A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity by Bill O'Reilly
For the most part, though, patience is a good thing. Patient people are often kind and accepting of the faults of others. They are soothing people. They like wind chimes and hot tea. Sometimes, they live in places like Big Sur, California, where they can look out at the sea and see stuff. They can do this for a long time, as there is no rush. Patience, as somebody once said, is its own reward.
But I am not patient, and it is primarily my father’s fault.
I could go on with my story, but, as I like to say on the air, enough is enough. You’ve got it. A bold, fresh piece of humanity fights his way up and becomes a media force. Along the way, he has many adventures and encounters that have shaped his vision and philosophy. If there is a CliffNotes for this book, I’ve just summed it up in this paragraph.
Again, thanks for taking the time to consider my story. I hope it was a good read. If it wasn’t, tell someone you don’t like that it was so they’ll buy the book. Little things like that can bring satisfaction.
People always ask me what I do in my spare time. Well, I read, I collect American historical documents, I play some sports, I putter around. Chances are I like the same stuff you like: sports, the beach, naps, and no spin.
For me there’s no foie gras, no blinis, no four-dollar cups of coffee. And if there is any “fusion” involved in my supper, I will leave the table.
Of course, in my industry, there are plenty of swells who can’t get enough “fusion,” and there’s no shortage of pretentious entitlement. As you know by now, the bold, fresh guy does not go for that. On weekends, I eat at my local diners and delicatessens. I talk to guys like the Bear and John Blasi, both of whom I’ve known since we were five years old. I go to church and pray for patience.
Also, I say prayers of thanks for the miracle of the life I have lived. Not kidding about that. Next time you meet an atheist, tell him or her that you know a bold, fresh guy, a barbarian who was raised in a working-class home and retains the lessons he learned there. Then mention to that atheist that this guy is now watched and listened to, on a daily basis, by millions of people all over the world and, to boot, sells millions of books.
Then, while the nonbeliever is digesting all that, ask him or her if they still don’t believe there’s a God!
Sister Lurana would be proud of that challenge to the atheist; I absolutely know that. So, if you really examine it, things have come full circle. The bold, fresh guy is still that way, but now, in front of millions, he’s spouting life lessons born of his teachers and his parents.
There’s something downright poetic about that. Is there not?
POSTSCRIPT
The usual suspects helped greatly in assembling this book, and I will mention them in a moment. But first I have to thank my ancestors. Really. Without them you might be reading a book by Dr. Phil instead of this one. So you should honor my ancestors as well.
My great-grandfather, John O’Reilly, was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1870. He emigrated (legally) to the USA and became a saloon keeper, marrying Isabelle Sullivan in 1892. They lived in Brooklyn.
My grandfather, John Jr., was born the following year, 1893. He subsequently had five siblings. At age twenty-seven, John O’Reilly Jr. married Gertrude McLaughlin, and they settled on West Street in Brooklyn. As mentioned, my grandfather was a New York City cop who patrolled the harbor.
My father, William J. O’Reilly, was born in 1924, the middle child in the family. He married my mother, Winifred Angela Drake, in 1947 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a couple of blocks from where I work these days.
On my mother’s side, things are murkier. Her ancestors, the Kennedy clan, began leaving Ireland during the great famine of the 1850s, subsequently settling in upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania. The small town of Wappingers Falls, New York, became a haven for many of my mother’s people.
As I stated, all of my ancestors were working-class folks. I am the first one to break out of that group, at least on paper.
Now, assembling all the stuff in this book wasn’t easy, and I counted on my wife, Maureen, my assistant Makeda Wubneh, and the best editor in the country, Charles Flowers, to get me through it. Also, my agent, Eric Simonoff, and Broadway Books guy Gerry Howard helped immensely.
So, all of the above are partially responsible for this book, and you should blame them if you didn’t like it. Don’t blame me, because other people forced me to be the way I am. Shifting blame is the time-honored boomer way, and I am taking that con to the grave. Count on it: my death will be somebody else’s fault. Wait and see.
Finally, you should know that I have set up a charitable foundation named for my parents. Each year we give hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities that help children, veterans, the poor, and the troubled. We also help noble agencies like Doctors Without Borders and Habitat for Humanity.
I am proud to do this, and I hope my father’s spirit knows about it. Because he would be proud too.
Bill O’Reilly
Summer 2008
Also by Bill O’Reilly:
The O’Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life
The No Spin Zone: Confrontations with the Powerful and Famous in America
Who’s Looking Out for You?
The O’Reilly Factor for Kids: A Survival Guide for America’s Families
(coauthored by Charles Flowers)
Kids Are Americans Too
(coauthored by Charles Flowers)
Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder
Culture Warrior
Copyright © 2008 by Bill O’Reilly
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States by Broadway Books, an imprint of The Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.broadwaybooks.com
BROADWAY BOOKS and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Lyrics to the St. Brigid’s School song were adapted from “Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)” by Stuart Hamblen.
Movie poster on Chapter 3 and movie still on Chapter 3 courtesy of Photofest. Group photo on Chapter 11 courtesy of Visko Hatfield.
All other photos from the author’s collection.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
O’Reilly, Bill.
A bold fresh piece of humanity: a—memoir/by Bill O’Reilly.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. O’Reilly, Bill. 2. Journalists—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PN4874.O73A3 2008
070.92—dc22
[B] 2008025510
eISBN: 978-0-7679-3096-3
v1.0
Bill O'Reilly, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity