• Home
  •  » High Street
  •  » Death Of A SysOp: Bill Whitehouse AKA Choad 1954-2020

#51 2020-06-25 18:12:19

Views from the Weweantic river estuary 100 paces from his front door. I stopped by Bill's street last night just to see what he was looking at this time of year. If he had felt up for a walk. He did love photography and had caught all the seasons along here. It is a beautiful area and he lived in a quiet neighborhood right along of old 1940s simple cottages that are yet only half rehabbed and updated. 

https://cruelery.com/uploads/359_20200624_190434.jpg

https://cruelery.com/uploads/359_20200624_190340.jpg

https://cruelery.com/uploads/359_20200624_195156.jpg

https://cruelery.com/uploads/359_20200624_183335_33.jpg

Auto-edited on 2020-08-02 to update URLs

Offline

 

#52 2020-06-25 19:11:09

Johnny_Rotten wrote:

Views from the Weweantic river estuary 100 paces from his front door. I stopped by Bill's street last night just to see what he was looking at this time of year. If he had felt up for a walk. He did love photography and had caught all the seasons along here. It is a beautiful area and he lived in a quiet neighborhood right along of old 1940s simple cottages that are yet only half rehabbed and updated. 

https://cruelery.com/uploads/359_20200624_190434.jpg

https://cruelery.com/uploads/359_20200624_190340.jpg

https://cruelery.com/uploads/359_20200624_195156.jpg

https://cruelery.com/uploads/359_20200624_183335_33.jpg

Thanks for this!

Auto-edited on 2020-08-02 to update URLs

Offline

 

#53 2020-06-26 08:59:55

Wareham sure is a pretty quaint place.  That beach is beautiful.

Offline

 

#54 2020-06-26 09:02:08

Can someone sticky this thread?  I think it's only fitting it stays at the top indefinitely.

Offline

 

#55 2020-06-26 18:49:42

Hadn't thought of FidoNet in a long time. I used several FidoNet-connected BBSes in Dallas/Fort Worth back in the day and was even a sysop. Chicks dug that.

Bill's view was pretty great.

Last edited by rcade (2020-06-26 18:50:29)

Offline

 

#56 2020-06-27 02:38:20

Roger_That wrote:

Can someone sticky this thread?  I think it's only fitting it stays at the top indefinitely.

Agreed, done.  Thanks to those posting pictures; in addition to the sidepics*, Bill had uploaded a bunch of other images I'd like to sort through.  I'm away from home for several days so will not be able to get to this as soon as I'd like.

*The few sidepics named starting with "hsov" were uploaded by me; all the others were Bill's, although both of us often used an image suggested by someone else.

Auto-edited on 2020-08-02 to update URLs

Offline

 

#57 2020-06-28 01:14:35

Fuck. 2020 just continues to deliver.

Vale Bill.

Seems I too have the Keys to the Kingdom.

Offline

 

#58 2020-06-29 10:12:03

Found a childhood pic of Bill when browsing some old threads:

https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/eb/95/DPqQwIDy_t.jpg

Offline

 

#59 2020-06-29 10:45:35

He seemed like such a nice boy.

Heh.

Offline

 

#60 2020-07-07 21:58:28

This was one of Choad's major peeves:  Municipal corruption.

Offline

 

#61 2020-07-12 08:12:36

And here's another topic dear to Choad's heart.

Last edited by Fled (2020-07-12 08:12:54)

Offline

 

#62 2020-07-26 17:53:39

Man- this breaks my nasty black heart. I've not been posting here much for some time but Choadbag and I stayed in touch via email somewhat, and shared a phone call or ten over the years. I always secretly expected him to be outed as a deep spy at some point (or just be deluded enough to think he was one) Motherfucker was a caring human being. A thousand times I was going to make the trip to Mass and dabble in shrooms and bullshit with Bill but I never got a round tuit. I knew someday I would because we always have plenty of time, right? Fuck.

I also am afflicted with admin powers but have zero idea what that means.

Square (or whomever) I can kick in to help with fees and stuff. Let me know what I can do.

Offline

 

#63 2020-07-31 03:17:12

One of choad's friends asked me to post this:

Dan "Biff" O'Connell wrote:

Bill Whitehouse was one of a kind. A community watch dog. A man devoted to Wareham. A man of integrity. A man of complete loyalty. A visionary. An activist. Unique is far from a perfect word to describe him. He was sad the last few years but always found a way to reach down and grab 'em and make some politician or Makepeace sweat.

His site elected a Selectman a few years ago. I will miss him. He always made me laugh. My condolences to you all that loved, followed and admired him.

Rest In Peace, my brother.

You fought the good fight.

Best wishes to you all. I think of you often.

Offline

 

#64 2020-07-31 06:49:13

Fuuuuuuuuck.

I know I pissed Bill off and he didn't want me around anymore, but I always held him in high esteem and I'm genuinely sad that he's gone.

Resquiat in pacem Choad, and condolences to the community.

Wilber

Offline

 

#65 2020-08-01 06:19:23

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

Fuuuuuuuuck.

I know I pissed Bill off and he didn't want me around anymore, but I always held him in high esteem and I'm genuinely sad that he's gone.

Resquiat in pacem Choad, and condolences to the community.

Wilber

Thanks Wilber, you're not such a bad cunt after all.

Offline

 

#66 2020-08-03 23:24:24

kim

Damn, I had no idea until now. This is terrible news. Cruel and HS were the internet parents that shaped me into the can't-be-bothered-by-the-world(wide-web-no-matter-how-deep-you-search) adult I am today.

I always took comfort knowing that there were others like me (just a search bar away) and a perfectly curated pic thread to help me escape this world.

As most mentioned, thanks Monk for letting us know and thanks everyone for keeping this alive.

Last edited by kim (2020-08-03 23:25:24)

Offline

 

#67 2020-08-27 05:01:52

Fuck

Offline

 

#68 2020-08-27 14:10:38

Yep, still.

Offline

 

#69 2020-08-27 21:34:30

Well met, good fellow. Damn, I think I miss you guys.

HI Roger!

/nods to all

Choad didn't like to boast, but he was the model for this, extracted out of an old PC mag advert for some long-forgotten machine; a NorthStar maybe?

https://cruelery.com/uploads/29_fido-220711.jpg

Offline

 

#70 2020-09-07 19:59:31

ˇJoder! Dropped in to see what's cracking... and what's cracking appears to be this bad news. No shocker, but certainly a sad twist of fate in these cruel end times.

Choad was a consummate smart aleck gifted with his command of the written word. For an individual exhibiting just a hint of curmudgeonly outlook, he was open-minded to hearing everyone speak their part. If speaking their part exposes them as an idiot, so much the better. This is the true role of a journalist.

Thanks Bill for giving this assembly of weirdos & malcontents a home following their exodus from Cruel. I'm pleased to see the inmates taking over the asylum once again, and rallying to keep it going under a new banner as tribute to your wicked good deeds.

Last edited by lechero (2020-09-07 20:44:45)

Offline

 

#71 2021-05-30 01:24:50

Well, it's been a year since we lost Bill.  I can't say that I still think of him every day, but often enough, and this place is a big reason for that.  There has also been no shortage of fuckery going on in the past year would have elicited a facepalm from him.

As the world is starting to open up again, I am considering traveling to Wareham, maybe in summer.  It still pains me that I was never able to meet Bill face to face, but at least I can see the place he lived and loved (when it was not being wrecked by dodgy local politicians).  If anyone knows where his grave is located, or places/people I should visit while there, please chime in.

Thanks to all of you who have ever been here, and especially to the below list of people who have posted in the previous 12 months.  I appreciate you keeping the site breathing, and not just existing.  Please keep it up!

Poster# posts
SpacePuppy511
Baywolfe271
Fled182
Emmeran169
JetRx163
Johnny_Rotten131
square98
GooberMcNutly96
BorderCount67
Zombie Elvis37
Dmtdust26
matty.the.damned25
AladdinSane24
sharpshin22
Roger_That19
lechero11
hedgewizard11
MSG Tripps10
Platymingo9
monkeyboy6
thaltek6
Bigcat4
kim4
rcade4
FateX3
Breaners343
fortinbras2
slohandave2
Tall Paul2
wolfpitlord2
fnord1
WilberCuntLicker1
felch1
tojo20001
rockotman1
thefriendsofeddiedoyle1
Chuck Schick1
whiskytangofoxtrot1
mope1

Offline

 

#72 2021-05-30 08:15:53

Hahaha, I can still imagine how Bill would respond to certain things people come up with.  And most certainly to human events happening. Through I am sure I get it quite inaccurately, I didn't know him that well, I hear his thin sardonic wit when necessary. I was sure when he spoke he tinged it with a humanism, he was a kind person after all, but he had a way of critical thinking that made you do a double take when he said something sardonic. The observant writer in him I took it as, was he just that critical or is there something really that fucked up about the person he might be talking about at the moment that I should pay more attention,  He was serious at times in pointing something off kilter out without being bombastic, you could dismiss it, Bill said things slyly, but I realized he had a keen eye when he chose to use it. He got me to consider more closely things I would whitewash over about people and their actions. Something I needed to do more of.

You are welcome to contact me directly, If you did come through the area I am not far and pass his town often so know some of the places he showed me. I would not be the best navigator of unpeeling the layers, I only knew Bill directly over the last decade, when he was ensconced as a hermit.

I am pretty sure though, that Bill himself would laugh off any attempt to visit what has now passed. He would say, Don't bother, what was good about this town has gone down the tubes and would probably say it has taken him with it. There was a love and hate relationship with his old town, and most certainly he witnessed it all change as the modern era ground away whatever he remembered as good about the townspeople. He lived inside this old family history, interwoven into a very old American town. A history he could not fully escape, he saw his own family as made up of some people really hard to love, and they may well have been as bad as he describes. Yet he did escape it by being the black sheep, getting out and becoming a kinder human. I appreciated that part of him and the tales his travels along the way made.

Bill had bit of a hard row. When I met him, he was comfortable in a simple most paired down way for awhile.  When I started hanging out a few visits a season, he had made it safe enough for a time, but felt he was stuck. He talked of a change of scene so he could do something more engaging again. I saw him as a survivor, but he saw his age advancing and his options narrowed.  And eventually saw his health decline coming and worried he would lose it. I said naw man, it's just the pandemic weirdness bringing on a sense of mortal insecurity, but he was more than worried as I learned. It bears listening when people are more worried than the daily baseline insecurity they project.

But that's the end. We can find out about it, it doesn't help to dwell. Really, there is a great middle to Bill's life. There are stories there I do not know. I think he would demure and say don't waste your time on me, but he'd secretly like that the humorous and human interactions he took part in are remembered or retold. What writer does not like to be read? I wish I knew him when I was younger, he would have left an impression then too on my thinking. Sharpened it up a bit. Still does when I think of his point of view on something in front of me, and I thank him for that.

Offline

 

#73 2021-05-30 17:42:15

I was surprised to see a notification that this thread had risen again.  Johnny_Rotten has mostly already nailed what is known about Bills last years.   The "missing middle" Johnny mentions was not altogether enjoyable for Bill, holding as it does for so many of us some devastating romantic disappointments, social and familial betrayals, personal fears and failures and gradually declining health that all combined to weigh heavily on him.  I knew Bill for over 30 years since the Fidonet days.  We each came from completely dysfunctional families and often bonded over that issue... Bills family was not just "hard to love", it was way worse than that.  Bills worst fear was that he might become like his father, a paranoid, violent, malicious physical and sexual abuser of children and women, a lying, sneering nasty fruitcake prone to occasional complete nervous collapse. The genes were there, and any of you who ever saw his bad side now know the internal battle he was fighting when he would lose his shit.  He craved human contact and acceptance, but when company was physically there he could fall apart pretty easily from the stress of being in person.  It could get pretty ugly.  But at his best he was indeed the fine person most of you described, and it was always his best that he tried to give.  I think of him and miss him every day.

Bills ashes went to his family, and I let them know what his wishes would likely have been (to have them dumped somewhere on Gibbs Ave, in a garden or stand of trees or bushes or wherever, in secret and dark of night if need be) and asked them to let me know what they decided but of course they never did.  He could be anywhere from a landfill to a car trunk, so I'll just prefer to think he's there on Gibbs ave as he would have wanted.

The neighborhood Bill lived in the last years of his life was definitely not a happy place for him.  His cellar would flood every winter and he'd wind up without heat for days at a time. The houses are mostly old vacation homes close together on small lots and Bill felt watched whenever he went outside and listened to when he was inside.  I mentioned this to his landlady and she started rambling about Bill having been just paranoid and I interrupted her, saying "Wait a minute, if I've learned a damn thing about New England since I came up here it's that if you feel you're being watched it's because you most certainly are." I don't think she liked that much. They've been watching each other since back when the Puritans were hanging Quakers on Boston Common, and it's just as popular today.  Bill also had real enemies in the town government, the local UglyCorp (Makepeace) and even in the local hospital, as I found out when I was trying to locate him during his last health battle, so he had real reasons for a bit of paranoia.

If anyone (Square?) actually decides to go to Wareham they would be best advised to go to the one place in town where Bill was ever truly happy, by his own admission, 103 Gibbs Ave.  He always said that the one thing he most wanted was a place where he could open the door, look out and like what he saw. A walk around a block or two of the residential streets  hard by would encompass all that Bill held dear, he said he knew dozens of people in the neighborhood and news would travel like lightning among them to him, requiring only a brief stroll to know all things.  He kept a garden and I think High Street was started there.  It was being uprooted from there that seemed to mark a change for the worse in Bill.

Maybe that part of the story is better saved for next year, or Never.  For now, let's just lift a glass of whatever we're all drinking.

To absent friends.


Quoted by Bill to me in 2011 ->

"Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer."

G.C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg (1742–1799), German physicist,
philosopher. "Notebook D," aph. 25, Aphorisms (written 1765-1799)

Offline

 

#74 2021-05-30 18:03:57

I guess I'm going down to 103 Gibbs Ave. in Wareham soon then.  It's about time I went and paid my respects.

-Emmeran

Offline

 

#75 2021-05-30 23:29:22

Yes, I saw Bill laughing and and goofing around at Gibbs Ave. It had a neighbor visiting neighbor feel when rolling up there. His spot was table desk right by the backdoor, monitor, keyboard and the great outdoors to blow smoke to and gaze upon whenever it was nice enough to swing the door open. A hermit abode for sure, but good light there, and moments of lightness to go with it. He could garden and he even offered up decent fresh food when it was in.

There were neighborly interactions and stories of how information flowed to him down the grapevine. It was no joke that he was being watched. It is a sure thing the powers that wished to be from UglyCorp wanted him run out on a rail. And periods of time he might well have wound up under certain sections of the cranberry bogs he pointed out. He had set out to unmask and unseat the bastards seeking to sell the town down the river. And was saddened but not caught out when the grace period thereafter of a successful defenestration he helped bring about, was shortened with the conversion of the politician replacements into the next rat bastards.


I even waited out a few snowstorms there, talking late into the swirling night, before striking out through the drifts to make for home across the canal.

Offline

 

#76 2021-05-31 12:25:55

Memorial Day

https://www.cruelery.com/uploads/11_poppy.jpg

Offline

 

#77 2021-06-04 16:07:42

Ah shit.  I've been occupying my time in other ways, and had a random impulse to sully myself.

Now I have the sad.

Bill, we never met IRL, and we bumped heads a few times, but in a good way.

Gonna miss you dude.

As for the rest of you...

Offline

 

#78 2021-06-05 07:10:31

XregnaR wrote:

Ah shit.  I've been occupying my time in other ways, and had a random impulse to sully myself.

Now I have the sad.

Bill, we never met IRL, and we bumped heads a few times, but in a good way.

Gonna miss you dude.

As for the rest of you...

Hah, Bill never told me what scrabble he got into with you, but it left him with a articulable level of respect.

Not all memory moments are tinged with sadness. Difficult people make the world much, much more interesting.

Offline

 

#79 2021-06-05 07:15:12

Even if some of you we could do without.



...you know who you are, you fockers.

Offline

 

#80 2021-06-08 01:07:23

Thanks J_R and monkeyboy for helping to fill in the story.  While I could tell things certainly weren't good, I only had the vaguest idea of what was going on in the last few years.

Your suggestions of where to go in Wareham are most welcome.  I'll definitely get in touch with you if I go through with the threat of visiting up there.

Take care, and thanks again to all for taking part here!

Offline

 

#81 2021-06-20 08:07:53

Wow, on a whim I decided to come here and see what was up with the Bill thread.  I had been thinking about him for some reason.  Maybe it is because it's been just over a year.

For some reason every time I think about Bill I get really sad.  For someone I only talked to on the phone briefly, it is weird how hard it hits at times.  I can't explain it, I can only embrace it.

Bill, I hope you are in a better place, laughing at all us miscreants down here who are keeping your little block of the internets alive and well.

Thanks to JR and Monkey for all the stories and well written prose.

RT

Offline

 

#82 2021-06-20 08:14:25

https://ibb.co/z682JP0

This is 103 Gibbs Ave for those of you interested.  For some reason I can't embed the photo.

Last edited by Roger_That (2021-06-20 08:14:51)

Offline

 

#83 2021-06-20 20:42:37

Roger_That wrote:

https://ibb.co/z682JP0


This is 103 Gibbs Ave for those of you interested.  For some reason I can't embed the photo.

It didn't like something about the .png format.

https://cruelery.com/uploads/157_screen-shot-2021-06-20-at-8-09-16-am.jpg

Geeze, it's like seeing Elvis' birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi.  Which, sadly, I have done.

Offline

 

#84 2021-06-21 00:35:29

You can almost see around back where Bill's tomatoes where. What you can't see is the side back door with the short steps up. Thats the best part of that home.  When you pulled in and stepped out of the car to turned around, that is where you would find Bill. He would always get up from his desk by the door to greet me. On any nice day the door would be open so he could feel the air to his left, the desk top with his monitor fit along the back wall under the windows so that the light was let in from the backyard.  A yard where there was a settled peace to look upon and green space allowing for a pause from any neighboring lots.

Bill would often have a tale of some odd if notable interaction from his endeavors in throwing the local elected bastards out and as they teetered on their high horses. I became worried they would bury him first, but he prevailed. At least till the next crop came in. What more can you do? He knew it was a limited result that would only derail the creeping monied interests for so long.

Or even better he would be able to fill in some backstory to the threads that ran thick and hot back in the crueler hey days of High Street's spawning. Usually worth a chuckle to stop by. Though he could just as well impart a sense of existential dread sometimes with the mess he dealt with. Both what swirled inside and all he was enmeshed with in his situation.

Offline

 

#85 2021-06-21 01:14:07

I wish I had been able to meet him in person.  He was a keeper.

Offline

 

#86 2021-08-31 01:40:42

Damn. Ya walk away for a while and when you randomly return you find and some real shit has happened.

Sad. Very, very sad.

Offline

 

#87 2021-08-31 15:20:11

whosasailorthen wrote:

Damn. Ya walk away for a while and when you randomly return you find and some real shit has happened.

Sad. Very, very sad.

Agreed, but, welcome back!

Offline

 

#88 2021-10-27 23:19:31

So I was able to swing a work trip next week to a location about 25 miles away from Wareham.  Coming in midday Wednesday, working til 5:00 Thursday and staying over, flying out on Friday.  Johnny_Rotten, monkeyboy, or whoever, would be great to see you if possible.  Just send me a private message or e-mail info@cruelery.com and we'll work out the details.  If not, will visit on my own and maybe remember to take photos.

Offline

 

#89 2023-09-30 22:26:11

JEW

NYJ here. Sorry to hear of this great loss to the community.

Not since the shocking accidental decapitation of Horseonovich have I been so deeply saddened by a cruel, cruel event.

Hi Roger_That!

Offline

 
  • Home
  •  » High Street
  •  » Death Of A SysOp: Bill Whitehouse AKA Choad 1954-2020

Board footer

cruelery.com