Talk:Mr. Butch
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This article was nominated for deletion on November 4, 2005. The result of the discussion was no consensus so it was kept. |
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[edit] References
These were included directly on the article page without proper formatting, so I'm bringing them here to be worked into the article:
Mr. Butch hung around Kenmore Square well into the late 1990s, and I have a photo that I took of him standing in front of the Rathskeller in February, 1994. If someone will tell me how to post it on this site, I will scan it and do so. He used to make money by sweeping up the sidewalks in front of places like the Rat, Captian Nemo's, Kenmore Shoe Repair, the Deli Haus, Bertha Cool, Mystery Train Records, Nuggets when it used to be in the little store that was briefly a flower shop and has been vacant for at least ten years, the beloved yet disgusting Pizza Pad, all of which are now long gone.
Indeed, Mr. Butch was in trouble down in the Kenmore Square area much of the time, as he used to ask me to buy him beer at the Kenmore Square Liquor Store using the line, "[h]ey, I used to buy for you when you were a kid!" When I used to do my laundry at The Wash Tub (on the corner where a soul food restaurant was for years in the 1960s and 1970s and later an I-Hop), I used to hang-out and play pinball at the Rat with Mr. Butch and buy him those awful $1 Busch drafts. Just the thought of them brings back memories of impossibly hot Friday and Saturday summer nights downstairs at the Rat, with the floor covered with plastic cups and cigarette butts. This was the pre-artistic Rat that I mention, when the wood was all painted a simply black, and likely was the original paint from when the Rat first opened.
A great question for someone to answer would be exactly how old Mr. Butch is. [(54)][1] Although I have heard that he went to Coolidge Corner, I have yet to find him there during visits back to the East Coast. From what a cashier at the Store 24 on the corner in Kenmore Square told me a few years ago, Mr. Butch has apparently, "got religion"! That I will have to see for myself. Ultimately, Mr. Butch is a really nice guy who has sustained some awfully hard breaks in life, and has spent most of his time trying to catch up or run from himself. - Any rumors of Mr Butch finding relegion are totally false. I see him on a daily basis on Harvard Ave in Allston.
(again, not my edits) -- nae'blis 08:38, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
[comment clipped out of sensitivity to friend's of Mr Butch]
[edit] Rationale
I added this page a couple of years ago.
Mr. Butch was the first person I met in Boston during my freshman year back in 1978. And he's still alive and kicking in 2006. I got to know him pretty well, learning that his real name was Harold Madison, Jr. He's a Vietnam vet; he and his brother served back in the Sixties. Legend has it that his brother was killed and that Butch came back a broken man, addicted to smack. That's what I've heard from other homeless people in Boston, and it may or may not be true.
Butch has been exiled from Kenmore Sq. to Allston.
[edit] Start classification
I have classified this article as a start due to its level of detail. I have started sourcing the article but it needs more work. Capitalistroadster 04:43, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] A beautiful spirit
Mr Butch was a beautiful spirit. One lonely morning he shared with me his last two beers and kept me company. He was just as God made him. CC
[edit] Death confirmed
Please stop adding information to the article claiming that he might still be alive. The death has been confirmed and sourced (from The Boston Globe no less). If he is resurrected and walks the streets of Allston again in a few days, please provide a new reference and, preferably, a photo of him drinking a tall boy. Don't just link to an article from yesterday when his death was in question. Inoculatedcities 19:02, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
Thank you - this has been quite frustrating. ellF 19:14, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] What's in a name?
Mr. Butch preferred to be addressed as MR. Butch, the article should not refer to "Butch", as he would have corrected the speaker to address him respectfully as Mr. Butch. I was a roommate and close friend of Mr. Butch during the early 1980s. Mr. Butch had a basement apartment around the corner from Berklee School of Music he let my boyfriend & me stay in. I don't believe he was a veteran; neither he, nor his cousin who stayed with us for a while and told many stories from Mr. Butch's upbringing, ever mentioned that. Mr. Butch's "rationale" for choosing to live as he did was philosopical and he lived true to his beliefs - eschewing materialism was fundamental to his concept of individual freedom----
