Bruce Hibbert: Betting on Life
By Alex DeMatteis
“I’ve always had that wanderlust, you know?” Bruce Hibbert says as he looks back on a life that can only be described as an adventure—one that took him from fighting in the dark jungles of Korea to cruising the countrysides of America on the back of a motorcycle for forty years. Now, having settled in the Biggest Little City in the world, things are quite a bit quieter—but certainly not without surprises. However, back in the 1950’s at the onset of the Vietnam war, sneaking into the United States military was just the beginning of the road that would lead him to his peaceful life.
The US government had begun drafting boys to fight in the war, but Bruce—at the mere age of sixteen—was not allowed to join quite yet. Though, he had already dropped out of highschool and began working in a factory. “It was what you did back then, no one finished school,” Bruce says. “At sixteen, seventeen, you could make a better living working in the factories.” And even though he wasn’t old enough to join, he saw an opportunity to take a different path in life by joining the army. So, as any impetuous teenager would do, he found a way in. His friend, Eugene, a bit older and wanting to avoid the military, handed over his draft card without hesitation. Bruce took it to the army recruiters, and for the next three years, he would serve under the guise of Eugene. Of course, once the government discovered the ruse, Bruce was kicked out and shipped back home to the states. But he only stayed home for a couple months—he rejoined at seventeen under his own name. “My cousin became a paratrooper, so I did too. Joined the 101st airborne. He was shot down and killed,” Bruce explains.
After leaving the army and without many opportunities available, he left on his motorcycle for California. There, he met his first wife. “I was a hippie, real, real long hair, and she liked that, too, so we got together,” he said. “It was fun, we was living with other people, having parties. It was the thing to do in the 70’s.” Once they had a daughter though, things got harder. He worked up and down the California and Oregon coasts, but “it was going nowhere, going nowhere,” Bruce said. “We split up and she went back to her eight-bedroom house back up in Connecticut. We never fought or anything like that. We saw where both our lives were heading and went our own ways. It was better for both of us. And I just hit the road, man.”
And hit the road, he did. He went all over the country from California to Michigan to Florida and back. As he travelled, he spent days at a time in libraries. He would read and learn about anything and everything. Eventually, he discovered a love for gambling—not just any old casino games, though. He loves poker because he knows how to play—he knows, he says, how to beat the house. “Win, lose or draw man, it doesn’t matter. I love the game. I had a philosophy: If I couldn’t win at gambling, I didn’t deserve to have a roof over my head.” Still, he follows his love for the game, but he will soon be sacrificing that for something he cares about far more—a daughter he never knew and a grandson he has never met. For the first time in forty years, he recently met his daughter along with her wayward son, who reminds him a lot of himself. To help get him on track and get him going in a healthy direction, Bruce has decided to use the money he spends for fun to make sure his reunited family is taken care of.
With such an opportunity on his hands, he knows it’s time to risk what he has to to be the father he’s always wanted to be. After so many years of adventure, he’s ready to slow it down and find somewhere new to place his bets—somewhere his family will be taken care of in this new chapter of life.
Alex DeMatteis 