(I took this from Flickr since I don’t have my own personal photo of him - This picture was taken by Sher Pruitt and originally posted in an artilce by Jim Farmer on the Southern Voice website www.southernvoice.com/2006/4-28/arts/feature/baton.cfm)

I first saw Baton Bob one day when I was driving down Ponce de Leon with Mike and he said “Did you just see that man in a tutu?!  He had bells on his boots, was blowing a whistle, and twirling a baton!!”  I looked in the rear view mirror just in time to catch a glimpse of him marching down the street.  I’ve seen some pretty crazy things on Ponce.  Crack addicts, hookers, bums and more!  Often times I’ll see people talking loudly to themselves.  Mike always tells me maybe they have a bluetooth earpiece on and I just don’t know it… but yeah right!

So back to Baton Bob.  A few months later I saw a feature about him on national TV… and thought OMG!!!  That’s the guy we saw!  After hearing his story, I found out he’s not a typical Ponce crackhead after all.  He was actually a quite sane, very cool guy and apparently was somewhat of an icon in Atlanta.  Basically he started twirling a baton to make people smile after he was going through a depression after 9/11.

Since then, I’ve seen him 3 other times.  The second time, I saw him marching up Charles Allen, again in ballerina outfit.  A third time, I saw him in a bumble bee costume while I was eating outside at Park Tavern at Piedmont Park.  The fourth time, walking down 10th Street on Cinco de Mayo wearing a sombrero and red feather boa.  I’ve been dying to get a picture with him, but have never been at the right place at the right time WITH a camera on me.

Anyway, I haven’t seen him in a while and hope to run into him again soon!  I love you Baton Bob!