Are there any Bostonians or Boston-area folk out there who remember this guy? For those of you wondering, Mr. Butch was a really funny, friendly man who called the streets of Boston home for a few decades and has been “The Mayor of Allston (a Boston neighborhood)” for the past decade, or so.
Anyhow, he’s dead, sadly. He was doing about 50 mph on his Vespa by the convergence of Brighton Avenue and North Beacon Street (in Allston.) I’ve been depressed on and off ever since I heard the news. Allston will be lacking from hereon in.
I remember Mr. Butch from the mid 1980s. It was before the BU cops chased him out of Kenmore Square. When I used to eat at the HooDoo BBQ upstairs from the Rat, Mr. Butch would invariably be hanging out on the sidewalk playing his Fender Stratocaster.
For a simple homeless guy, he sure got a lot of press and made many friends over the past 30 years.
I remember him from my years at B.U. In fact I was in Allston a couple of weeks ago with a few friends, saw him walking by, and thought to myself, “Wow, he’s still alive.” He always seemed like a nice man despite his wacky words and appearance.
Mr. C&J, it looks like there will be short service at the ICC church in Allston (near the Merwin Animal clinic on Cambridge St.) next Sunday, July 22 at 8pm. Prior to the service (or possibly post service) a funeral processional will be taking place starting at Comm. Ave and Harvard and continuing down to Brighton Ave and stopping where Mr. Butch died. Music, pictures and the sprinkling of his ashes will be taking place.
The service was yesterday. It was easily the strangest I’ll ever see or hear about. There were about 200 people in the church at all times, with people coming and going. Boston.com had a thread dedicated to Mr. Butch in which posters were saying “His family will be at the service, so be cool” (which I assume meant come sober.) Plenty of people came and certainly weren’t cool. There were cell phones ringing, people yelling and one of the eulogists seem to have some pretty twisted points of view on race.
The subtext of every eulogy seemed to be, “Boy, was this guy ever wacky!” Even the one delivered by his sister, while she was holding his ashes. Pretty odd. The only solemn moments were when the priest delivered the funeral rites, and when a pianist played a commemorative song. The service was all very light-hearted and humorous, and I imagine the man would have wanted it that way.
This guy kinda sounds like Ronnie “Woo-Woo” Wickers in Chicago. He’s an idiot that screams “Woo! Woo!” inbetween everyt few words, and dresses in a Chicago Cubs uniform everywhere he goes. He gets on TV here and there and everybody knows him.
