The Roanoke Times

Printed Oct. 3, 2000

The booths and the cigarette machine are gone forever. So is one of its regulars.

But the music was there, competing with the laughter and conversation that always have drawn people to the Backstreet Cafe. Ten days after the shootings that forever changed the mellow, gay bar on Salem Avenue Southwest, regulars and newcomers came to its reopening to tell the world that they are not afraid, that this is their bar.

"This is our home," said Sue Stroud, who was in the bar Sept. 22 when a gunman police say was Ronald Gay shot seven patrons, killing one. "I can't let Ronald Gay take that away from me."

Stroud was shooting pool, chatting with friends and laughing just like she used to before the shootings. Still, she was cautious.

"I'm happy, but this is the same atmosphere as that night when the blasts and sparks happened," Stroud said in between suspicious glances at the door. "I got to focus on the positive, the good. I've got to take back my bar."

Manager Alan Blankenship said they were thinking about waiting until the weekend to open the bar, but "we felt like it was time," he said. "We missed our family. . . . It's good therapy for everybody."

The booths that used to line the wall were taken out in part because they were shot up, in part to give the smoky bar a new look.

Anna Sparks, Stroud's partner, was at the bar on Monday as well as the night of the shootings. She said Gay leveled his gun at her right before walking out of the bar. Monday wasn't easy for her.

Word of mouth traveled quickly that the bar was reopening. Sparks said she felt compelled to come, to show support.

"It's a little different, but it still feels like home," Sparks said, sipping a Zima and wearing a black Backstreet Cafe polo shirt with the logo "Good Food. Good Friends. Good Times."

Ron Biagiarelli, a coordinator of the newly formed Hate Free Roanoke Task Force, was on hand, though he didn't often frequent the bar.

Scott Lee was at the bar, too, sitting only a few feet away from where he talked to Ronald Gay nearly two weeks ago. Gay seemed like a nice man, said Lee, who left a few minutes before the shooting started.

"He's not going to scare me from being gay," Lee said, "I'm not going to be afraid of who I am."

Blankenship came by a few minutes later in between pouring drafts.

"It wasn't a good thing that happened, "he said, "but we are going to make something good come out of it."

Zeke Barlow can be reached at 981-3349 or zekeb@roanoke.com

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