Monkey See, Monkey Do

GOING APE OVER AN 11-YEAR OLD

by Seth Jacobson

Has the whole Town of Marshfield gone bananas or was that a gorilla in the Star Market on Snow Road last Wednesday?

There is an answer to that question. Yes, there was a man dressed like a gorilla wandering through the produce section last week, looking for bananas. But it wasn't a real gorilla. It was Marshfield resident Bob Bacon who put on the ape suit to give his goddaughter a laugh.

"When she was young I used to tell my goddaughter that I had a gorilla," Bacon said. "She used to say, 'Uncle Bob, you DON'T have a gorilla."

Bacon's goddaughter, Rosanne Cerri of Braintree, is now 11 years old. Last week her appendix burst and she had to have an emergency operation. When she had recovered a bit, Bacon wanted to do something special for her.

"I didn't want to do the typical flowers," he said. Eventually, he came up with the idea of posing as a gorilla as a tribute to the age-old joke between himself and Cerri. So, he went out and picked up a gorilla suit.


"I started saying to myself, 'What does a gorilla do? What props do I need?' That was easy -- I needed bananas, and I thought it would be a great idea to stop off at the grocery store dressed up in the suit.

Bacon called the market beforehand and asked if his coming in dressed like a gorilla would be alright. The management there approved of the idea because they thought it would be humorous. When he arrived at the store dressed up and started checking out the banana section, he found other people also found the humor in the stunt.

"It's funny, once you put that on, you become uninhibited," he said. "I didn't realize how good it looked. Kids at the store were pointing and laughing and it was just a great time. There were no bad remarks or anything. Everything was very positive. The managers of the store were buckled over laughing."

"It was pretty comical," added Bill Barrett, an employee in the store's produce department. "It was fun just to see it happening. He stood right in front of the bananas, took what he needed and took off. I think the customers really enjoyed it. You don't see something like that every day."

After he left the grocery store, Bacon went to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth to see his goddaughter. Of course, he was still dressed up like a gorilla.

"I stuck my head around the door of my goddaughter's room and she was talking on her cell phone," Bacon said. "I heard her say, 'I've got to go, there's a gorilla in my room.'

Bacon said he had a great time entertaining Cerri and many other patients and employees at the hospital. But his monkey business was not over. After he left the hospital, he walked into the Mexican restaurant El Sarape in Weymouth Landing still dressed up and sat right down at the bar.

"They asked to see my ID," Bacon said.

But it was not over yet. The next day, Bacon went to get pictures of himself dressed up in the gorilla suit developed and of course, he walked into Kingston Photo Center wearing the suit.

"It would be fun to wear that suit for an entire day," he said. "Everyone had a terrific reaction. I'll tell you, if you know someone that's down in the dumps, put a gorilla suit on and watch how everyone's spirits are lifted, even your own."