I will start with this guy in the picture above. My husband and I were off one morning to search for items for our Halloween costumes. We spotted this fellow jumping up and down on the side of the road. I just had to stop and take a picture but his efforts to get us to the garage sale were not in vain. In our defense we only spent 3 bucks. Hours later when we came back from our trek he, was still there jumping up and down bringing in the traffic. I am not sure if he was hired or a friend of the sellers, but I would hire him if we ever have a sale.
Another morning in stand out for sightings of odd folks. We had just started on our 5 am walk when I saw this guy snuffling down the street. He had a very odd shambling gait. For about a minute I was convinced that I really should have bought that zombie survival kit that I saw online. Then I realized he was either drunk, stoned or mental. I have heard that women have a better peripheral vision than men do but mine has improved greatly because of the online game I play so I was able to divert us before he saw us. I honestly do not think he would have harmed us but it made for a great story for my students later that morning. I cannot remember how I worked it into the lesson on Van Gogh but my classes were amused.
For about a year folks around Winnetka Heights were talking about this strange she/he person that walked the neighborhood. She/he was said to be very tall, very muscular, African American, long hair and usually wearing a black slip. She/He was never violent but was around a lot and very visible. I had never seen this person but laughed when I heard about her/him. One night coming home at around 2 am I stopped at a stop sign and saw this large dark shadow out my side window. It startled me, and then I realized it was her/him. After that I saw her/him a lot. We saw her/him in Tom Thumb buying milk one day and she/he was not that strange there. I was actually kind of proud that we have such a unique person in our neighborhood.
The last interesting person I want to write about is "That Mexican". I am not using this term as a put down this was just how he was referred to. We heard about him from a woman who owned a house in the neighborhood. When we first met her she always talked about "That Mexican" He had done some work for her and she never bothered to find out his name. She told us not to hire him. We would see him sit on her porch for hours. We assume that he was hoping she would show up and give him some work. We would also see him walking the neighborhood with a female who we assumed was his wife. They seemed to get around Oak Cliff very well on foot. Things got bad between this neighbor and us. We would see him outside siding with her as they ranted about us. He was always on her side even though he never knew that she spoke about him that way. It always struck me as sad. A few years later a custodian at my school told me that some "Mexican" had been shot by the police. I am not sure why I thought it was this same man but the description fit and I never saw him on her porch after that.
I know not many will agree with me but these people are another reason I love living in Oak Cliff. They are humans and are unique. Wouldn't the world be a sad place if we were all the same?
