Good Friday morning to you my friend.
Have you ever thought about what the world would be like without eccentric people?
What a boring place it would be. I think the term eccentric people could be replaced by the terms different people or special people or people not like ourselves.
I love eccentric people. I like people who are "characters", that bring color, or life, or humor to the mix.
Life is too short to just be bland. Let it all hang out now and then baby.
How could you ever know what brought another person to be who they are? What pain, joy, sorrow, suffering, abuse, praise, love, hardship, loss, gain, luxury or deprivation brought that person to who they are when you cross paths.
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Three short stories about eccentric people I have crossed paths with.
The first is about a guy I met a few years ago. He was a great debater, loved to argue, complain, piss and moan. Not a bad sort, just a glass is half empty for the most part sort of guy. In the course of a conversation he mentioned his dad. I could sense some pain I thought. He told me that he was with his dad in a park one time when he was a small lad (I'm thinking maybe 4 or 5 years old). There were geese in the park. Not sure if they were Canadian or the White domestic kind. Anyway while dad and son were sitting there watching the geese, dad decides to wring a goose's neck. Maybe to show son how to survive if he's ever down on his luck and in a park?
I just thought how totally strange that story is. I picture a nice day in the park, dad or mom and a young son or daughter looking at the cute animals in a park....and then dad wrings one of the geese's necks. Actually geese are pretty darn mean and aggressive but I don't think I'd show my kid that they are easy to throttle.
Actually to be honest I am pretty much afraid of geese. I tend to be sort of like Alvy the character Woody Allen portrayed in Annie Hall when it comes to being a fraidy cat. You know the scene where he's trying to capture the live lobster in the kitchen? Very very funny. It's odd I can be really brave or really chicken (in a joking way mostly with other people like my wife or friends...at least I tell myself I'm really brave and not really afraid of a spider or a snake or a big hissing goose).
There are a lot of Canadian Geese around where I work. A friend of mine and I were taking a walk the other day and a gang of Canadian's were waiting for the bus. We took the long way around because they looked pretty threatening swaying their long necks around and hissing. I've seen them stare at their reflection on the ground floor windows for long periods of times so I'm not sure how bright they are. I give them a pretty wide berth at all times just to be on the safe side given a bad experience I had with a Canadian one time...
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I was fishing for steelhead and had waded into a river. Across the river a Canadian goose and her familty were floating around. I think it was a Mom and her small goslings. She kept honking and seemed sort of excited even though I was probably 30 yards or so across a fairly big river. I'm not paying any attention and all of sudden I hear the honking getting closer and the goose does a low fly by just missing my head honking all the way. I fell down, dropped my rod and was really embarassed and startled.
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The second eccentric person story of the day is about a guy I ran into in the North woods of Canada who was "yust wisiting".
For a couple of summers when I was 12 and 13 I worked (more or less) on my Uncle's farm in Northern British Columbia. It was more like vacationed and played with my cousins than really working. But he would let me drive his big tractors, and do some shovelling of grain and brush clearing and things to keep me occupied. Very nice man and very nice family.
We were about 40 miles up the Alaska highway on a farm that was 30 miles at least from any civilization to speak of. The nearest town was Ft St John BC. There were some really delicious wild strawberries up there. My cousin and I would pick a few but it was hard work because they grew down low and were not that plentiful. One day we were driving down a remote road (we could drive at 13 or 14 up there in the boonies) and saw a hobo looking fellow in the distance carrying a large gunny sack over his shoulder. We were many miles from any houses, traveled roads or towns or farms. Stopped to talk to this grizzly looking guy who is missing his teeth and baths for many weeks and he tells us, "I am yust out wisiting." The gunny sack he has over his shoulder is dripping a red liquid from the bottom.
It has a severed head in it!
Gotcha...it was full of wild strawberries. He must of had many pounds of those tasty berries. I always wondered who in the heck he could have been visiting (maybe the animals and plants) because there weren't any people out there. I wondered how he had gotten there, where he lived and how he got out of there and back where he lived.
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My final eccentric person of the night story is about a couple of guys my wife and I ran into at the Dirty Shame Saloon in Yaak Montana. We had been up in that remote area of Northwestern Montana looking around. I'd been there a few times fishing and wanted to show my wife how pretty it was and how cool the Dirty Shame was. We pull up to the bar and there's an old small beatup pickup parked in front with a goat in the back that has some saddle bag contraption strapped on it's back. Inside the pickup is a woman sitting waiting for someone.
Inside the saloon was empty except for the bartender and are two men dressed in homemade buckskin clothes (made from deer hide). They weren't like fake dude type outfits they were like real dirty mountain man like outfits. These guys had long beards and the works. We strike up a conversation and they tell us they have, "been pickin hucks up in the high country makin good money." They had been picking huckleberries which are a fairly popular tourist sales item in Montana. I think they told us they were paid one dollar a pound. Man I'm surprised they could afford beer. They also told us they "squatted" on someone's land and lived all year round in a tent. The goat with the saddle bags and the woman in the pickup were part of their operation. I guess she didn't drink.
Pretty eccentric.
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Some time I must write a little about my aunt and uncle who lived in a box car in the middle of Montana. They could be pretty eccentric. In some ways I'm probably as eccentric as they come and darn proud of it by the way :-)
Since I was talking about Montana a little bit I'll leave with the lyrics from the Merle Haggard Tune "Big City". I like that song and the album it comes from. Once when my daughters and I were driving through Yellowstone I was playing that song and there were was a Buffalo herd walking across the road. I kept telling them to watch the Buffalo because they were dancing to the music. It really did look to me like they were.
Now let's listen to a little Merle:
I'm tired of this dirty old city.
Entirely too much work and never enough play.
And I'm tired of these dirty old sidewalks.
Think I'll walk off my steady job today.
Turn me loose, set me free, somewhere in the middle of Montana.
And gimme all I got comin' to me,
And keep your retirement and your so called social security.
Big City turn me loose and set me free.
Been working everyday since I was twenty.
Haven't got a thing to show for anything I've done.
There's folks who never work and they've got plenty.
Think it's time some guys like me had some fun.
Turn me loose, set me free, somewhere in the middle of Montana.
And gimme all I got comin' to me,
And keep your retirement and your so called social security.
Big City turn me loose and set me free.
Merle Haggard "Big City"
Peace to you and yours.
Have a wonderful Friday and weekend.
May all your troubles be little ones (unless you don't want kids)
Jack
