Store owner enjoys sidewalk watching

Published 12:00 am Monday, August 29, 2005

Just about any evening, Bill Malone can be found sitting outside his movie store in a lawn chair watching life in Ironton and waving to passers-by.

"I sit here most every night," Malone said. "I'd rather be outside than inside any day."

After he gets off work at the Briggs Lawrence County Public Library, the 54-year-old spends the rest of his evening sitting and watching the traffic in front of the Movie House on Second Street in Ironton, chit-chatting with people and socializing.

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Traffic gives him much to watch.

"I've seen a bunch of car wrecks," Malone said. "I see friends I haven't seen in a few years and I see friends I saw yesterday."

Once called "Red Dog" because of his wild red hair, Malone does not use the time to keep up on all the gossip in the city.

"I don't worry about the gossip," Malone said. "Town gossip is just gossip."

Though he will not tell stories to avoid naming names, Malone said perhaps the most interesting story that has come from his hobby is the fact he once saved a man.

"I rescued a guy one time," he said. "He'd fallen in the street so I picked him up and carried him to the curb."

The summer heat was beginning to rise this year when Malone said the man was wobbling across the street. Malone said it was the heat that got to the person who had already had one stroke.

The good Samaritan said he called an ambulance, got some water and everything turned out fine.

"I must have done something right," he said.

Malone is a veteran with two grown children, a son and a daughter. He has lived in Ironton all his life.

The Dart is a weekly feature in which a reporter throws a dart at a map of Lawrence County and finds a story where it lands.