By Linda Martin – © 2009

Just published as of today… this video of JavaBob (Robert Schmalzbach) who was my friend and neighbor a few short years ago. He still owns the property next door but rarely comes here anymore, and when he does never bothers to contact me. I’m putting this video here to share with other local folks who might like to know he’s doing well and still looking for Bigfoot.

His book is Monsters Myths and Me: And now my eyes are open. The book signing was on September 19 in Felton, CA (Santa Cruz Mountains.)

For what it’s worth, I didn’t agree with everything he wrote about me in the book but once I got around to reading it I wasn’t too freaked out by what he wrote in there either. Memories vary from person to person… that’s a fact.

I was not nearly as impressed by ‘he whose name will not appear on my blog’ as JavaBob was and wondered why he would form a Bigfoot organization business with that person. I do believe his book explains his feelings and motivations, aside from mere financial objectives. Bob is a respectable person and I am glad he’s speaking out more and becoming more of a public figure now rather than staying in the shadows while that other person dominates the spotlight.

In the video he mentions that another Chamber of Commerce member suggested Bigfoot as a theme to market our economically destitute community — well, that was me. I started the Bigfoot research here but got left in the dust by “the guys” during the summer of 2005 … ending with my decision that I just couldn’t work with that other person; I lost faith in the other person’s ability to be objective and kind, especially towards a certain female person who had given him thousands of dollars for his Bigfoot research.

Of all the people in GABRO (Great American Bigfoot Research Organization) that came here to Happy Camp that summer I ended up liking Ruby Rubin and Elbert Yee. I was never on the other side of the debate, mainly because of quality of character issues. Elbert was simply a professional quality, kind hearted person who I could not help but respect. He was totally above board, totally honest. Ruby, though stressed, was doing what needed to be done and was treated rather shabbily… and that was the main reason I had to quit working for GABRO. After a while I couldn’t stand to hear the negative comments and complaints anymore. I got the impression there was no respect for most women in the organization – Peggy Marx being the one exception – and figured there was no place for me in this Bigfoot research team. Plus… one could not help but notice that the people who were supposed to be doing the research simply weren’t there most of the time, leaving a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, and I was not an experienced Bigfoot researcher at the time.

On top of all that, some of the things they wanted added to that video stream were just plain dumb and had nothing to do with Bigfoot research. Maybe the last straw was when I was asked to prepare a video of a bear and pretend it was a Bigfoot. We all knew there was absolutely no evidence of a Bigfoot being there that night – so what was the point of putting a bear on the Bigfoot video stream? I can’t respect someone who would act as if a fuzzy video of a bear’s butt was worth showing to people who wanted to see a Bigfoot. But then along came that disgusting hand – something I could not stand looking at – and they wanted that on the video stream and on the front page of their site. (I owned a web design business at the time and was doing their site updates.) It was about that time I was asking myself, “What am I doing here?” So I disconnected myself from the organization.

Okay, all those things combined – and you have a pretty good picture now why I couldn’t work with ‘he whose name will not appear on my blog’ and why I’ve wondered for the past four years why JavaBob, someone I actually respected, was doing so.

I always liked JavaBob. I was close to his precious daughter Janeen before she died suddenly in January 2006. I think I was the only person in town who couldn’t stop crying during her funeral… she was such a sweet and pure-hearted young woman. Even now I’m crying, just thinking about her. I miss Bob and Vicki, his wife, and wish she wasn’t so set against living here in Happy Camp.