks and put Katie into a room by herself." You hear all of these stories about twins being almost supernaturally close. While Lucas and Katie were fraternal twins as opposed to being identical, I wondered if that were perhaps the case here.
You have a very special family Bob. I suspect that you knew that even way back then. Kind of a crazy question, but how would you describe them individually? I mean, what set them apart at such an early age? "Well, babies are pretty much alike. Katie was always happy and like Brooks, slept all night long from the second month on. Lucas, however, was a fitful sleeper and as soon as he could walk (8 months) he would toddle in 3 or 4 nights a week to where his Mom and I were sleeping. Anyone who has had both girl and boy babies knows that they are just different from the get go. Boys like trucks, guns, balls and stuff like that. Girls like stuffed animals, pretty dresses, and girlie stuff. Lucas, however, did have a stuffed dog that he called by the amazingly original name of 'doggy' that accompanied him everywhere." Doggy? Now, why didn't I ever think of that! The name of my dog (a Chihuahua) is Thurston HOWL the Third. Probably would have saved me a fortune on dog tags and designer clothes. At any rate, I was thinking more along the lines of describing the Reed siblings in Beatles style. You know, how they always said that Paul was the "cute one;" John was the "serious one;" George was the "sensitive one" and Ringo was the "funny one." Laughing, Bob replies, "I don't know about that. Honestly, the kids pretty much all shared the same traits and attributes at various times. Sure, there were a few differences, but only if we are to make very fine distinctions here. Brooks was always chunkier and more explosive. Faster and stronger....with those big old broad shoulders of his. Of course, Lucas' shoulders may be broader than his are now (smiles). Early on, Brooks had those types of things --size, explosiveness and speed, but Lucas had his own unique qualities as well. For instance, he had this great hand and eye coordination. I used to take him out in the backyard before he was four years old and he would take one of those little plastic bats in his hands and I would chuck him a whiffle ball, and he would hit that sucker every time. Also, Lucas actually walked before Brooks. Lucas walked at eight months, while Brooks walked at ten. So all things considered, they were both athletic kids, just in different ways --although Lucas didn't gain his strength nearly as fast as Brooks did. In fact, it probably wasn't until he got to the college level at New Mexico, that he seemed to be catching up in that department. Up until that point, his whole life-force seemed to be focused on fitting into that 6'6" frame of his. Actually, he is a bit bigger than that now. I'd say about 6'6" and a quarter." When I look at some of the early pictures of them together, there is often quite a contrast between the two. Brooks simply looks like a total football stud --hellbent on chaos and destruction. On the other hand, Lucas often seems like he is just along for the ride --and simply thrilled to be invited. Clearly, looks can be deceiving.
Here is a funny story for you. I lived in Europe for a time before I got married, and it is very different over there in some ways, regarding manhood. For instance, I used to kiss Brooks after games or whatever in high school, and I could see that this was the very last thing that he possibly ever wanted to happen to him out on a football field." (We start laughing uproariously) "Well, Lucas never shied away from that sort of thing. In fact, I think that maybe it was even a little source of pride to him. Anyway, they were both very precocious physically as youths --albeit differently. Brooks is like the round shot out of an artillery cannon at close range. Just total explosiveness. Lucas is more like the guy who tries to catch the shell itself; running down the field at full blast, with people all around him, and needing to put himself in the exact position of the predicted trajectory of that bullet. And then, to somehow get under it and actually catch it, well, that is a tremendous thing. It is certainly a skill." I am anxious to hear Brooks comment on his brother's development. He has certainly come a long way since high school. "Well, Brooks always took care of his brother," Bob says. "Brooks is not the most talkative chap, but if Lucas asked, Brooks would always tell him what needed to be done, and Lucas would listen. My kids are very fortunate that they have each other, you know? Even with all of their similarities and differences, if you viewed them under a microscope, they would all just mesh together. I know that their lives certainly brought my own life into a clearer focus. But it takes two to start a family, and while I worked hard at my job to provide for the family needs, Kathleen stayed at home and took care of the kids full-time, as we had both felt that sort of arrangement would be the best thing for them. She really did a tremendous job with the kids in that respect, and her steady influence on them growing up, cannot be stressed enough. Getting them dressed everyday, feeding them their favorite, little treats, and stuff like that. It
was our own little, mini-version of the American Dream, I suppose.
But since you are making this thing with sort of a western theme,
maybe I should say instead that it was our own 'Little House on the
Prairie," (Bob rolls up his eyes and laughs).  
In May of 1997, with the twins in the first grade and Brooks in the third, the lives of the Reed family were about to change dramatically. Heaving a big sigh, Bob explains, “My wife one day decided that there were greener pastures out there, and that she had finished serving her time as a wife and a mom. Granted, she had done a great job with the kids up to that point, but the job was really just beginning! When you have children, you take on this huge, huge responsibility. No matter how old they are, you should be there for them 24/7. It is really the most important job that you will ever have.”
So you raised your family from that point all on your own? Man, I have nothing but respect for you. “Thanks, but at the time,” Bob says, “it felt like the sky had just caved in on us, although ultimately, it wasn't the disaster I feared it might be. My biggest concern early on, was just trying to figure out how I was going to do it alone. Somehow, it all worked out. There were after school programs, there were baby-sitters, live-in nannies….that kind of stuff. When I think about those struggles now –just trying to keep everything as close to what the kids were familiar with as possible, I like to think of it as an adventure. The kids and I had this great adventure, with just the four of us in a little row boat beating against the tidal waves. And just because someone had suddenly bailed out on us, doesn’t mean that we were going to stop rowing!” (we both smile at this)
Anyway, she gathered up the little things that we had agreed she would take and loaded them into the back of her car, which was also a part of our deal. I then gathered all of the kids and we stood outside of our house to say good-bye as she kissed them each, one by one. When she got to Lucas, he sensed that something was wrong and clung to his mom for dear life, even beginning to climb up her like a little monkey. It was his inchoate way of saying, 'please don't go mom.' Eventually, she had to unwrap his little arms and peel him off of her. The car had been backed into the driveway to load, so as she drove off, she waved good-bye to everyone from the rearview mirror, which now seems oddly appropriate. The kids just stood there shell-shocked, and tentatively, waved good-bye back to their mom. I felt so sorry for them, these little cubs of mine, as they really didn’t have any idea what was going on. I think the worst part --the hardest part for me anyway, was that I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do for them, or how I was ever going to explain this confusing and tragic event in their lives. Eventually, we all went back in the house and I pulled a book down off of the bookshelf. It was called ‘Watership Down,’ which was a children’s book about a group of rabbits and their odyssey to find a new home after their old one had been destroyed. I sat them all down, despite the usual protests from Lucas (Bob imitates Lucas)…’I don’t wanna sit down! I don’t wanna sit down!’ Well, five minutes into the story, he was the one paying the most rapt attention (chuckles). I knew that their attention span wasn’t much more than a half an hour or so, but that began a period of time for probably two years, where I would read to them every night. I even ended up calling the library, and asking the librarian for a list of books that kids like. Something that came out of our reading sessions that I think is kind of unique, was that in each book that I read to them, the kids would pick out a character in the book, and kind of live the story through them.” That's a great story. I can just imagine their playful interaction. A form of escapism perhaps? “You know Jimmy,” Bob says, “Kathleen and I tried to make this as easy as possible for them right from the beginning. We kept them in the surroundings they were familiar with, and the only change was that mom wasn’t around as much as she used to be. Now, she didn’t just step out of their lives or anything like that. Each week on Friday night, she would pick them up and they would spend until Sunday evening together. To be honest, the kids simply adjusted and handled it all pretty well. They never saw us scream or yell at each other. We just weren’t the type to do that in front of the kids. For them, it meant that mom just went off and lived in a different place. I think that was how they rationalized it, as they had never really witnessed any animosity between us.” I think they were very fortunate to have you for a father. There is a quote from an old Star Trek movie, where Leonard Nimoy (Spock) explains the sacrifice of his own life to save the crew, as “The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.” I know that you probably won’t admit it, but you must have sacrificed a lot for your kids in those days. Modestly underplaying his role, Bob tells me, “First of all, these are just great kids, and they don’t get that from their dad (laughs). Their equanimity, their composure, their hard work, their willing to sacrifice….” 'Politely' interrupting him, I say, ‘And where do you think they got all that from?’ Bob replies, “Honestly, I think a lot of kids simply bring that kind of stuff with them into the world. Think of it this way; when a kid is born, he or she is like a computer program. And that program comes from their ancestors, their mother and father along with some other things, like positive experiences and influences. I did not want to try and shape these kids into whatever vision it was that I had for them. Instead, I wanted to be more like a support system for them, and to help provide the inertia for whatever it was they wanted to do with their lives.
As far as I was concerned, I figured their only chores were succeeding in the classroom and out on the athletic field. Doing their homework and that sort of thing. I cleaned their rooms, picked their clothes up, washed their dishes, made their beds, cooked their meals…the whole nine yards. The only time that I ever really pulled the parent card out on them, was if they were thinking about dropping out of a school activity or maybe running with the wrong crowd...those kind of things. Bob, you really are one of a kind (we share a laugh). So, when were the four of you finally able to stop rowing around in that little boat, or is the Reed adventure just beginning? “Much like this interview,” jokes Bob, “I fear it is only just beginning!” 
"I had bought the boys these oversized boxing gloves," explains 'Dr. Robert,' "because they loved anything that they could exert themselves with. I also figured that they surely couldn't hurt each other with such behemoths on. Just in case, I also made a rule that they could not punch each other in the face or head --just the body. Now Brooksie, as you might expect, thought he was Rocky Balboa whenever he laced 'em up. Nevertheless, it really wasn't that big of a deal to him. Lucas, on the other hand, simply loved those things! He would just beg me and beg me and beg me to let him and his big brother go a few rounds. Well, when I finally (always) relented, Brooks would simply beat the living daylights out of his much smaller brother! But just as I was thinking to myself, 'this is not really such a good idea,' up would bounce Lucas from the grass and bounding over to me, shout, 'Daddy, daddy, daddy! Let us go again!'" Laughing hard at the memory, Bob adds, "See, I told you he was a tough little hombre!" Man, I just love that story! So when did 'Scrappin' Kid Lucas first get the football bug? "Well, despite being two years apart in age," Bob explains, "Lucas and his big brother actually began at the same time in the Pop Warner League. Lucas was five and Brooks was seven. Brooks really thrived early on –as did Lucas to a certain extent, but he didn’t really start out with the same kind of confidence that a first-born just seems to come by naturally. There is much to be said about that I believe, and it took a while for Lucas to gain that confidence. But even without it initially, he was such a tough little nut out there and so proud to be doing the same drills and things as his big brother. He always admired Brooks you know, and really looked up to him. But he was still really his own little man, when it came to skin and bones and football."
Sounds like one of those old, vibrating football games where the players all go around in crazy circles! Laughing, Bob says, "I actually went to see the coach and I told him, 'whenever the ball is snapped, my son Lucas over there (points at Lucas) --he doesn't know what in the hell he is doing! He is just running around, up and down and sideways and backwards!’ Well, the coach just kind of gives me this ‘look’ and tells me in his best Vince Lombardi voice, 'Is that so? Well, I will have to take a look at that.’ (we both laugh at this) Of course as parents, sometimes it is easy for us to get carried away with that sort of thing." Speaking of getting carried away, did you ever run into any of that infamous "soccer mom or dad" behavior when dealing with the other families or coaches? “Honestly, it was just pandemonium out there in Pop Warner football," explains Bob. “There are different coaches and different dads coming and going all of the time. The only reason that some of them had even signed up to be coaches, was so that their kids would get to play one of the so-called 'skilled' positions. Quarterback, running back and things like that. Brooks never played a 'skill' position in those days. He was always a guard or a lineman on his team. Often, he was the fastest player on the team, but other parents would scheme and finagle to get their kids into those coveted skilled positions. That all changed when he got to high school however, and they made him a fullback based solely on his athleticism. Lucas was such a skinny little kid then, that it really wasn’t much of a question for him. He still always gave it everything that he had until finally --years later, his body finally began to catch up to that great big, heart that he has inside of him. Of course as a parent, you just sit back and watch it all and hope that your kids are having fun. It was a great experience for them for the most part, and was something good physically for them to do, rather than just sitting around the house playing video games. And I really didn't care what position the coaches had the kids at. In fact, I always felt that if I had possibly had the time, I would have liked to have been a coach, but I never really had the time. Going on that philosophy, I figured that if some of these parents somehow managed to find the time to coach one of these teams, then I really couldn't complain if they pushed their son to be a quarterback, running back, or something similar like that. I knew that when my kids got into high school, then the wheat would be separated from the chafe, so to speak. And that is exactly what happened. But there were still a lot of good things that also happened to them with those early junior teams. Lucas got to go to a couple of city championships, although I don't think that he ever won one. Brooks got to go to a few also, and finally won a California/AZ regional title when he was in the eighth grade.” You certainly seemed to have handled it well, considering what seemed to be an uneven playing field at times.
So how did Lucas most often take the disappointments -- stuff like losses, playing time, etcetera? "Well, he always was a pretty sensitive kid," recalls Bob," but I think that as long as he felt that he had given his best, it all went down pretty well. When you get older though, I think those kinds of things get much tougher to handle. If I recall, Lucas' teams only lost a total of three or four games in all, during his four years of high school. They went undefeated in his freshman and sophomore years on the JV. In his junior season, I think they only lost one game and in his senior season, they lost two games. So, he really wasn't very familiar with losing." Were there any special awards that Lucas won in those early days? "Oh
man, I was hoping you weren't going to ask me that one," Bob laughs.
" He could have received the Bench-Warmer of the Year award, which
just goes to show you what little they knew. He won some pee-wee wrestling
awards and a baseball award or two but really didn't get many football
awards in the early days." I find that somewhat hard to believe, when I watch him on the field now. "To be completely honest about this," Bob continues, "Lucas really didn't demonstrate many football skills coming out of junior high. He was really just this tall, lanky kid that had yet to grow into his own skin. He also fell behind the other kids during those years because of various injuries. For instance, during his freshman year, he went over to this friend's house who lived by a river to cut down some bamboo and try to make something out of it. Lucas had brought this big, sharp knife, which he had taken out of my garage. He was cutting this piece of big bamboo kind of towards his body, and cut his thumb almost in half --all of the way down to his cuticle. This all happened during the sixth game of his freshman season, so of course, he couldn't play for the rest of the year. Then along comes the next season --after he finally heals, and he pops an AC joint, which is his clavicle --dislocating his shoulder more or less, during just the third game of the season. His arm was in a sling for about three weeks, and it took almost two years for the bump on his chest to go away. So he didn't get to play the rest of his games that season either. By his junior year he was healthy again, but he was only about 6'2" and 160Lbs and absolutely nobody had any confidence in this kid. Except for perhaps himself and his family, of course. I always knew the potential in this kid and how athletic he was. But at the time, it just wasn’t happening and the coaches weren’t seeing it.” It must have been simply devastating to him then.
Well, Lucas had an invite to a much smaller one, just before his junior season. As crazy as this probably sounds right now, I chose not to take him. It was a tough decision, but I knew he wasn't ready and it would just hurt his chances for a scholarship. It was a tremendous gamble, but I had faith in him and for his senior season." As for that senior season, it is coincidentally the subject matter for Part Two of this 'novel.' I guess that now is probably a good time to wrap things up for numero uno. What a story and what a family you have shared with us, Bob. That snapshot of Lucas that we initially set out to create, has turned into something more like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel! Pretending to look at his watch, Bob grins and exclaims, "You're telling me!"
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Our
story or 'yarn' as the old-timers used to call it, takes place out
on the great western plains --Tucson, Arizona to be exact, with an
occasional stop along the Rio Grande in New Mexico. Seems that back
at the Reed homestead, mama Reed was getting bigger much sooner than
she did during her last pregnancy. That is, she was really pregnant.
No, I mean, really pregnant! Anyway, here is the man responsible
for her 'delicate' condition to tell the tale. After all, father knows
best.
On
the next visit, I had thought about this a lot, and so I told the
doctor that I had decided to be there in the birthing room, if I could
actually help. He seemed to consider this for a minute, and then replied,
'So what do you do for a living?' I said, well, I sell real estate.
And he shot back, 'Well, do you think that I could do that?'
Hahaha. Well, I could see where this was going, so I told him
that any old idiot could do that. He laughed and eventually acceded,
as I did actually get to take part in the birthing of Brooks, helping
him out and even cutting the umbilical cord. A great thrill that I
might have missed!
"Nothing
really supernatural or unusual," says Bob. "They were always
friends and they always played with each other, but they always had
their own circle of friends and were --to be quite honest, completely
different people. In their personalities and in the way that they
operated and such. There was actually a theory going on at the time
in schools, where they didn't want twins hanging out together or being
in the same class, which I couldn't understand at all. And so, I insisted
on having them together, as much as it was possible, and not to have
any artificial separation placed among them as long as they were in
elementary school....stuff like that."
"Yeah,
everyone else pretty much thought the same way at the time,"
laughs Bob. "But Lucas is as tough as they come. He certainly
has a sensitive side as well, but I have come to believe that being
sensitive only makes your aggressive side more extreme when called
upon. 
Every
dream seems to have a corridor --in between asleep and awake, where
for one fleeting moment, you are trapped between what you feel and what
you see. This gap of incredulity and denial usually lasts for only a
few seconds, as the power kicks back on to the central nervous system,
and the dream begins to drift and fade away. It is within those first,
waking moments of lucidity, when you realize that Newton was probably
right.
“One
of the more poignant things I can share with you,” confides Bob, “was
actually when she made her decision to leave. She found her an apartment,
and she drew up a list of the things she wanted, including how much
money she needed and the type of monthly payments I was to send…those
sorts of things. All of which I agreed to without a fight, for the simple
reason that she wasn’t going to try and take the kids away from me.
She wanted them to stay in the house with me, as I had managed in a
way to convince her that they needed to stay in a house they were used
to, sleep in the beds they were used to and so forth. 
It
is their life, after all. That said, there were certain things
I really coaxed them into pursuing. I wanted them to pursue athletics
for instance, along with other school activities. And one more thing.
This might sound crazy, but most parents have chores. You know, the
‘you have to do this or you have to do that’ sort of thing. I always
thought that kind of stuff was complete and utter nonsense (we laugh).
I was going to save my battles for the more important stuff, you see.
When
Bob first sent me this picture, it quickly became one of my favorite
images ever. These two little squirts, with 16 ounce Boxing gloves on
--not only engulfing their little paws, but also about half of their
arms. Brooks, with an assured and almost cocky grin, while little Lucas
is standing there with what can only be described as an expression of
pure, unbridled joy. As good as this picture is however, the story behind
it is even better. Here is the fight doctor, Dr. Bob Reed (not really)
to describe the action...
Sounds
like Lucas was already a fierce competitor. Looking back, did he give
you any indication of the player he might become in college?
"Thanks,"
says Bob, "but you wouldn't believe some of the nonsense and infighting
that often took place. For instance, having this group of parents or
that group of parents approach me and say, 'we're forming a committee
to complain about the amount of playing time our kids are getting' and
this and that. Well, I never wanted to be a part of that infighting.
I just wanted the kids to go out there, to mature and become young men.
The 'star' of the team? That stuff will work itself out as they grow
--not when they are just 8 or 9 years old. You know at those games,
I would see grown men and women crying and screaming all of the time.
It was like this great big, dysfunctional AA meeting out there sometimes!"
(laughs)
Nodding,
Bob says, “It was, but he would be especially upset if he never got
into the game, which meant pretty much every game. Lucas really had
so much going against him back then. For instance, Brooks got invited
to one of the biggest combines in the country when he was in high school.
There were over two hundred players there, and Brooks ended up scoring
in the top 20 on all of the tests. Strength and running…things like
that. And those results showed up later on, when he received all of
these scholarship offers from D1 schools. 