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When I put up the Hall of Fame in January, I asked people who knew Billy to send me their stories. I figured I'd get five. Here are some of
the ones that came in, by e-mail, by mail and on the backs of grocery receipts handed to my mother at church. They're grouped the way Billy
would have grouped them: the store, the lanes, the bus. I haven't changed anything except the spelling, and one word Bert asked me to take out.
THE STORE
| MICHAEL DENNIS ★ store manager, Hollis Brothers Market |
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I came over to manage Hollis Brothers in 1984, after fifteen years in the grocery business, and on my first morning a man in a red apron
walked up, shook my hand, and gave me a tour of my own store. Then he explained the bagging rules to me. Then he quizzed me. I passed, barely.
For fourteen years Billy was the one employee I never had to worry about. Never late, never sick if he could help it, and the only man in the
building who knew where everything was. When customers filled out comment cards, more than half of the nice ones mentioned him by name. I've
kept them all. The apron in the break room was my idea, and the brass plate was the whole staff's.
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| RITA POOL ★ cashier, register 3, next to Billy for eighteen years |
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If a customer told me it was her birthday, Billy would stop bagging, put down the can he was holding, and sing her the first part of "Love Me
Tender" right there in the checkout line, with the hand on the heart. Some ladies started coming through my line on their birthdays on purpose.
One lady brought her whole family on her seventieth. He was a terrible singer and he knew it and he didn't care, and that was the best thing
about it. My line is very quiet now. Too quiet.
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| CRAIG HUFFORD ★ produce |
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Billy inspected my bananas every morning on his way in. He'd pick up a bunch, look at it, and tell me "too green" or "good" or "sell these
today." He was right more than I was. After a while I just started waiting for him before I marked anything down. Also, he was the only person
who ever thanked me for the free grapes I gave the kids. He said I was "a generous man." Nobody had ever called me that.
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| JASON FENNER ★ assistant manager, started as a bagger in 1988 |
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I was sixteen and it was my first job, and they put me on Billy's line to learn. He trained me for two weeks. He was a strict teacher. If I put
the bread under the milk, he'd take everything out of the bag and make me do it over in front of the customer, and then he'd tell the customer
"he's new." I was mortified. I'm twenty-seven now and an assistant manager, and when I train the new kids, I make them do it over too. Cans on
the bottom. I hear him every single time.
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THE LANES
| GEORGE WALTERS ★ Special Olympics bowling coach since 1981 |
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Billy had a routine before every frame, and he never once skipped it in seventeen years: wipe the ball with his towel, three times, tap it
twice, look down the lane, look back at me, nod, and go. You could not hurry him. One year at the state games an official tried, and Billy
looked at him and said "I'm concentrating," and the official backed off, and Billy struck. On the day of the 212 I was standing behind him for
the tenth frame and I couldn't breathe. He was perfectly calm. I've coached about two hundred bowlers. He was the most competitive one I ever
had, and the best sport, both at once, which is rare.
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| MALCOLM GRIFFIN ★ teammate, 1983–1998 (typed by his mother, in his words) |
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Billy was my best friend on the team. He said I was the second best bowler. He was first. That is true. We ate hot dogs after every time. He
always got mustard and no ketchup. I got ketchup. He said I was wrong. We went to the Elvis movie at the dollar theater two times. I miss him
on Saturday. I bowl for him now. I got a 171.
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| ANNE HELMER ★ teammate, 1990–1998 |
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When I came on the team I threw the ball like a shot put and it went in the gutter every time and I wanted to quit. Billy came over and showed
me how to hold it, two fingers and the thumb, and how to swing it like a pendulum, and he made me practice it with no ball, just my arm, for a
whole Saturday. Then he said "now the ball." I got a strike. He said "see?" Like it was nothing. I have a 134 average now. That's Billy's.
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| KATHERINE FROST ★ Unified doubles partner, 1994–1998 |
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I signed up to be a Unified partner in college because I thought it would be a nice thing to do. I'd like to be honest that I thought I would
be helping. For four years I was Billy's doubles partner and he carried me. He kept our score in his head better than the machine, he told me
when my feet were wrong, and when I threw a 9 in the tenth to lose us a game by one pin, he patted my shoulder and said "next week." Then he
reminded me about it for two years. I loved him. I'm a special education teacher now. That's his fault too.
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THE BUS
| BERT GULLO ★ bus driver, retired 1995 |
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Billy got on my bus the first week he ever rode alone, in 1974, and his mother was following in her car about a block behind, which she thought
nobody noticed. I had him on my route for twenty-one years, morning and night. He sat in the first seat on the right, every day, and told me
about the bowling, and Elvis, and what was for dinner. He came to my retirement party in a tie. He was the only passenger who did. When I heard
he passed, I drove over to the store and sat in the parking lot a while. I don't know why. It seemed like the place to go.
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| JEFF CAUDELL ★ bus driver |
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I was the new driver on the detour in 1989. I'd like to tell my side. I was two weeks on the job, it was snowing, they'd closed a street, and I
turned one block too early and had no idea where I was. A man carrying a red bowling bag walked up and said "left at the light,
then right at the church, then you're back," and kept going street by street until we were back on the route. Everybody clapped for him. Nobody
clapped for me. For the next nine years he gave me a birthday card every year. Every one of them said "Don't get lost."
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| JUNE COLVIN ★ bus driver |
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Diane says on the main page that Billy told the supervisors when drivers took the curve by the hospital too fast. I want everyone to know that
I was one of those drivers, and that he was right, and that he told on me very nicely. After that, every time I went around that curve with him
on board, I'd slow way down and look in the mirror, and he'd give me a thumbs up. Seven years of thumbs up. I still slow down there. I always will.
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AND ONE MORE
| ALLAN MAILLOUX ★ customer, Hollis Brothers, since 1961 |
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My wife did the shopping for forty years and I never set foot in the place except to carry things. After she died in 1995 I had to learn, and
I didn't know where anything was, and I'm not ashamed to say I stood in the cereal aisle and couldn't remember which kind we bought. Billy came
and found me. He knew which kind. He knew what she bought every week, every single thing, and he walked me through the whole store with my list
and then carried it out to the car. He did that every Thursday for three years. I went to his funeral and sat in the back. I'm writing this on
the computer at the library because I wanted it written down somewhere.
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Thank you all. Keep them coming. [email protected]
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Last updated September 18, 1999
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