June 3, 2010

By Mary Richiell-Guiod

  Bobby Quarters is also known as “No No Bobby”, but rarely by his real name – Robert Richiell.  He’s the only South Boston man with two famous and unique nicknames, out of the many thousands who were dubbed with a South Boston nickname.  They refer to his habit of asking for quarters from everyone he used to see along West Broadway, and saying “No,no!” to smaller coins. 

  Mary Richiell-Guiod is Bobby’s sister.  She gets a lot of questions from people asking her, “How is Bobby?”  Well, Bobby was born with cerebral palsy.  He’s now 62, has diabetes, and needs a walker to get around.  Even so, all things considered, he’s actually doing very well.

  This last Easter Sunday (April 4), Bobby Quarters came back home to South Boston for dinner with Mary at 154 Gold Street.  He wanted to come for dinner of course, but he wanted to take a walk along West Broadway even more, where he was known from one end to the other.

  Mary wrote, “Bobby met his goal.  We walked up West Broadway, with CVS being our final stop.  We took pictures, Bob bought a Red Sox magazine and a diet soda, and he met an old friend, Kevin.

  “So many of Southie’s people have asked me to say ‘Hi’ to Bobby.  Now Bob wants to say ‘Hi’ back to all his old friends:  ‘Hi’ to Maureen at ComCast, Phil (who owned Mignosa’s), Janice (a long-time friend and supervisor at CVS), Barbara (a West Broadway friend), Stephen Lynch, Brian Wallace, Ray Flynn, and to those friends he forgot (or can’t remember).”

  According to Mary, Bobby now lives in a beautiful, cozy home run by Bay Cove.  He also attends a day program from Monday through Friday and loves it as much as his new home.  He loves the staff at both places as well.  She says Bobby told her, “If any of my friends wants to send me a letter or a postcard, here’s my new address:”

    Robert Richiell

    44 Orlando Street

    Mattapan, MA 

    02126

  Bobby Quarters once enjoyed the fifteen minutes of fame that has been promised to all of us.  He was mentioned twice in Michael Patrick MacDonald’s 1999 autobiography, “All Souls”.  In his first mention, he was on West Broadway near Perkins Square (page 59); the second, in a coffee shop (page 256).

  Bobby is still a man of definite preferences.  He loves eating fish and hamburgers, his favorite flavor is chocolate, and he snacks on cheese.  He’ll drink Diet Pepsi or something hot from Dunkin’ Donuts, depending on the weather.  He reads the Globe, likes the Red Sox, and wears blue.  Sounds like a pretty balanced life, don’t you think?

  As Bob’s sister and legal guardian, Mary would like to thank all of his Southie friends for always asking about him, telling her to relay messages to him, and showing your concern.  She says, “I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for keeping the legend of Bobby Quarters/No No Bobby alive.”

  Bobby’s final words to his Southie friends when his Easter visit was over were as follows:  “I want all of you to know that I’ll be back.” 

  We hope so, Bobby.