This week is "Bellmore Folk Legend Week"!What makes someone a candidate for "Bellmore Folk Legend"? In the eyes of the "unscene" it can be a number of things: alcoholism, a birth defect, mentally challenged, and the like. Some of these folk are friends, some are curiosities, and some we liked to torment (in our youth). Basically, these people are what the average person considers the outcasts of Bellmore. We consider them family...somewhat.
"Family" may be pushing it, but in a strange way these troubled people brighten our day and bring smiles to our faces and we enjoy telling stories about them – in the same way we rib on each other. So no disrespect is intended...for the most part (if I can speak for the "unscene"?).
Let's get started... I'd like to kick off "Bellmore Folk Legend Week" with the man who kicked off Bellmore: The Unscene... Big Roy. Check out his intro to the movie (and a little bit of Zombula, too)...
Big Roy fits under the "alcohol" category of what makes someone a "Bellmore Folk Legend". He also fits under the "friend" category. Here's what some of the "unscene" had to say about him...
"My funny Big Roy story is when I first met him, when we used to go to the Bulldog. Big Roy was sitting at the end of the bar, one night when a bunch of us were there. He looked around and said, "Damn kids! Now I gotta find a new watering hole". To think, he grew to love all of us." – Christine Frey
"I helped him move twice. His apts were spotless..there wasn't any soiled drawers laying around." – Dave Jemmott
"Back in the day I told Big Roy that I was drunk and he said, "Your not drunk until you have to hold on to the grass with two hands to keep from falling off the earth." – Mark Paris
"Tammie and I saw Big Roy in Genovese buying a 3 pack of underpants. It is immortalized in a Tammie Comic. He also used to buy those tiny table talk individual pies, he used to bring his bag of groceries into the Juke Joint." – Christine Frey
"He's a 60+ old man who regularly attended Rat Bastard/Zombula shows." – Joe Kollar
On Joe's note... Last week I profiled Rat Bastard's last show at Ground Zero and I shared a clip from Bellmore: The Unscene documenting the whole thing. Here's an edited down version of it with just the Big Roy story (Bunky gets a shout out, too)....
Big Roy did support the music. He dressed up as Uncle Sam for the Bellmore-A-Thon benefit (which I'll get to at a later date)...
He even ventured into NYC to see the Eggplant Queens...
Here's an interesting one...
"Big Roy has a tattoo of a bumblebee on his private. I think that is true unless Dave S made it up?" – Christine Frey
That topic also came up during Rat Bastard's last show...
One last quote...
"If I could arrange Big Roy's 68th birthdy celebration are you interested?" – Dave S
Big Roy...we salute you.
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