Tell us about your strange neighborhood "characters"

[grinningghost]

Every neighborhood has at least one.

Ours is a guy we call the "Amish Guy". Don't know his real name, don't even know where he lives. But he rides his bike all over and dresses like, well, an Amish guy. He has the beard, the hat, the overalls. And he collects cans and takes them to the store for the refund. Everyone knows who he is, but nobody knows HIM.

 

[Tiggeroo]

The super hero lady. On ordinary days she walks around town just looking strange. On parades and holidays she dresses up like a super woman, with a cape and tries very hard to get interviewed and photographed. She is not a young person and has been doing this for a number of years.

 

[Brer_Papa]

never mind.....

 

[joshsmom]

She ALWAYS has a box (a flat one that canned goods come in) held over her head. Rain, sun, sleet, snow--doesn't matter. Guess she's always protected. But she also has it inside. buildings. I would think her arm would get tired!!

There is also a guy over in St. Louis in the Central West End area (for those of you who know the area) that "entertains" the commuters with his baton. He has different outfits and dresses up to fit the holidays, etc. He's actually quite a talented twirler!!

 

[crazyforgoofy]

Two come to mind in my neighborhood. One is a guy who "walks" his dog by letting his german shepherd pull him FAST on his roller skates. Not so out of the ordinary? Well, our street isn't well paved AND has tons of those pointy "balls" that fall from sweet gum trees. The guy doesn't roll, he bounces! It's a sight. He never smiles or seems to see the humor in bouncing and tripping down the street after the dog. He's gonna take one heckuva fall some day soon.

The other is my next door neighbor. We call him Satan's brother-in-law and his wife Satan's sister. She's shrill, really bossy and mean as a snake. He is SO overwhelmed he tries to stay out of her way by working in the yard all day all year round. She yells, he ducks and starts the lawn mower again........

 

[grinningghost]

These are really funny. I just thought of another one (but I haven't seen him around lately, and heard he may have passed away ) -

This guy lays on a bench near a busy intersection and shows passing cars his bare dirty feet. Oh, and he smiles and waves too.

 

[crazyforgoofy]

In my old neighborhood there was a woman probably in her 60's who dressed waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy too young could be found jogging all over the area. She'd have on Tammy Fay make up, a big bow in her hair, a pink leotard, tights and leg warmers! She was trying for a flashdance kinda thing I think and boy it did not work.

 

[MosMom]

I think we are the strange people in the neighborhood. We are pretty normal but I get the vibe that the neighborhood clique doesn't like us. We never get invited to any of the neighborhood parties etc. Oh well!

 

[Lisa L from MI]

Well, I don't have strange names of actual people but when referring to some neighbors houses....I refer to their houses...such as:

The Yucky Neighbors house
The ugly porch house
The condemned house (hasn't been in years....they fixed it)
The cop house (the cops moved over 5 years ago)
The drug dealer house (it wasn't....don't know why)
The Augustine Pena house (at our old house...our neighbor resembled this teenage murderer in a surrounding community)

Makes me wonder what people call ours
I usually call ours the "screaming house" cause I am sure EVERYONE down the street can hear the kids fighting and me yelling at the kids which is just about all the time!!!

 

[JayCT]

Living to my left are the "Devil Worshippers". We call them that because they seem to do strange things in their basement at all hours of the night. He pulls his car around his house, up to the back hatchway to load something in it every so often. He also pulls his car up into the middle of his front lawn (if you can call it that) and washes it. I have lived here 10 years and have never met them. Wouldn't know them if I passed them in the store. He did complain to my nephew once when on a walk my dog stopped and peed on his lawn. Don't know why when he has no grass. Before we moved here he managed to alienate all of the other neighbors when he backed into someones car parked on the street and claimed it was the other persons fault.

On our other side is a single woman who keeps to herself. Why she would buy a big house in a family neighborhood is beyond me. It figures I have the strangest two people in our "family" neighborhood living on either side of me.

I am waiting for the day the one of my DS's bother either of these two. My kids love to play baseball so I see a broken window coming up one of these days. I think she will handle it fine. I worry about the "Devil Worshippers" though.

 

[Stepharoonie!]

I have so many, I could write a book. If I whittled it down, it'd be a LOT of postings. Hmmm.....

 

[momm2four]

That would be my three year old son, "The Kid Who Refuses to Wear Clothing and Wants to Run Around the Yard in a Diaper Even If It's 40 Degrees Outside"

Lori P.

 

[DocRafiki]

There was this big black dude that used to walk around downtown Hattiesburg Mississippi wearing a dress and talking to himself! We didn't have a name for him, but spotting him became a game.


There is this dude -- and I mean "dude" -- who hangs around this one area right outside of LSU and sells flowers made out of beer cans. My boyfriend even bought me some... what a memento. This guy would show up in the People section of the local or school newspapers every now and then... very popular guy.

 

[Val]

Unfortunately, I think its OUR family.....we live in a State Farm executive neighborhood (full of executives who work in suits and ties for State Farm). My husband and I are both professors in neuroscience. We have a bunch of animals- 1 horse, 2 large labs, 6 cats, and 5 guinea pigs. We live on an acre- but in a subdivision with large lots. Everyone else has manicured lawns, a lawn guy to take care of it, the nice sedan, and are either retired or have 1 kid. We have 4 kids, let our wooded lot go natural (I truly believe that May apples and Queen Anne's lace are beautiful) and are loud Irish Catholics. We host parties for our grad students, let our children climb trees, and try and entice butterflies, owls, raccoons and foxes into our yard. When we discovered a nest of fox snakes we taught the neighborhood kids about them- rather than called pest control. We always have the neighbor kids over some some project- we don't care about the carpet (it can always be cleaned), the yard (it can always be reseeded) or how silly we look (yes, adults can climb trees!).......our neighbors talk behind our backs. My husband's nickname is the "mountain man" for his full beard and long hair. I am known as the "weird science lady" for always showing kids fun science projects.

on the other hand...kids congregate at our house, it is always loud and fun, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. BUT- I am sure that the neighbors wish we would move, or plant a manicured lawn and get rid of the wild trees and bird feeders and bat boxes!

 

[HeyMickey]

There's a guy near me who spends 20 minutes circling his car before he gets in it. He'll open the door and stick his head in, then walk all the way around while looking underneath, stick his head in again, and continue orbiting until he finds everything satisfactory. Then he sits in the middle of the road in his car blocking everything until his garage door is totally and completely down.
(It would be kind of sad if he had OCD or something, but we're pretty sure he's just weird)

Then here at school, we have a panhandler known as Sombrero Man. Not much else to say.. he sits on the street asking for money wearing a sombrero. He's become something of a local celebrity.

 

[MosMom]

Val, I can relate. The kids always want to play at our house and we're always having fun. Our next door neighbor bought their kids a $4000 swing set (that is still pretty boring) and their kids still come over to play on our $300 Toys R US special with tacky Little Tikes stuff. Yes, it is tacky but it is fun and I only have little ones for a short time. There will be many years to have a well manicured lawn. I may have to reinvest in Little Tikes for the grandkids someday though.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

all we have is the Yap Yap Dog house,the 2 dogs are the yap yap kind that bark at everything and everyone

 

[DocRafiki]

VAl -- can I come play at YOUR house?

 

[Jasminesmommy]

When I was younger about 12 or so we had the people next door we called the Addams Family. There was about 7 people who lived there all with issues. The Grandpa was the leader then there was the childmolester who was in the news and sent to jail on it plus we had his diary that he recorded his encounters with little boys that we turned over to the police. Then there was a midgit who raped a 12 year old and prisoned for less then a year. the wierdo who was always being chased by police( not sure why) and then there was a meatally retarded girl who was tortured daily and finally taken away. Then there was a girl who was 21 at the time acted like a kid and I helped her get out of there and that was a long story in its self. Then there was the uncle who had seizure all the tima and times he was soo drunk he couldn't walk straight and would just pass out in strange places.v

 

[Brer_Papa]

I've lived here over 30 years...all my neighbors are used to me by now....

maybe....

i think....

i hope....

well...they must be! Take last year...PrincessAriel and I get home from going out to dinner...i say.."watch yourself..."

There's a skunk waddling up the sidewalk about 3 houses up...i keep my eye on it....it goes between 2 houses up the street....

I go in...

next day...i knock on all the neighbors door and say..."if you see me outside in the middle of the night with a bow and arrow...don't worry about it...skunk..."

well...i take up station on my front porch about 9 PM....nothing...so i wait...

anyway..about 1 AM...i see the skunk up the street...and away i go...too late..the skunk went under a latticed porch up the street...

my point is...nobody called the cops...

yep...they must be used to me...

maybe....

i think...

i hope....