The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
FOREVER STRANGE
Family, friends to celebrate life of ‘Wild Bill’ Ziegler with music, stories
MIDDLETOWN >> Wherever he is, it’s certain that William “Wild Bill” Ziegler is having a good nose day, family members say.
There’s quite a story behind that nose, which only Bill Ziegler’s wife Cindy Ziegler and their daughter Heather Page can tell with flourish.
Back before the children were born, said Cindy Ziegler, who was married to her husband for more than 40 years, Bill Ziegler got a red clown nose from a gag shop.
“Originally what he would do is, if we were in a place with a lot of people, he’d just pop it on so only one person would see it and as soon as they’d try to get somebody else’s attention, it would be gone and he’d be looking around,” she said, like nothing ever happened.
Then, Bill Ziegler began wearing it on road trips.
“He would get in the slow lane and go just a little bit slower than the traffic so, as cars would go by, he’d turn with the nose on and wave at them and try to catch somebody’s eye,” his wife said. “We would have so much fun. The kids all had to get a nose — anybody that got in the car had to wear a nose.
“He was always buying as many noses as he possibly could. The kids would be like, ‘One more exit! One more exit! Keep going!” Cindy Ziegler recalled the
time she went for a quilting weekend in Vermont with friends.
“I was having such a good nose day that I totally missed my exit. I went by four extra before I realized where I was and turned around,” she said. “They were all like, ‘Why are you late?’ I didn’t tell them until the next day and they couldn’t understand.”
This weekend, friends are set to memorialize the late Ziegler, owner of his eponymous nostalgia shop on Newfield Street who died April 11 at age 70.
The legions of people who have visited Wild Bill’s Nostalgia at 1003 Newfield St. since the 1990s know Ziegler as the embodiment of his shop — a character in his own right — who sported long gray untrimmed hair and a wild beard.
Sunday from 4 to 10 p.m., the Newfield Street lot will transform into a rock and jam band frontier, complete with free food and entry, that will allow everyone who knew and loved Ziegler to share how the pop culture icon touched their lives.
“The family and everyone on the lot wanted to do something to celebrate Bill’s life because he knew so many people and so many people were connected to him through the store,” said good friend Joe McCarthy, an artist and sculptor.
The shop will be open for perusal and purchases of posters, shirts and bobbleheads. McCarthy, who runs the T-shirt screen-printing business Neckahneck Ink out of Wild Bill’s, created a limited-edition shirt that will be offered for sale Sunday.
The black short-sleeved shirt is screen-printed with an image of Ziegler holding both arms in the air, each making peace signs, wearing a stars-and-stripes top hat and a red clown nose with the words “Forever Strange.”
“They are limited-edition because Bill loved collectible things,” said McCarthy, who has created 100 numbered versions of the T-shirt that go for $25 apiece.
Ziegler’s curious and fantastical store that sells vintage and pop culture trinkets, gag gifts, posters, clothing, figures, bobbleheads and a world more sits on a lot that includes boat, Yugo and other large-scale sculptures, a yet-to-be-completed funhouse, books and records shop — and countless other unusual things.
Attendees to Sunday’s event are asked to bring pictures, written notes and stories to share. They will later be kept in the record and book store on site for visitors to enjoy, event organizers said.
Cindy Ziegler said her husband had an uncanny ability to hit it off with just about anybody.
“He always had a way of connecting with people. People could just relate to him in a way. Most people don’t have that talent, even though in some ways he was shy, he always, always was able to connect with people from all walks of life,” she said. “It didn’t matter who they were, what their background, how old, how young — and that’s a gift. He marched to his own drummer.”
One thing that “drove me crazy,” Cindy Ziegler said, is that he never closed the store. Later, she found out why her husband insisted on opening on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter — every single day of the year.
“Some families had autistic children that were not comfortable going in any public area at all but were comfortable coming into the store on these quiet, quiet days,” she said. “They would have particular things that they collected and their parents would say this is the only place that they felt comfortable going.”
Many have asked if the family will continue to operate the nostalgia shop. Turns out, there’s no need to worry that the tradition of Wild Bill’s will cease.
“We are going to do everything in our power to make that happen,” Cindy Ziegler said. “Our family intends to carry on. He created this and wanted it for his children and grandchildren so they could keep this going. He was getting Heather ready for this day.”
Sunday’s musical offerings will include performances by Jacked ID, The Introvertz, The Kazoo Crew Family Band, Carles Lombardo, NYR, Back in the day and Just Winging It, all rock-and-roll or jam bands that play 1960s and 1970s music.
“They are either bands Bill liked or are friends of Bill’s,” McCarthy said. “Some of them just play music that Bill liked.”
Food will be provided by the Pig Rig BBQ of Wallingford, whose staff will be serving smoked macaroni and cheese and pulled pork, among other delicacies. There will be video presentations and a chance for people to get on stage and tell their Wild Bill stories in between band sets.
Ziegler’s wife said her husband was a singular man with his own perspective on life.
“He didn’t really care too much about what other people thought and that drew a lot of other strange people, which was a good thing,” she said. “Our kids grew up meeting a lot of interesting people and learned that just because people are a little bit different doesn’t mean they’re bad or they’re evil or any of those other titles that people give.
“They realized it didn’t matter how many tattoos the person had or how many piercings, that if their heart was good, their heart was good, and that’s what you looked at,” Cindy Ziegler said. “And Bill definitely had a good heart all the way through. He wasn’t perfect by a long shot, but he had a good heart and just embraced that strange lifestyle.”