Weird Things You See in Big Cities

I live in Vancouver and I'm sure everybody in Canada who's life somehow fell apart moved here.

One of the stranger things is this very authentic Italian store in the midst of Chinatown, and Chinatown is huge, second only to San Francisco's in North America. He keeps the store locked day and night so you have to be buzzed in, no one ever seems to go there except me.

There is also this huge Chinese owned company called Hung Gay Enterprises, and I always smile when I see one of their trucks.

There's a ventriloquist who works the corner of Robson and Thurlow, a very busy intersection, but the thing is, he has absolutely no talent as a ventriloquist, he doesn't even try to hide the fact that his lips are moving when his dog puppet is apparently talking. I talked to him once, and he told me had suffered from some kind of brain injury.

I live in San Francisco.

I don't even know where to start. :lol

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Originally Posted by marybethp

You see some wild things in the streets of NYC, but most of the time, I don't even notice them - I'm walking too fast!

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Heh... that reminds me of the random NYC Idol contestants ( ;) ) that you'd find on the subways. There was one guy in particular that I would run into quite regularly on the 6. Toothless and scrawnier than all getout singing Frank Sinatra and Broadway tunes at the top of his lungs. He'd get really pissy if you made eye contact with him but wouldn't give him any money.

I went to school in Pittsburgh and my favorite was Sombrero Man. A habitant of Oakland, this older man (who was definitely NOT mexican) wearing a sombero would panhandle by saying "change, change". There were all types of rumors about him, like he was actually a millionaire and lived somewhere in the suburbs. I've been told he hasn't been seen in Oakland for at least a year though.

Oh, and you couldn't go to a Pitt Halloween party without seeing SOMEONE dressed up as him for at least 6 years.

When I rode the bus there was always a guy on my route known as "Leprechaun man". He had a beat up cardboard box with lettuce in it. He said it was to feed the leprechaun he had in there, too. He would proceed to have arguments with this leprechaun, of course he was doing both voices. Creepy man.

Something strange that struck me the first time I visited Winnipeg was that they can stand at a crosswalk, point down to the street and all cars had to stop. This is apparently how their crosswalk system works.

oh! and! buses and taxi only lanes!! We got a ticket in Montreal for driving in one - lots of stares from the locals too :lol

how about one way streets that change direction depending on the time of day?? That was a weird one for us in Toronto. One way in the morning and the other way at night.

OK.. I have lived in two cities.

Vancouver:

Lotuslander.. OMG.. Ventriloquist Man is crazy! I miss him!

Fuzzy Pink Hat Lady/Crutch Lady. During the summer she's crutch lady, in the winter fuzzy pink hat lady. She walks up and down the street asking for change or a smoke..

"Can You Spare A Quarter" Lady. She says "Can You Spare A Quarter?" all the way up and down the street to people, same tone EVERY time. I've 'known' her for a good 5 years.. she has NEVER changed her tone. It's practically a recording.

The random crazies at Wreck Beach.. Lotuslander knows who I mean..

Toronto:

Oh god have we got crazies!

Duffle Bag Man.. carries around no less than 5 huge bags of his crap. He's obviously homeless, but geez he has a lot of stuff. Used to come into my work and use our bathroom (until I banned him for smoking in the bathroom).. now he just glares at me from outside the window.

Evil Santa.. a crazy old man who smells like rubbing alcohol.. mainly cuz he drinks it. He comes into my work, mainly in winter, and looks like an evil version of Santa Clause. We have to call the cops to get rid of him since they have warned us repeatedly NOT to touch him, as he has multiple diseases/infestations.

The Screamer.. aka Torrets Man.. Kind of a sad story.. except he's totally nuts. He stands outside on the street corner screaming the F word at the top of his lungs for HOURS. (I've seen him stand in one place for over 8 hours) He sticks lit cigarettes in his ears and then bleeds all over the sidewalk.. and when someone tries to help him, he smashes his head against walls, or hits them with his cane. He's blind.. because he stuck cigarettes in his eyes.

Reykjavik, iceland isn't that big, but it has a phallogical museum, featuring the male privte organs of many animals.

Singapore is prim and proper, nothing weird about us. :)

Back home in San Jose, we had the "Rollerskating Cowboy" near college. I'd always meant to ask why he rollerskated and felt compelled to wear a ten-gallon hat, but he was always moving too fast. :lol

Here in Alabama, we have "Jesus Man." Jesus Man stands by the road near one of the larger malls and has huge signs with Bible verses. He's also shouting scripture, of course. Jesus Man stands near the stop light, and I stopped next to him once. I wanted to roll down my window and tell him that I wasn't worried about my soul; I'd just gone out for dog food, a book and a sandwich from Chik-fil-a, so would he kindly knock it off? :lol But I didn't want him to start shouting at me while I was inside my car.

I'm in downtown Chicago and the people on the ELs (elevated trains) alone are crazy but one of my favorites is this guy who preaches on State Street. He has a microphone and what looks like a 1970 box record player, he preaches the scriptures every day...for over 20 years! I'm not usually on this street so when I do go I'm looking for that piece of history. The last time I saw him was this past winter, preaching and asking passers by if they've been saved, he asked one lady then said, "I see you've got an overcoat for the weather but do you have an overcoat for your soul?" I nearly died laughing.

There's a guy who dances outside of the nice department stores ...he's dancing like there's no tomorrow, break dancing, salsa, ballet!, he has so much energy with his knees duct taped, 10lb weights in his hands, a helmet of some sort and head phones on...........connected to absolutely nothing! The only music he hears is what's going on in his own mind.