Bill Cosby Essay Essay Research Paper Bill

Bill Cosby Essay Essay, Research Paper

Bill Cosby

William Henry Cosby, Jr. was born at 3:00 A.M. on July 12, 1937, in North Philadelphia s Germantown Hospital (Herbert and Hill 21). Bills parents, William and Anna Pearl Cosby, were childhood sweethearts. They migrated north during the depression for a better life. Bill had three younger brothers, James, Russel, and Robert. James died when Bill was eight years old (Herbert and Hill 21).

During Bill s childhood, his family was typically lower class. Money was never plentiful in the Cosby household. However, a roof was always over their heads, food on the table, and a warm place to sleep (Herbert and Hill 22). Since welding jobs were scarce, Bills father had a hard time trying to find work. Before long, he sought refuge in the bottle. As his drinking became more chronic the senior Cosby would wander off for days and weeks at a time. Bill said, He would leave home many times. He would leave when the rent was due or come home penniless on payday, swearing to my mother that he had been robbed, and leave again. Once he vanished just before Christmas and we didn t have a cent (Herbert and Hill 22 23). The family eventually had to move to where the rent was lower. They ended up being crammed into a tiny two-bedroom apartment in the Richard Allen Homes, a low-income project in the poor black section of Philadelphia (Concord 12).

After the tough times of Cosby s childhood, he decided to get a job at the age of eleven. Cosby s job was a clerk at a local grocery store. He worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week and 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays, for only $8.00 a week (Herbert and Hill 24 25).

During Christmas, the Cosby boys would celebrate Christmas by sitting at the kitchen table without their mother, who had to spend the holidays working. Cosby remembers, We didn t have enough socks for our feet, let alone any spare ones to hang (Herbert and Hill 24 25). However, Bill holds no bitterness about those difficult growing up years. Because of his childhood Bill has admitted to having an obsession with staying out of debt.

Even with the kind of life he had as a child, Bill is exceptionally gifted and bright. In academics, however, he was an underachiever, and he received a slew of dreadful report cards to prove it. Cosby dropped out of school in 1956 when he was forced to repeat the tenth grade. He tried to find employment in Philadelphia, but it hardly proved successful. Cosby, like his father, decided to join the U. S. Navy in 1956. He decided to become a member of the U. S. Navy Track Team. He excelled in the 220 yard low hurdles, the discuss, and the javelin. However, he excelled most of all in the high jump. He set a personal best of 6 5 . When Cosby was nearing the age of 23, he decided to drop out of the Navy and follow his education.