Since so many of us have Bloomington/IU ties I thought some might be familair with local legend Rocky Rice and might relate to different aspects of this story. I hadn't really heard of Rocky myself till this past spring, although I spent enough time ordering and picking up from Swing In over the years that I probably came across him in some capacity.
His dad was the founder of Swing-In, and when I was at IU in the mid-70s the original Swing-In located on 17th was regarded as a popular, comparatively inexpensive pizza spot known for their stroms and diced ingredients. I don't ever remember eating inside, it was mainly a take out place where as the name implied you "swing in" to pick up your order...
Anyway back in the spring a couple of my friends from Karst Dog Park were discussing a place called Rocky's pizza, which I had never heard of. My one friend plays banjo in a bluegrass band, and they frequently played at a place called Rocky's Pizza. My other friend and her husband had gone to one of the shows, and she was going on and on about how great the pizza was.I love pizza,and the way she described it made it sound delicious, so I filed the info away for future reference...
Fast forward a month or so and I was scheduled to have a nuclear stress test, which meant I had to fast for close to 24 hrs.As I was driving back home and checking out the changes to one of my college residences (Colonial Crest) I passed by the area where the old Steak N Shake used to be and saw the name Rocky's Pizza.
I hadn't known the exact location but thinking about what Emily had said I decided that I needed to turn around and check it out because I was starving. It wasn't exactly what I expected since it was in a strip mall and the store was basically empty. But I ordered my pizza from the grizzled old man and sat down to wait for my order.
There was only one other customer a young mother and her 9 yr old son, who were in the adjacent booth. We made polite conversation and I would later learn that she was a transplanted Kentuckian and her husband was connected with IU basketball in some way that she didn't specify.
There were many IU related pics hanging on the walls, pics of RMK and various players as well as the same old man who I had ordered from. Those all had a combination Western/semi law enforcement theme and as you'll see in the video below various MAGA items and a framed " America Love it or leave it" on the wall.
At some point the guy behind the counter walked over and sat down with the woman, and introduced himself as Rocky the owner. That's when she introduced herself and mentioned the IU connection and Rocky started telling us his history with IU over the years. I should mention that he was wearing an old west type holster with movie style six shooters on both his left and right sides.
I intially though he might be some sort of sheriff, and he actually showed us a pic of himself sitting on what looked to be one of those mounted patrol parade golden palominos, and IIRC Ronald Reagan was in the shot as well. He talked about how he was active in GOP politics, was a cowboy at heart and had been born 200 yrs too late. It was kind of surreal to me, like a character in a movie...
The thing that really got me was when he talked about being part of the security detail for Greg Locke. He was explaing who he was to the lady who didn't know and I was struck that he described Locke as a "crazy radical right wing preacher", which is how I would describe Locke from my own perspective. But it was strange hearing him refer to Locke as a right wing radical, and it kind of struck me as a case of ultra MAGA meets ultra ultra MAGA.
He said he would likely be travelling down to TN in the fall for his annual tour of providing a mounted security detail for Locke.He and the woman seemed to be of a similar mindset and he continued to talk with her about subjects that struck me as bizarre for a Fri afternoon in a deserted pizza shop in a strip mall. I just listened politely, as I had nothing to contrbiute and was not looking to participate in a pizza shop political debate.
Eventually they brought our orders out from the back and I said goodbye and was on my way. The pizza was good, but I was disappointed after the superlatives my friend had hurled. I told both my friends that I had met Rocky, and how he was a unique character. I thought of him as an old man, which is strange since it turns out he was only 62, which is 6 yrs younger than I am.
But he was definitely"different", and since I was not impressed with the quality of the pizza with regards to the price (way higher than the 1 yr old video linked below) I decided that I was glad to experience it once. But I would not be adding it to my personal favorites and decided a little good natured ribbing of my friend Emily was in order. She's pretty far from MAGA herself...
So fast forward to two weeks ago, I'm at Karst and I overhear my friend Paul discussing a "hostage situation" that occurred the previous day in Heltonville. Turns out Rocky was married to a younger woman and being highly jealous suspected her of messing around.
The gist was that Rocky had stormed into her place of business and threatened her and may have even held her at gunpoint. At any rate, officers arrived and after the situation was apparently defused Rocky suddenly pulled a gun from his belt behind his back,aimed at his head and shot himself.
Except for some reason he missed,and rather than blow his head off he merely suffered a grazing wound. They took him to the hospital, and since these events had only happened the previous day any further details were limited. His wound wasn't serious and everyone expected he'd be fine,exacept for the legal consequences.
I resolved to get an update from my friend the next time I saw him, but he wasn't at the dog park last Wed. Since I only come once or twice a week from Bloomfield, I didn't see Paul until yesterday.
So yesterday we're all standing around talking and I ask for an update on Rocky, and he tells me he ended up hanging himself in his horse barn. Apparently he was released from the psych ward, and for some reason there was no supervision between his release and his scheduled court appearance. Paul said that he had messaged Rocky on FB offering for his band to do a fundraiser (assuming he had legal expenses) but had never heard back. It sounds like Rocky was increasingly despondent over his legal and family issues, and then one day he made a post apologizing to everyone over all the trouble he caused.
Paul said he got a phone call subsequently informing him that Rocky had killed himself about a week or so ago. I hadn't known his full name previously, but when Paul told me it was Rice I decided to try and get details from googling.
Below is a link to his obit, which I found earlier this morning. I also turned up a few youtube videos, including 3 or 4 from (presumably) Indians reading his obituary in accents so thick it's basically incomprehensible. It seems like some click bait idea to get views, but there are less than 100 views on each video so I can't imagine they're making any revenue. I did find a video review of Rocky's Pizza that's a year old, but it gives some insight into who Rocky was.
Apologies for the length, but I thought some of you might have had your own experiences with Rocky.
After watching this video all the way thru, I was reminded that when I met Rocky he brought some of the wagon wheels out to where I was seated for us to taste...
His dad was the founder of Swing-In, and when I was at IU in the mid-70s the original Swing-In located on 17th was regarded as a popular, comparatively inexpensive pizza spot known for their stroms and diced ingredients. I don't ever remember eating inside, it was mainly a take out place where as the name implied you "swing in" to pick up your order...
Anyway back in the spring a couple of my friends from Karst Dog Park were discussing a place called Rocky's pizza, which I had never heard of. My one friend plays banjo in a bluegrass band, and they frequently played at a place called Rocky's Pizza. My other friend and her husband had gone to one of the shows, and she was going on and on about how great the pizza was.I love pizza,and the way she described it made it sound delicious, so I filed the info away for future reference...
Fast forward a month or so and I was scheduled to have a nuclear stress test, which meant I had to fast for close to 24 hrs.As I was driving back home and checking out the changes to one of my college residences (Colonial Crest) I passed by the area where the old Steak N Shake used to be and saw the name Rocky's Pizza.
I hadn't known the exact location but thinking about what Emily had said I decided that I needed to turn around and check it out because I was starving. It wasn't exactly what I expected since it was in a strip mall and the store was basically empty. But I ordered my pizza from the grizzled old man and sat down to wait for my order.
There was only one other customer a young mother and her 9 yr old son, who were in the adjacent booth. We made polite conversation and I would later learn that she was a transplanted Kentuckian and her husband was connected with IU basketball in some way that she didn't specify.
There were many IU related pics hanging on the walls, pics of RMK and various players as well as the same old man who I had ordered from. Those all had a combination Western/semi law enforcement theme and as you'll see in the video below various MAGA items and a framed " America Love it or leave it" on the wall.
At some point the guy behind the counter walked over and sat down with the woman, and introduced himself as Rocky the owner. That's when she introduced herself and mentioned the IU connection and Rocky started telling us his history with IU over the years. I should mention that he was wearing an old west type holster with movie style six shooters on both his left and right sides.
I intially though he might be some sort of sheriff, and he actually showed us a pic of himself sitting on what looked to be one of those mounted patrol parade golden palominos, and IIRC Ronald Reagan was in the shot as well. He talked about how he was active in GOP politics, was a cowboy at heart and had been born 200 yrs too late. It was kind of surreal to me, like a character in a movie...
The thing that really got me was when he talked about being part of the security detail for Greg Locke. He was explaing who he was to the lady who didn't know and I was struck that he described Locke as a "crazy radical right wing preacher", which is how I would describe Locke from my own perspective. But it was strange hearing him refer to Locke as a right wing radical, and it kind of struck me as a case of ultra MAGA meets ultra ultra MAGA.
He said he would likely be travelling down to TN in the fall for his annual tour of providing a mounted security detail for Locke.He and the woman seemed to be of a similar mindset and he continued to talk with her about subjects that struck me as bizarre for a Fri afternoon in a deserted pizza shop in a strip mall. I just listened politely, as I had nothing to contrbiute and was not looking to participate in a pizza shop political debate.
Eventually they brought our orders out from the back and I said goodbye and was on my way. The pizza was good, but I was disappointed after the superlatives my friend had hurled. I told both my friends that I had met Rocky, and how he was a unique character. I thought of him as an old man, which is strange since it turns out he was only 62, which is 6 yrs younger than I am.
But he was definitely"different", and since I was not impressed with the quality of the pizza with regards to the price (way higher than the 1 yr old video linked below) I decided that I was glad to experience it once. But I would not be adding it to my personal favorites and decided a little good natured ribbing of my friend Emily was in order. She's pretty far from MAGA herself...
So fast forward to two weeks ago, I'm at Karst and I overhear my friend Paul discussing a "hostage situation" that occurred the previous day in Heltonville. Turns out Rocky was married to a younger woman and being highly jealous suspected her of messing around.
The gist was that Rocky had stormed into her place of business and threatened her and may have even held her at gunpoint. At any rate, officers arrived and after the situation was apparently defused Rocky suddenly pulled a gun from his belt behind his back,aimed at his head and shot himself.
Except for some reason he missed,and rather than blow his head off he merely suffered a grazing wound. They took him to the hospital, and since these events had only happened the previous day any further details were limited. His wound wasn't serious and everyone expected he'd be fine,exacept for the legal consequences.
I resolved to get an update from my friend the next time I saw him, but he wasn't at the dog park last Wed. Since I only come once or twice a week from Bloomfield, I didn't see Paul until yesterday.
So yesterday we're all standing around talking and I ask for an update on Rocky, and he tells me he ended up hanging himself in his horse barn. Apparently he was released from the psych ward, and for some reason there was no supervision between his release and his scheduled court appearance. Paul said that he had messaged Rocky on FB offering for his band to do a fundraiser (assuming he had legal expenses) but had never heard back. It sounds like Rocky was increasingly despondent over his legal and family issues, and then one day he made a post apologizing to everyone over all the trouble he caused.
Paul said he got a phone call subsequently informing him that Rocky had killed himself about a week or so ago. I hadn't known his full name previously, but when Paul told me it was Rice I decided to try and get details from googling.
Below is a link to his obit, which I found earlier this morning. I also turned up a few youtube videos, including 3 or 4 from (presumably) Indians reading his obituary in accents so thick it's basically incomprehensible. It seems like some click bait idea to get views, but there are less than 100 views on each video so I can't imagine they're making any revenue. I did find a video review of Rocky's Pizza that's a year old, but it gives some insight into who Rocky was.
Apologies for the length, but I thought some of you might have had your own experiences with Rocky.
After watching this video all the way thru, I was reminded that when I met Rocky he brought some of the wagon wheels out to where I was seated for us to taste...
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