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could be a teacher, coach, or bartender or musician or shopkeeper or writer or comedian, or local celebrity or neighbor or waitress, or Polish Falcon...should be like an "only in Buffalo would this happen kinda thing" ...cheers,
I used to know Flo who ran a run down used clothing store on Elmwood who was a retired stripper from the old Palace Burlesque. Among her many talents was being able to twirl each tassel clockwise and counter at the same time from her rather ample appendages.
Sadly they sagged along with the rest of her life when I knew her.
Most colorful character encountered in Buffalo...I'm going to declare it a tie between Jeff the Allen Street scarf salesman and Sylvester, the graying crack addict who, if you've spent any amount of time on Elmwood (formerly on Allen...he's migrated a few miles north over the past couple years), has probably asked you for change at some point or another. Once a friend of mine and I tried to bring these two guys into a bar...that plan lasted all of five seconds, as the bartender immediately kicked out Jeff and Sylvester. Jeff has no such problem at Nietzsche's, however, as he would (in past years at least) park his bike there on a nightly basis as he hawked his scarves and handbags to the bargoing crowd. I consider myself somewhat of a friend of his, actually, as I've driven him home several times and bought a few scarves from him that I've never really worn...he's interesting to talk to. Or at least he was for a while...last couple times I spoke with him at or outside of Nietzsche's, he seemed somewhat defeated, and perhaps a little menacing.
Honorable mention goes to the homeless guy who fakes Tourettes and asks for $10 for a bed at City Mission (haven't seen him in at least a year at this point, though) and the "human iPod", whose yellow jacket is covered with signatures and who will sing songs on request. Perhaps the one who trumps them all would've been the erstwhile Allen Street Shoe Licker (early twenties kid who used to hang around near the Allen Street bars requesting to lick the shoes of passers-by, for no reason except that he apparently has the strangest fetish I've ever encountered)...unfortunately (IMO, as I admit I found his routine entertaining, especially when drunk), he now pursues his favorite pastime in Tampa, FL (I know this because I managed to locate and like-not-lick a Facebook page that was made in his honor by a resident of the Tampa area). So it looks like Tampa-St. Pete is now your shoe-licking destination, in case you were wondering.
In general though I think Allentown used to be home to more people like the above...I lament the apparent demise of the interesting characters I used to encounter there. There was a guy who went by "Chief" (he was a Mohawk Indian, which you'd find out if you talked to him for any length of time beyond exchanging hellos) who I once let sleep in my car overnight because he had nowhere to stay...that dude was pretty unstable, but charismatic. Wonder what happened to him. Honestly, meeting people like anyone mentioned above was one of the greatest draws that Allen Street held for me back in like 2007...I think I can relate to Bukowski when he asked
"why is it that the sane, the rich and the
successful always know
so much less than the mad or
the nearly mad?"
Ok, that observation might not have applied in all of the above cases, but for Jeff, I would say it did. Possibly for Chief, despite his drunken delusions of armies of Mohawk Indians marching up Delaware Ave, ready to fight for his honor (which is seriously what he was saying as he gulped vodka in my passenger seat as I second-guessed my decision to offer the guy shelter as opposed to letting the guy sleep outdoors on a snowy February night...mind you, I was entertained by these fantasies of his, but if I started to smile, he'd get in my face and yell...something threatening, details of which escape me, which would cause my smile to disappear immediately and fully). Because I remember him mixing in some impressive observations of reality right alongside his visions of Mohawk conquest of...I don't know, the Walgreens at Delaware and North, I guess. Maybe the mansions just a little further north were the true targets. Or maybe Chief wouldn't have been satisfied until his efforts at a coup brought the entire city under his control.
I'll add more legendary figures of the Allentown of a few years ago if I can remember any, but for now, that's what I've got.
Most colorful character encountered in Buffalo...I'm going to declare it a tie between Jeff the Allen Street scarf salesman and Sylvester, the graying crack addict who, if you've spent any amount of time on Elmwood (formerly on Allen...he's migrated a few miles north over the past couple years), has probably asked you for change at some point or another. Once a friend of mine and I tried to bring these two guys into a bar...that plan lasted all of five seconds, as the bartender immediately kicked out Jeff and Sylvester. Jeff has no such problem at Nietzsche's, however, as he would (in past years at least) park his bike there on a nightly basis as he hawked his scarves and handbags to the bargoing crowd. I consider myself somewhat of a friend of his, actually, as I've driven him home several times and bought a few scarves from him that I've never really worn...he's interesting to talk to. Or at least he was for a while...last couple times I spoke with him at or outside of Nietzsche's, he seemed somewhat defeated, and perhaps a little menacing.
Honorable mention goes to the homeless guy who fakes Tourettes and asks for $10 for a bed at City Mission (haven't seen him in at least a year at this point, though) and the "human iPod", whose yellow jacket is covered with signatures and who will sing songs on request. Perhaps the one who trumps them all would've been the erstwhile Allen Street Shoe Licker (early twenties kid who used to hang around near the Allen Street bars requesting to lick the shoes of passers-by, for no reason except that he apparently has the strangest fetish I've ever encountered)...unfortunately (IMO, as I admit I found his routine entertaining, especially when drunk), he now pursues his favorite pastime in Tampa, FL (I know this because I managed to locate and like-not-lick a Facebook page that was made in his honor by a resident of the Tampa area). So it looks like Tampa-St. Pete is now your shoe-licking destination, in case you were wondering.
In general though I think Allentown used to be home to more people like the above...I lament the apparent demise of the interesting characters I used to encounter there. There was a guy who went by "Chief" (he was a Mohawk Indian, which you'd find out if you talked to him for any length of time beyond exchanging hellos) who I once let sleep in my car overnight because he had nowhere to stay...that dude was pretty unstable, but charismatic. Wonder what happened to him. Honestly, meeting people like anyone mentioned above was one of the greatest draws that Allen Street held for me back in like 2007...I think I can relate to Bukowski when he asked
"why is it that the sane, the rich and the
successful always know
so much less than the mad or
the nearly mad?"
Ok, that observation might not have applied in all of the above cases, but for Jeff, I would say it did. Possibly for Chief, despite his drunken delusions of armies of Mohawk Indians marching up Delaware Ave, ready to fight for his honor (which is seriously what he was saying as he gulped vodka in my passenger seat as I second-guessed my decision to offer the guy shelter as opposed to letting the guy sleep outdoors on a snowy February night...mind you, I was entertained by these fantasies of his, but if I started to smile, he'd get in my face and yell...something threatening, details of which escape me, which would cause my smile to disappear immediately and fully). Because I remember him mixing in some impressive observations of reality right alongside his visions of Mohawk conquest of...I don't know, the Walgreens at Delaware and North, I guess. Maybe the mansions just a little further north were the true targets. Or maybe Chief wouldn't have been satisfied until his efforts at a coup brought the entire city under his control.
I'll add more legendary figures of the Allentown of a few years ago if I can remember any, but for now, that's what I've got.
fabulous recount! Thank you so much..it made my day! Characters for sure, and I too lament their absense..btw..my father had a warehouse for years on Sycamore -he had some real characters wander in there from time to time...right off the pages of Bukowski as you so accurately said.
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