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Photo: Dixie Heartless |
| All-Star Team: 2007-2008 |
"She likes her men how she likes her drinks: strong and sweet."
Number: $4.99
Rose was born one spring evening in the back room of her papa’s noisy, pub-style bar. Her momma waited tables, and papa poured the beer. Neither of them expected her arrival that particular night, so they were both working as usual, but everyone sounded like they were having so much fun, why, she just didn’t want to wait any longer.
She was a precocious child, and her parents loved her dearly, but running a pub is a busy job. From the time she was barely old enough to toddle on two legs, she was often left to her own devices, clinging to papa’s pant legs or trying her darndest to climb onto the bar stools. They had a good crowd the day she couldn’t find her milk bottle, so no one noticed that she’d grabbed the bottle of cheap wine off the bottom shelf until they found her sitting in the corner under a table, swigging away at it. Papa scooped her up off the floor then with a laugh, saying that at least she could hold her liquor, even if she didn’t have good taste. They nicknamed her for the wine after that, their little Wild Irish Rose.
She grew up at the pub, collecting empty mugs and bottles for penny tips as a child, then later, clearing dishes and wiping down tables as patrons left, running back to do her homework in the corner booth in between. When she was old enough, she began waiting tables with her momma, but by then, the pub had come on hard times, and before she’d graduated from high school, they were forced to close. Momma and papa had to scramble for new jobs, and with their earlier working hours, she had to get herself to and from school. She bought an old pair of skates from a secondhand shop, and found that skating to school beat the heck out of walking, no matter what people said about her. Rose quickly learned to speed past the taunts, and how to dodge and block the more physical attackers. On skates, no one could touch her. On skates, she was free.
Her love of skating followed her into adulthood, and with the roller derby revival sweeping the nation, she joined the Ohio Roller Girls. Now she could skate all the time, with other women who enjoyed the strange mix of aggression and camaraderie. Now she depended on her skills to dodge and block, but for fun rather than out of fear.
Now, it was her turn to be the Bully.