[talk] RIP Romeo of Suspenders

[Isaac (.ike) Levy]

> On Apr 14, 2020, at 8:12 PM, George Rosamond <george at ceetonetechnology.com> wrote:
> 
> FYI, this past Sunday, April 5th, Romeo from Suspenders passed from
> COVID-19.
> 
> Some of us knew Romeo before the first NYC*BUG meeting at the old
> Suspenders location at 111 Broadway. The first meeting there was in 2007
> with Ivan about Subversion
> (https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10076).
> 
> True story: Steve Jobs went out of his way to bump us out of the Soho
> Apple Store, since no attendees were capable of answering questions
> aobut shortcuts in Quark.

They wanted us to do our presentations using Keynote or PowerPoint, on a Mac.  The upcoming topic was Mickey porting OpenBSD to HP-RISC, which ended up being one of the best meetings ever, and the last at the Apple store that I remember.

Suspenders didn’t care.  Romeo and crew were welcoming, low pressure, it felt like they somehow knew what we were doing better than we did at the time.

Romeo didn’t care when we’d overstay our welcome and close the bar, I can remember Romeo closing the doors behind a gaggle of us *late* many times.  They also didn’t care when we’d pack the room for a meeting when most folks were too strapped to buy dinner or drinks, (I can certainly remember a few of those thin nights when almost no drinks were ordered, 2008 financial crisis impacted so many folks well into 2010...)

Romeo was always so welcoming, no matter how we came in.  Always made us feel like the place was ours, even if he was asking us to move out of the way or close the bar.

> We didn't "fit in" there, and remember, at
> that time, the Soho Apple Store was the flagship of Apple.
> 
> We held a lot of meetings in the backroom of the old Suspenders, then
> again at the new Suspenders on Maiden Lane. We very much became
> identified as "that group that met in the backroom of Suspenders."
> 
> We even held our last NYCBSDCon at the old Suspenders in 2014
> (https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10344). Oh, god, even MWL
> looked young then. We worked with Romeo who gave us the whole place for
> the day, and dealt with food and drinks at a very reasonable price.
> After previous NYCBSDCons, it was a breath of fresh air, and really low
> stress for the organizers.
> 
> We also held one NYC-wide holiday party there in 2012
> (https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10331), which again, Romeo
> helped us out with.
> 
> Anyways, I was fortunate to have Romeo hold me hostage at the bar just
> before this whole thing broke out a few months ago. I was already at a
> Suspenders event, and had no intention of staying, but it was a blast.
> We drank late night and had "the usual" discussion, food and family.
> 
> Romeo leaves behind his wife and very young daughter, plus a load of
> siblings.
> 
> Cheers Romeo!

Indeed, Cheers Romeo!

Rocket-
.ike


> 
> g
> 
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