In most towns I’ve lived in there always seems to be the local character or characters that you always see around. In this town it is Tina the Hunchback. She’s awful. She’s not a character as much as she is a pest, appearing at your side begging for change. Pathetic.
When I lived in the Limestone City it was The Princess Streetwalker and the Tin Man. The Princess Streetwalker would always be seen walking on Princess Street. Her domain was from the mall at the top, near the roundabout to the waterfront at the bottom of the street, where it met Front Street. If you drove or walked up Princess Street during the daylight hours you would have a high chance of seeing The Princess Streetwalker. I knew because I worked at Woolworth’s as a sweep-up boy that she stopped for coffee in the mall, at Woolworth’s. I used to talk with her sometimes. She didn’t still have all of her marbles.
The Tin Man was also local colour, but more exotic. He had a glass eye and was bald on top but with long stringy hair on the sides and back. Rumour was that he got fucked up on some kind of hard drug like heroin. He was thin like a junkie and used to wear ugly retro 70s clothing. He wouldn’t ever make it up to the Woolworth’s in the mall where I worked as a sweep-up boy. If you wanted to see him you’d have to go downtown. I saw him once in the downtown Woolworth’s. He was sitting in the cafeteria. Not moving a muscle.
And of course, every town has a local beggar or two. They are recognizable as urban pests. There’s the guy who sits propped up against the fire hydrant in front of the Starbucks. “Hey buddy, can you help out?” and there is the girl further up the street (on the same side) who says ‘hello’ in a singsong voice as you walk by. They are recognizable but equally ignorable.
As an aside, I guess if you are a beggar it is best to have a spot where people will know where to find you. Just in case they have some spare change and are feeling benevolent. I remember reading about the ice cream man and how they are trained to be at about the same place at the same time of day - their route. We think about buying ice cream as an impulse but we are being manipulated, subtly.
But what got me thinking about local colour is my own behaviour. I have barely left the city limits since I got back from Taiwan at the end of April. I go out for a walk most mornings and I’ve been sitting around in the square, in the park, and on random public benches within a five mile radius of the house. What I’m wondering is if I have become local colour. Am I that guy that you always see? The jogger that runs funny? The crunchy-granola dad with the cargo bike and two little kids? The old guy with the overweight beagle?
I think I am.
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