Tell us about the strangest person in your town

[jeter]

There was a guy from my hometown (in Canada) that was really weird. He was infamous. I understand he died a couple of years ago. But my friends and I would crank call him when I was younger.

Anyway, this guy lived in a shack about three blocks from where I lived (literally a shack among a row of houses). Apparently, he lived with his mother who suddenly died. Of old age I think. Well, this guy went crazy, keeping her carcass in his house until the board of health was called in due to the stench. This has been confirmed by friends of mine who lived on that street.

After that, he would dress up in his mothers clothes and ride around on his bike. He never actually hurt anybody. But people would stare at him. Everyone knew him. We called him Grazilda, his real name was John Bell. And our parents would refer to him as the boogeyman. Example, "better eat your supper or Grazilda will come and get you." etc.

One day, when I was about 13. My friends and I went to a local park to play some tennis, when none other than Grazilda himself showed up. He asked me to come over and chat with him. Other kids were talking to him, out of curiosity I guess. But I was scared shitless. 13 or not, there was no way I was going to talk to Grazilda.

Anyway, I thought i'd share the story. Feel free to provide similar stories about hometown freaks.

[GOPisEvil]

1. Leslie, the homeless, transvestite mayoral conadidate.

Read all about him here: http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-03-14/pols_atlarge.html

[VelmaD]

4. Leslie ROCKS!

I came really close to voting for him/her for mayor last time just because the other choices were so blah. But he/she is nothing compared to the "Bald Brigade" back in my real hometown - Greenville, TX. Every year they march in the xmas parade and do precision, lawn-chair drill team maneuvers. It's stunning.

One must be "legally bald" to join - head offers no resisitence to a comb.

[GOPisEvil]

7. lawn-chair drill team maneuvers?

There has to be video of this somewhere! :D

[bleedingheart]

10. that would be worth seeing!

[wryter2000]

2. Oh, lordy

Jerry Brown's my mayor and it goes downhill from there.

[Wickerman]

6. the short course on what Brown has done

Sorry, I am not conversant on Oakland politics and used to think Jerry Brown was pretty cool. I don't feel the love for him anymore - can you give the short course on what has happened with him?

[Robb]

3. Not so much strange....

...As a reflection of the kind of town I live in.

Local character has so many DUIs, he can't drive. So he drives his tractor down all the back roads, with the mower attachment so if the cops hassle him, he can claim he's just trimming the ditches for so-and-so.

Takes him awhile to get where he's going -- and seems to spend quite a bit of time trimming the ditch near the bar.

I mean, everyone knows what he's doing, but no one calls him on it -- mostly because he plows the snow out of the church parking lot during the winter before even the preacher gets there.

:shrug:

[La_Serpiente]

5. Welll

sometimes, when I go to Waikiki, there is this morbidly obese travestite that tries to prostitute herself to the gay people that pass her.

[bleedingheart]

8. The Sparrow

http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/19980718roddy5.asp

I remember this woman from when I went to the University of Pittsburgh. She would just keep telling people that the world would end... The weirdest time was when I was downtown at an Air Force formal with my boyfriend. I went to the ladies room with some gals and who is in there telling everyone coming out of the toilet that the world would end....the sparrow...

No one knows what happened to her....

[bleedingheart]

9. Wonder if anyone from Crawford Texas will respond?

;-)

[carpetbagger]

20. Bush gets to share McLennan Co. w/ Koresh's ghost.

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[wtmusic]

11. Skeleton man

jogs, is about 40% underweight, never speaks or looks anyone in the eye.

[Loonman]

12. Too many to list....

Duckman

Vinz Clortho

Douger, the town drunk

Hammer

Big Eddie

Crazy Lady

...many more....



From my hometown, not Boston

[TrogL]

13. The chanting lady

She would stand on the corner of the main intersection and endlessly chant "Jesus saves" and two or three other religious slogans and hand out copies of the Watchtower.

That wasn't the problem, or at least the main problem.

The problem was her horribly loud, horribly nasal, horribly strident voice. It would carry for blocks. People began avoiding downtown just to get away from it.

I think she finally retired (or was silenced) about five years ago.

[DCDemo]

14. This guy named John

He is afraid of calico cats, and is insulted/challenged by women's breats and freedom, so he does his best to cover or hide or erase what he can....

Oh...he also likes to be annointed in oil...

[geniph]

15. I'm a native Seattleite

We imbibe weird in the water around here. It'd be a shorter list to post about the normal people in town.

[Rowdyboy]

16. Greasy the locksmith

who drives a huge, old bright orange van.

[BiggJawn]

17. Me.

I live by myself with 6 goldfish (4 I'm boarding for a friend) I don't like NASCAR, don't drink, don't smoke, don't like country music, own 6 bicycles (including a home-made recumbent) and I vote Democratic.

Freaky enough?

[cally]

18. "the naked guy"

There's a man who runs, literally, around the area naked. He sometimes wraps himself in a beige sheet, but he seems to forget it often. The first few times most of us encounter him we are freaked out by this strange naked man approaching us while we are hiking, but you do get used to him. My kids told me that he was once a Math genius that became psycotic but I have no idea if that's true. He lives at his parent's house.

[mitchum]

19. Michael Stipe (a good kind of strange)

[toddzilla]

21. In St. Louis , we have beatle bob..

I believe he goes to a concert every night of the year. he has a bowl haircut, and dances very .. originally. wears old clothes and is a pretty odd individual in general. The guitar shop i work for puts on shows with students and teachers and he actually came to one of our shows and danced while we played, it was pretty cool..

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-03-14/music_feature23.html

pretty odd, interesting fellow. when i worked in downtown clayton (sort of an upscale, financial/gov't district) i'd see him a few times a month in a store and he always looked kind of insane, so i never really talked to him .

[mitchum]

22. I met Beatle Bob in Chapel Hill

you're right, he does look kind of insane