Who was the ODDest person you ever knew?...

[Bruce Wayne]

The final day I was there, I went down to the station's cellar, and shoved half an orange into the ventilation pipe directly under his office. A week later, I am told, his office was awash in fruit flies and he was driven nearly insane trying to figure out where they came from.

That sounds nothing like the Lizzie Maine that I know.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That sounds nothing like the Lizzie Maine that I know.

Well, I was a lot meaner twenty years ago. Especially when provoked.

 

[CliffG]

I knew on older woman who came into a diner that I worked at, she would act frighten and not want to talk to you much, she had a heavy German accent and only ordered a piece of toast and a glass of water. As time went by I would buy her a cup of hot tea and over time different things, as she would refuse gescenk <sp?>as she called it, I never wanted to make her feel bad about taking anything from me. I found out from other people in town that she was from Germany and had been put int Auschwitz camp as a young lady even though she was a German citizen. The things this woman had to endure and see are beyond my capacity to imagine. I made it a point to be nice to her (not that I was not nice to everyone) and made excuses about how it would be a big help if she could take these dinner rolls home because I did not want them to be to thrown away at the end of the day, or give her one of the dinner specials and say it was going to go to waste if she did not eat it, and take the leftovers off of her plate home.
As time went I actually got her to open up and visit with me some, about nothing really, just small talk, but she started coming in later in the afternoon when it was always slow, I hope it may have been to visit with me, I remember when she was putting some jelly on a piece of bread I saw part of a number tattoo on her arm. This broke my heart and I just wanted to hug her.
I only saw her smile one time.
Saying she was odd is not right, she is special... beyond any measure of special.


This was 25 years ago and I still think of her perhaps miss her too.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Great story CliffG
Indeed..sometimes odd can turn out to be really very special...
HD

 

[Chasseur]

I spent one summer in college making "home made" ice cream for the most popular ice cream shop in our little college town. Everyone raved about this ice cream. The owner was the oddest and least effective businessman I've ever worked for. How shall we say, he spent waaayy to much time in the 1960-70s with mind altering substances and probably never stopped. So working for him was a rather strange experience. I worked mornings, from 6am to 2-3 in the afternoon and his favorite thing to do was to call me up late (sometime between 10 and 12pm) on the night before my day off to tell me I didn't have to come in the following day. Mind you, my day off would be on the work calender for some weeks in advance (it was the same day each week) but never fail he would call me up, while intoxicated or stoned and tell me that "I don't need you to come into work tomorrow..."

He would also routinely take the food budget for the restaurant and spend it on himself, so I would get requests for cinamon ice cream from him, and then find out there was not cinamon in the whole restaurant... I'd ask the baker if he had any, and he'd say, "Nope, and the boss gave me a request for extra cinamon rolls..." How the guy stayed in business I don't know...

 

[Fletch]

Well, I was a lot meaner twenty years ago. Especially when provoked.

You were the soul of diplomacy compared with what I would have done to that alleged human being.

Imagine everything in the office rearranged in exact right-to-left mirror-image and covered in a thin film of hand soap. Not to mention the fruit flies.

 

[Paisley]

The oddest people I've ever known were suffering from mental illness, a brain aneurysm or the effects of long-term drug use. Aside from them, I've known a few odd people.

At a previous job, a coworker and I got along well until she came back from a week-long vacation. Then she started in with subtle insults, constant criticism of my work, spending time looking for mistakes in my work (while I did 90% of the work we were supposed to do), and basically trying to get me fired. The woman was Dolores Umbridge incarnate: sweet as honey to superiors and good at manipulating them, seemingly efficient and by-the-book, and had a mean streak a mile wide. As far as I know, she's never gotten along with anyone who came before or after me. Oh, and she talked about her dreams of daughter going to Broadway, becoming a star and supporting her.

At the same time I was working with Umbridge Incarnate, I had a dance partner who asked me out (but I didn't agree to go), gave me his number (which I never called), told me he loved me (even though we were just acquaintences), and tried to look up my skirt. That was the limit. I wrote him a letter (with no return address) saying that there wasn't going to be any relationship. The next time he saw me, he asked me to dance, as if nothing had happened.

 

[Paisley]

I just thought of another odd one. There was a girl I was pretty good friends with in grade school, until she turned mean. The only reason I can think of was what seemed to me like a minor disagreement over a desk. Then she started stepping on my shoes and--this was two years later--would turn around 180 degrees and stare at me in math class while the teacher was out of the room. :fing28:

 

[Miss 1929]

I have known so many odd people... but one who takes the cake is Dirty Man of San Francisco.

Apparently the guy swore never to bathe again after his wife died (according to his daughter). But because he is a car mechanic by trade, his dirt is all mixed with motor oil.

So all his clothes, skin, hair, everything but his eyeballs and teeth (and the teeth were not too clean either) was a solid, shiny, black. And he is a white guy.

Perfectly nice, polite, sane to talk to, just this odd quirk of dirt.

 

[Paisley]

I've heard of sack cloth and ashes, but that's ridiculous. Not good for you, either: dirty oil is full of gasoline. I hope he wasn't a smoker.

 

[Dewhurst]

I've been sitting here wringing out my brain for an oddest person worth remembering and I'll tell you... I've got basically nothing.

Have I lived a sheltered life?

Sheesh.:eusa_doh: lol

 

[Claireg]

We have "blanket man" here in Wellington - check him out on Wikipedia -he has his own page!
He sits on the sidewalk all day dressed in a loincloth, wrapped in a blanket, listening to his IPOd and smiling at people.
To mix it up he sometimes smokes ganja - then he comes into court and does a wee spell in jail (the only time his blanket gets washed).
He famously got arrested for drunk driving and represented himself by announcing the judge couldnt find him guilty because according to the founding document of NZ it was a maori war canoe not a car.
The judge told him to put some shoes on.

 

[Foofoogal]

I just thought of another odd one. There was a girl I was pretty good friends with in grade school, until she turned mean. The only reason I can think of was what seemed to me like a minor disagreement over a desk. Then she started stepping on my shoes and--this was two years later--would turn around 180 degrees and stare at me in math class while the teacher was out of the room.

this so reminded me of a woman I got to be friends with when we had small children. One day out of the blue she accused me of flirting with her husband.
Evidently the woman had issues when I look back with trusting her husband. I was so disappointed though as I really liked her as a friend.
Amazing the amount of people who have trucked thru or I have trucked thru their lives. :eusa_doh:

 

[Paisley]

We have "blanket man" here in Wellington - check him out on Wikipedia -he has his own page!
He sits on the sidewalk all day dressed in a loincloth, wrapped in a blanket, listening to his IPOd and smiling at people.
To mix it up he sometimes smokes ganja - then he comes into court and does a wee spell in jail (the only time his blanket gets washed).
He famously got arrested for drunk driving and represented himself by announcing the judge couldnt find him guilty because according to the founding document of NZ it was a maori war canoe not a car.
The judge told him to put some shoes on.

We had Barrel Man in Denver. He'd go to Broncos games wearing a barrel with suspenders, and who knows what underneath it. And no, Mile High was not a covered stadium.

 

[HadleyH]

I've been sitting here wringing out my brain for an oddest person worth remembering and I'll tell you... I've got basically nothing.

Have I lived a sheltered life?

Sheesh.:eusa_doh: lol

You know, me too I think I have lived a sheltered life too!lol lol ....but then i wouldn't mind to know an odd person.... i think they are lots of fun!

 

[Lillemor]

My dad?! Me?! Hub (God knows I love him)?!

I think I've been sheltered too.:eusa_doh:

 

[Claireg]

I am an odd person magnet, if there is an odd person around they will find me!

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"Professor" Jimmy Edwards, he of the Handle bar Moustache, A Britisher, in his twilight years relocated for a while, to the Swan River Colony, the apartment that I lived in, during the 1980's, was in a Street full of Medical Specialists, and Jimmy's Chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, (Chauffeured by Midnight Mary) Would regularly "Cruise" my street looking for a parking spot,(always the celebrity spotter!) I offered that he use my spot behind my building, so we got chatting, Thoroughly "Bonkers" "Positively Potty" but totally fascinating!!, such stories of his Life during WW2"

 

[Chas]

Me. I'm utterly hopeless.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

This is a very familiar concept as I have had the good fortune to grow up and live in a place where being odd is the norm. I, however, have affectionately termed the odd as “Strange Buzzards”.

In a land where your proper name is never used, but, neighborhood monikers are attached. I grew up with Flathead, Meatball, Heart-Attack Walter and Hillbilly Bill...

I place myself at the head of this list, I crack myself up with half the stuff I have done in my life....I was called either The Dictionary or Puppet Head because of some of the physical things I would do when I performed.

The first person who comes to mind is a person named Joe D. Joe seemed like a regular guy, until he opened his mouth, and then it was a journey into the fantastic. Joe likened himself to James Bond complete with a gun. I first suspected Joe was a bit odd when he gave a hard time an elderly man we called Johnny Sneakers, due to the fact that his sneakers were never matched and his friend Arty the Millionaire, another elderly man who incessantly spoke of all the money he made and lost on Wall Street.

Back to Joe D; I had a sneaking suspicion something was off when on the first summer day he wore a sleeveless Tee shirt. I looked at his tattoos and to my surprise he had the names of several women on his arm much like stripes of a military man all but one name was crossed out. I thought to myself well he had the names of his mother, his wife, and his daughters. He explained that those names were of his girlfriends and the last was of his wife. I knew it was going to the Summer of Fun. The stories of his exploits still give me a smile....lol

Unfortunately, this all came to an abrupt end when one day I got a call from Joe, he asked me to attend a meeting with him. I figured it was another trek into something hilarious. Well it turned out to be a meeting of a recognized cult and Joe wanted to leave his family and become member as he could be an armed guard for this organization with ME as his partner. All I could think of was there goes another tattoo crossed off his arm.

When I informed him that I would not join him he then informed me that he would like me to marry one or both of his daughters at the same time....lol

Till this day when I think of Joe D I chuckle to myself as he provided many hours of entertainment.

Strange Buzzard