Adventures with the Royal Brothers: Throwback Thursday: Speaking of Billy Joe Royal again.
My family and I moved out of the Clay Homes low rental project a short time before the Royal family moved in. If we had stayed they would have live just across the ally from us.
We moved in with my grandfather after my grandmother died. It was the summer between my first grade and second grade. Both the Clay Homes and our new address were in the Waterman Street Grammar School
District so I did not feel the need to find new friends, they were already there.
However, I did have a neighborhood in the Clay Homes I did not want to let go of, so I didn’t. I was old enough to ride a bicycle, so I kept the roads hot going often to my old stomping grounds. I had a duel neighbor-ship, so to speak.
Then I met Jack Royal and his older brother Billy Joe. Their front was a big grassy rectangle about a block long. On Sunday nights sometimes, a man brought his 16MM projector and residents brought out their blankets and metal yard chairs. At one end was a playground and the other a street,
Sometimes after dark before going home we would sit on the grassy lawn and told jokes, ghost stories, and so on.
Across the rectangle lawn in the dark, on a porch many nights was the red glow of the end of a cigarette. We bothered him. We were having a good time. Every time we sat out he would give us fifteen minutes or so of giggling and hooting with laughter then he would walk over and to ask us to hold it down. A couple of minutes later, we would see him walking more quickly over. We would see a red shaking glow come faster than the last time and more rudely threatened to call the police. But he didn't disturb our little social gathering, just gave us fuel to laugh.
I did not know it at the time that the bitter old nervous old man was the father of a cashier that worked at the Big Apple the same time
I did.
I remember one day at the Big Apple a family bought a lot of stuff. The bill was much higher than the family expected. The man of the family demanded that the groceries be re-tallied. She manager, L.L. Thurmond, and the cashier reran every item and it came out exactly the same. Good for her.
We were not rich kids. We had to scrounge for all our spending money. A lot of times, as teenagers, we worked on weekends as temp help at Minute Car Wash on Roswell Street. I think it paid $5 on Saturdays and $3 on Sundays. Billy Joe really enjoyed his job there. The full time laborers were black and were very much into music. I think Billy Joe learned a lot by working with them. I also remember the regulars nicknamed Jimmy McEntyre “Chicken Head”.
One time I asked the manager of the Larry Bell Park Bowling Alley for a job as a pin boy. He said yes, and would I help him clear off some land off Macland Road and any friends too, he said he would pay well. I told Billy Joe, Jack, and Jimmy McEntie about it. They went with me to Macland Road to help clear off the land for our maybe future boss. For a boss he wasn’t that bright. He poured gasoline on a pile and rubble and lit it and Poof! The pile of rubble went up in smoke and so did he.. That was before 911`. And cell phones, and we were out in the sticks. We put him in Billy Joe’s car and took him to the hospital.
I don’t know if he survived or not, but we did not see him again. So, we did not get to be pin-boys.
In time, the Royals moved to East Dixie Avenue. We, on Manget Street, lived near the east end of East Dixie and the Royals lived on the west end, near Hicks’ Grocery, about three blocks away. Ironically, the house they moved in to was the same house my parents moved in in 1937 when they was first married. My mother said she saw a red headed man standing over them, in a blue suit, and one arm. As it turned out the landlady said her late husband was red headed, one arm, and buried in a blue suit. I asked Jack did he see anybody like that in their house and he said no.
The Royals moved to Smyrna, if I remember correctly, their house was off and thoroughfare that went from Atlanta Road at the Smyrna Drive-In to South Cobb Drive. One evening Billy Joe had the weekly Ratskats meeting in their basement. During that evening Billy Joe showed off a new guitar he had just purchase. He began playing and singing. Everybody enjoyed it. Then, for some reason, I wandered out of the basement in their back yard. I found a broom leaning on something, the next thing I knew I jumped back into the basement and did a great imitation of Elvis Presley and his hip action.
All the boys cracked up laughing. Billy Joe said, “Thanks a lot Rock.” Then, I regretted doing it.
About that same year, or time, I remember driving down Old Atlanta Road, probably coming from the Royals, going about 40 mph and I felt a tap or bump on the back of my car. I looked in the rear view and Jack Royal was driving behind my laughing. I probably laughed too.
One time Billy Joe made a deal with James Wilder, owner of WBIE, for his band o have something like a 30 minute show once or twice a week. WBIE Radio station was on the second floor of the fist block of Atlanta Street. Once while they were on the air live playing music some of us slipped up the outside stairs and threw a firecracker in the room and ran out. I never heard a word about it afterwards. I don’t think the firecracker went off.
One time Billy Joe and his band played at a big dance with lived famous stars, such as the Coasters, at Larry Bell Auditorium. While he was singing, his best friend Mickey got into a fist fight on the dance room floor. Security drug him out with him swinging and trying to break loose. I saw Billy Joe glance and the commotion from the stage while he was singing, but did not miss a beat..
Years later, after I was married I heard Billy Joe interviewed on the radio. When the interviewer asked what his age was, whatever he said, it was one year younger than I was at the time. That was not true. Billy Joe was one year older than me, and Jack was one year younger than I. But in that interview, he used his little brother’s age.
The last time I saw Billy Joe was about a year beforer he died. I’m sure it was him, even though I spoke to him and he did not know who I was. I understand that, he has met a lot of people since our teenage years. But he claimed he was not Billy Joe, he said I had him mistaken. Same voice, same body language (old man style)… maybe I was mistaken. Not to mention I am invisible and the most forgettable character you would ever meet.
Billy Joe died in 2015 and Jack died in 2017.
Picture of Jack and Joy Lewis Royal, 2016
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