![\"\"](\"images\/archive\/m_image1272485922-43911.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I got the call late last night that Johnny \u201cRocket\u201d had died. Again.
You could say that he was my friend, but\u2026
That\u2019s not quite right.
It was different than that.
And he was more than that. <\/p>\n
We never had the other over for dinner. Or went to the movies together or shared much of anything that could be considered of an intimate nature.
Or at least I never did. He had a tendency at times to share far too much.
But\u2026
He was reliable.
He was quick with a joke.
He was my bartender.<\/p>\n
At this point in my life I\u2019ve gone through a lot of friends. Some I thought of as good friends.
Admittedly, I haven\u2019t had as many good bartenders. I could easily count that number on one hand.<\/p>\n
The first time \u201cRocket\u201d died was on April 12th.<\/p>\n
The next day I got word that reports of his earlier death had been premature.
I laughed and thought, \u201cJohnny \u2018Rocket\u2019 has not only risen, but he beat the previous record held by one Jesus H. Christ by two whole days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The explanation I heard was that while the priest was giving out last rights the grieving girlfriend had left the room and, mistakenly, it turns out, passed on the word of \u201cRocket\u2019s\u201d demise.
Like many times before, \u201cRocket\u201d had provided me with an unexpected laugh.
Turns out he wouldn\u2019t be leaving us with a whimper or a bang, but with a rimshot.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know where Johnny got his nickname but written out, it was spelled \u201cRocket\u201d or \u201cRock-It\u201d. Both were acceptable.
Any number of circumstances could have led to a far different and unflattering moniker for our boy.<\/p>\n
He had a giant parrot tattooed on his calf based on his love for the music of Jimmy Buffet.
At times he had a tendency to mumble to the point where, depending on the level of your own intoxication, his speech was rendered near indecipherable.
He rooted for Florida sports teams.<\/p>\n
Johnny \u201cRocket\u201d got himself a good nickname.
Better than one could reasonably hope for given the way in which these things are usually handed out. <\/p>\n
And the same could be said of him as a bartender. He was much better than one could reasonably hope for.
Yesterday we lost one of the good ones.<\/p>\n
R.I.P. Johnny \u201cRocket\u201d Cox
Nov 24, 1962 – April 27, 2010<\/p>\n
(A celebration of Johnny\u2019s life will be held at 1:00pm on Sunday May 2, 2010 at
O\u2019Connell\u2019s Bar with a Cheeseburger In Paradise theme.
You are encouraged to wear your loudest, festive shirt.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I got the call late last night that Johnny \u201cRocket\u201d had died. Again. You could say that he was my friend, but\u2026 That\u2019s not quite right. It was different than that. And he was more than that. He was my bartender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5568"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5568"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}