Who's Your Local Hometown Interesting Character?

[analog_kidd]

America is full of interesting or odd-ball people. Every town I've ever lived in has had it's share of people that everyone knows of because of their odd behavior. or the way they look, etc.

 

We have a older gentleman here in Oak Ridge that can be frequently seen walking down the various street of the town.Not sure how old he is, but he has a long ZZTop style beard that is white as snow. I have no idea what his name is, but everyone in town calls him the Silver Bullet, partly because of his long white beard, but also because when he walks, it is like he is power-walking. He walks everywhere, and always does it in this very fast gait. The rumors are that he is not very friendly. He won't acknowledge you if you say hello, and I've heard people have tried to interview him and he gets mad at them.

 

Someone created a FaceBook page about him called the Oak Ridge Walking Man. I'm sure he has no idea that thousands of people are talking about him on the Internet. One of the really funny things that people do on that page are snap pictures of him wherever they see him around town, and then post the pics. People then take those pics and photoshop him into other famous pictures, such as the Beatles album where the band is walking across the street.

 

Who is your local interesting character?

[peejman]

OS

 

;)

 

 

 

Come to think of it, there was a guy who walked all around town here for a while with a HUGE boombox on his shoulder with music blasting.  I can't remember his name at the moment.  He seemed pretty harmless but I have no idea what he did other than walk around with that boombox. 

Edited January 16, 2014 by peejman

[BrasilNuts]

The Silver Bullet.... I haven't seen him in quite a while.

[Guest RebelCowboySnB]

David Stevens, at least I think that was his name. Back in the 80s an 90s was everywhere. If there was something going on he was there dressed for the event, football jerseys, ref uniforms, exec. When nothing was going on he was just walking around town talking to everyone an singing Elvira. Something was different with his mind. I wont say wrong cause everyone knew an liked him an he always seemed to be loving life so nothing was wrong, just different..

 

That man walked miles an miles every day. When Forest Gump came out an, no one that knew this man ever questioned the idea that a man could just decide to run across the country, an do it.

 

 

I have not seen him in years an I dont know what happened to him. For all I know though he is still around an I am just not out enough to see him.

[JAB]

I haven't seen him in a few years but in Loudon the interesting character used to be a fellah that everyone just called 'Choo Choo' or sometimes simply 'Choo' for short.  He answered to that name and didn't seem to mind.  He usually seemed pretty friendly and willing to chat a bit albeit somewhat in his own, little world.

 

I heard a story, once, that Choo had been a really good pitcher in baseball.  Supposedly went at least to the minors and nearly made it to the majors.  I thought that was just local legend until I was at the town's 4th of July celebration one time and Choo showed up.  There was a dunking booth and people were paying the fee for Choo to throw.  He would step up to the line, a little wobbly from being about two and a half sheets to the wind.  Then his eyes - which held an almost perpetually glazed look - would go completely clear and focused.  He would do a baseball pitcher style windup and throw with baseball pitcher style follow through.  He threw what looked to be a pretty good fastball - and hit the little target, dunking the person in the booth, about eight times out of ten.  After that, I believed the story.  I think I also heard, once, that he had gotten 'shell shocked' (what folks now call PTSD) in a war or something and that is what put an end to his baseball aspirations and turned him into such an interesting character.

 

When I was a little kid and we lived in Lenoir City, there was a guy who was pretty tall and lanky.  The short beard he wore made him resemble Abe Lincoln.  I never knew his name but he was also, supposedly, a victim of shell shock.  He didn't seem as outgoing as Choo Choo but I never heard of him causing any, particular problems or being 'mean' either.  Mostly, I have to wonder if he even realized that other people were there most of the time.  The most interesting thing about him was that he was constantly mumbling, kind of under his breath.  If you got close enough to hear what he was saying, it sounded like he was telling jokes to himself and then laughing at them.  Where seeing Choo Choo was kind of fun because I think he enjoyed his life, all in all, seeing that fellah always made me a little sad.

Edited January 16, 2014 by JAB

[Slappy]

Prince Mongo here. I don't know much about him but that he is really rich, very eccentric and runs (and loses) for Mayor every year. He also thinks he landed on earth from another planet.

[glowdotGlock]

[quote name="analog_kidd" post="1096037" timestamp="1389869047"] Someone created a FaceBook page about him called the Oak Ridge Walking Man.[/quote] I looked it up. The photoshopped pictures are pretty funny.

[Chucktshoes]

[quote name="Slappy" post="1096124" timestamp="1389887051"]Prince Mongo here. I don't know much about him but that he is really rich, very eccentric and runs (and loses) for Mayor every year. He also thinks he landed on earth from another planet.[/quote] It is all part of his act. Mr. Hodges is a sharp and shrewd businessman who gets a big kick out of sticking it to the man. I had the opportunity to sit and talk with him a few times when he had "The Castle" running as a night club. He's an awesome dude.

[UncleJak]

There is a fella up in Sumner county called Buzz. He walks around waving at people all over. He is a savant and has memorized the entire phone book; so if you are listed he knows your name, address, and number. 

[Guest Keal G Seo]

Not sure about up here but my actual hometown, Natchez MS, was "No weeny" Sweeny.

One night on a bad acid trip he climbed onto the roof of his house naked, with a knife, and when he looked down thought he saw a snake growing out of him and cut it off. Friends were able to subdue him afterwards and locate the "snake" for the doctors to reattach. Well if that weren't bad enough, several years later he did the whole thing again but this time the damage was too bad to reattach it.

[Guest Gustafa]

Prince Mongo here. I don't know much about him but that he is really rich, very eccentric and runs (and loses) for Mayor every year. He also thinks he landed on earth from another planet.

 

Slappy's not kidding, I had to cover this guy for a magazine article. Here's some photos from the shoot. Cat is crazay! (his rubber chickens are his communication devices with his planet!)

 

[URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/CGClone/media/CPMongoampFriends-18_zpse13d3abd.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/CGClone/media/CPMongoampFriends-23sm_zps86090a83.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/CGClone/media/CPMongoampFriends-20_zpsf79c6da0.jpg.html][/URL]

[E4 No More]

Not sure about up here but my actual hometown, Natchez MS, was "No weeny" Sweeny.

One night on a bad acid trip he climbed onto the roof of his house naked, with a knife, and when he looked down thought he saw a snake growing out of him and cut it off. Friends were able to subdue him afterwards and locate the "snake" for the doctors to reattach. Well if that weren't bad enough, several years later he did the whole thing again but this time the damage was too bad to reattach it.

Dude! TMI! Ouch!!!!

[whitewolf001]

 

Slappy's not kidding, I had to cover this guy for a magazine article. Here's some photos from the shoot. Cat is crazay! (his rubber chickens are his communication devices with his planet!)

 

 

 

Fella enjoys his duck-face doesn't he?

[tnguy]

 

Slappy's not kidding, I had to cover this guy for a magazine article. Here's some photos from the shoot. Cat is crazay! (his rubber chickens are his communication devices with his planet!)

 

 

Heard about this guy before. Has his own currency or something? I'd vote for him.

 

Edit: I may be thinking about someone else? Pretty sure it was Memphis though.

 

Edit2: I believe I was thinking of this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton . Not Memphis but in the right general direction :)

Edited January 16, 2014 by tnguy

[TrickyNicky]

The whole LA area is way to full of interesting individuals to even get started. Do you want to hear about the guy trying to wage a legal war on circumcision, the lizard man who collects vitamins from the sun through his tongue, or the rollerblading guy in robes and a turban playing Hendrix tunes on the boardwalk? They're all within a two block radius of one another...

[TMF]

In Clarksville we have an insane man who wears desert camo pants, walks from one side of town to the other each day yelling at traffic. Used to honk and wave at him each day on my way home from work before I moved. Saw him a few weeks ago after dropping my kid off at preschool.

[sigmtnman]

Not sure about up here but my actual hometown, Natchez MS, was "No weeny" Sweeny.

One night on a bad acid trip he climbed onto the roof of his house naked, with a knife, and when he looked down thought he saw a snake growing out of him and cut it off. Friends were able to subdue him afterwards and locate the "snake" for the doctors to reattach. Well if that weren't bad enough, several years later he did the whole thing again but this time the damage was too bad to reattach it.

 

Ah, for a second I was thinking he must be the guy who burned down Ms. Nelly's and lost his pecker in the process.

Edited January 17, 2014 by sigmtnman

[bersaguy]

back in the small town I grew up in we had a guy named Willy. He lived about 5 miles from town and he would push a wheel barrel with a shovel, rake and hoe in it and would come to town each day to see if he could make some change to eat his meals. My mother was a short order cook in Harry's Cafe. Every morning Willy would come in for breakfast and there was one waitress that hated waiting on him and would get one of the others to do it. My mother would watch for him to come in because he would order the same thing every day. Harry always was a nice guy and when he was gone my mother was the boss. One day Willy came in and dug out all of his change and put it on the counter and the only waitress that could wait on him was the one that hated him and Harry was gone. My mother also hated this waitress and it was time to set her straight. My mother hear the waitress snap at will that he only had 37 cents and that would not buy pancakes and bacon so why don't you just leave!!!!! My mother went out of the kitchen and took that waitress by the arm ad lead her to the kitchen. She then produced a butcher knife and told that waitress that if she ever spoke to Willy that way again she would cut her F-----ing head off. My mother sent one of the other waitresses out to find Willy and bring him back because they had made a mistake and he did have enough money for his breakfast. When he came back in he put his change on the counter and my mother sent out a double stack of hotcakes and double bacon and told the waitress to keep his coffee cup filled. When Harry got back the waitress told him she had a problem with his cook and told him what happened. Harry didn't even go speak with my mother. He looked at the waitress and told her she was fired and to get out of the cafe. They learned that when Willy was a child he was beat in the head by his mother and father and gave him brain damage. We moved away to Tennessee but Harry promised my mother that Willy would be cared for and I guess he was.