View Full Version : your favorite eccentric neighbor?
I am always fascinated by human behavior and those who for whatever reason do not follow the norms. My current favorite is our neighbor across the street. He is a middle-aged gay man who lives with his partner. He does not work at a regular job so is usually found outside in a very, tiny flesh-colored Speedo laying on the deck for some sun or watering his many gardens in such state. I am sure many driving by think he must be nude as it appears that way from a distance. He sometimes wears a frilly apron over his Speedo. Our city also has several "thong men" who ride their bicycles with only a smile and a skimpy thong. Do you have any eccentrics in your hood?
No one in my neighborhood quite that exciting or eccentric pinkytoe.
LOL.............sounds like an interesting thread. I guess I don't live close enough to anyone to notice how eccentric some of our neighbors are. My rich neighbor behind our woods lives in a McMansion and rides his motocross motorcycle through the woods and irritates the h*ll out of me...........but that's not nearly as fun as having a neighbor watering his gardens in a beige speedo. hahaha
Mighty Frugal
7-12-12, 1:03pm
We have an interesting street-and dh and I have nicknames for all these neighbours. There's:
The Crazy Aussie-this great looking, beautiful body-man from Australia. The reason for the 'crazy' is he will shovel his snow topless!!!:0! So, even in minus 35 weather, there he is, topless. I love hearing visitors to my home's reaction when they peer out my picture window and gasp and then say 'why is there a shirtless man outside in this weather?'
The Angry Lady' there is a middle age woman who smears manure on her postage sized front lawn every spring and stinks out everyone. She also parks her car for about 30 minutes each time-we all parallel park as we only have street parking. But she will park. stop car, get out and inspect. Get back in car and inch forward one inch. Get out, look, get back in-I swear she gets back out and in about 10 times to inch it forward (and then, backward). THEN, she locks the door. Walks around to check all other doors. Does this again. She checks the door locks about 40 times. Then she will peer in the driver's window (not sure what she is looking for) she will then peer in all the windows-including the front window. Then she leaves only to return to do more door lock checking and window peering. She also argues with everyone
Crazy Druggie Boy-he is not a boy but a man of about 40 or 45. He has long straggly hair and a dirty formerly white t-shirt. He lives with his old mother. His mom will be out on her front garden weeding and he will stand there, motionless, and just stare down at her. Never helps. never talks, just stands there staring at her. We call him druggie boy because our neighbour said he used to be 'mixed up in drugs' not sure of the validity of that story though
Patty and Selma-these are the names of Marge's twin sisters from 'The Simpsons' we have our own Patty and Selma. They live next door to each other. Sit out on their porch smoking, drinking wine and cackling
I love my street:)
My current most eccentric neighbor is one I've never seen in 8 years of living here. Somehow the lawn gets mowed, but I'm not sure how. The house itself is in bad shape outside and I can only imagine the inside. Don't know if it's an elderly person who can't do much, someone with a mental illness, or even someone who has totally abandoned the house. Have never seen a person there, and I walk/drive/bike past it several times every day.
Mine is my wonderful neighbor lady at one of our past homes. She is beautiful and only ever told me she was "older then dirt". I would calculate dates when she would ever mention a year and what happened that year to her. Then last year I whinned about my BDay and she said "You old, I am 70!". Oh we laughed shen I told her I have been trying to figure out her age for years. Anyhow, always doing something interesting. Grinds her own grain for breads and eats only organics and Amish made, yet keeps her hair bleached and drive a Lexus. Yet never tells very much about herself, past or future. Will leave on a whim and go to places far and yonder in the world, just because. One summer night I watch her and sister get a fire going by the river. They carried some sort of smoldering stick and danced around the fire. After listening to her, I have figured out she is a pagan. I just love being around this lady. I tell her she will be my neighbor in my heart forever.
Mighty Frugal, I have names too for everyone in my current neighborhood, I thought I was the only one! I have Sheep Dog man, Crazy Cat Lady, Jaugar Man, Vet Man, Preacher Man, Jerry Garcia. Me they probably just call me the Crazy Dog Lady and say Oh here comes the Wave when they drive by, I wave to all of them.
I don't have neighbors nearly as interesting. We have the people we call "The Friendly's" because they refuse to wave to neighbors on our small dirt road. When you see Mrs. Friendly out walking her dog, and you walk by her, she turns her body away from you to avoid making any eye contact. We have "The Hill People" who built a bigger house on the lot than the perk test would allow, so they raised the entire lot up by about 12 feet for their prefab house. Mr. Hill Person would regularly chat for a good 5-10 minutes with the construction folks in the road (its one lane) while I was waiting to get out to go to work and my car was right in front of him. He also told me "I'm going to class up the neighborhood with MY house". What a way to endear yourself to the neighbors. We have my neighbor Joe who is very spiritual, in a new agey way. He has a tee pee in the yard, and used to do a lot of rituals there.
Then there's the gossipy status climbing neighbor across the street who has only been friendly when she wants something, otherwise she pretends she doesn't see you or is outright rude. She had a frenemy who's husband worked for hers, and the "friend" got drunk and told my neighbor that the neighbor was insecure and always trying too hard to prove she was good enough due to her near-poverty upbringing, and my neighbor said "Doesn't she know who I am? I'm the boss's wife!". She kind of swaggers around the neighborhood and is known for being really demanding. When she didn't like that Mr. Friendly put his brush near the property line, she first went to Town Hall, but when they told her they wouldn't do anything, she went to the police. She's yelled at Joe, the spiritual guy, because he did tree work for Mr. Friendly, and because she doesn't like Mr. Friendly, she yelled at Joe that he shouldn't be taking business from him. She's told the neighbors that I don't like her kids- for what reason I don't know as I've never complained about them or given the kids any looks. She's yelled at another neighbor because their dog got into her trash. Sorry, but if you leave plastic bags on the ground the night before the trash gets picked up and you live in the woods, that trash will be picked apart whether its a neighbor's dog or a raccoon or porcupine. In other words, she's alienated most of the neighborhood in the few short years she's lived here.
That's all I can really mention- everyone else is nice enough, and doesn't do anything disturbing or loud.
Yes, we have names for our neighbors too - the gay couple are The Boyz, our very masculine lesbian neighbor we call Stud Muffin, the neighborhood athlete who walks six times a day we call Skinny Woman...but it is just between dh and I.
I love the nicknames for people. We just moved, so we don't know our neighbors yet. One household who lives nearby decorates their yard every month, and it is beautiful! They have lights, flags, and various decor in their otherwise very neat yard. Right now, it is very patriotic for Independence Day. I love, love, love it. Once I get our house settled I am going to march over there and introduce myself.
Yes, we have a nickname for the people behind us who ride their motocross through the woods and shoot their guns off......Either the "A-holes" or "The Louders". hahaha
jennipurrr
7-12-12, 3:13pm
Very interesting neighbor! I don't have anyone quite as eccentric.
I have a neighbor we refer to as Crazy Connie...she is a sweet lady, but a little emotionally unstable. If she catches me getting the mail she will talk my ear off about nothing for hours if I let her - her boyfriend who is always in some sort of trouble with his job, the bank, the law, etc, her financial issues, her pet issues, her sibling issues, the other neighbors, etc etc. DH and I have a rule that if either of us has been talking to "Crazy Connie" for 15 minutes, the other one is supposed to come say they need us, or make some other excuse.
My next door neighbor is a hoot. She is an older woman (over 80) and she is tough as nails. She was a pharmacist back in her working years which I can't imagine was an easy career for a woman in Alabama back then. She walks several miles a day, and after a tornado hit last year she was out trying to saw branches off the 100 year old oak that fell on our houses! Luckily, we called a tree service who came shortly. She will say stuff that is just so rude that she was extremely off putting at first. The first thing she said to DH and I when we moved in was that she wasn't sure by our name if we were white, but she's really glad we're not black...?!?! In 2008 she stopped talking to us for 6 months after we put an Obama sign in the yard. One time she called us because our backyard was on fire and the fire department was putting it out...it got that way because she was so concerned about identity theft she was burning her mail in a flower pot outside! She is all up on technology...she skypes, downloads MP3s and always wants to talk to DH about a new technology or gadget. She's more technologically advanced then most people I know, more so than any senior citizen I know! Over the years she has been a great neighbor despite some of the antiquated views. She calls if the dogs get out, and she watches our house/neighborhood like a hawk.
I also have a cat lady in my neighborhood. Once I counted 18 cats in her yard. In her windows all you can see are kitty condos, so I know she has even more inside! She has an ad in the newspaper that she will take in unwanted cats. She spays and neuters them all, so I guess if she wants to take care of them even if she is a hoarder it is a good (?) thing...I love cats, but I am glad she lives on the other side of the neighborhood!
Geeze, I just realized "I" am the crazy eccentric person in my neighborhood! Well, in my old neighborhood - at least from my neighbors perspective. I use to live in an almost all asian (vietnamese) neighborhood where everyone lived in very traditional large family groups. Lots of kids and socializing between the families. But I was probably the equivilant of the crazy cat lady to them - that or a serial killer! "she lived alone with her many pets, didn't have alot of visitors, didn't appear to work, was quiet and kept to herself, would say hello but didn't talk to the neighbors, was gone for long periods of time and no one knew where she was."
Mrs. Hermit
7-12-12, 5:13pm
We have the shooting gallery: a small private road off our road with 3 houses on it. They start the weekend on Thursday night with several HOURS of target practice, and continue through Sunday night. Much cost a fortune in ammo every weekend.
We have the commuter marriage: his house is on one coast, she lives on the other. They spend time together?? Nice folk, just a bit different....
We have the leave me alones: they don't answer the door. Period.
The folks up the hill with the wikiup in their yard seem to have left suddenly. Didn't even get to meet them.
The sheriff always waves (no surprise. Sheriff is an elected position here!)
The boxer lady who walk her boxer on the road. Dog smiles more than she does.
The fellow that never mows his lawn. He explained that he had turkeys nesting in the front yard and deer in the back yard. I assume from the trees growing out from under the house, that the foundation of that house is not in great shape. We almost never see him, although we hear his dogs bark.
The rented room/junk car in the yard home. I think we have now met all the men that live there. Each one has his version of the events and arrangements.
Most of the rest seem pretty "normal".;)
We used to live upstairs from a really good mariachi guitarist. It was fun to hear him practice. I think he had a degree in ethnomusicology. He and his girlfriend would bring lawn chairs out to the sidewalk, and sit out there in their bathrobes drinking their coffee, reading the paper and playing Scrabble.
Another neighbor was a batty fashon designer who kept trying to get me to go to bead fairs with her. She finally won a ten-year fight with the landlord about replacing her carpet. Within about ten minutes that new carpet smelled as much of cat and patchouli as the old one had.
The guy across the hall would always go on and on about how well-behaved his dog was and how he didn't need a leash. This dog would lie in wait for the perfect moment when both our doors were open and go running around MY apartment while the owner stood in the doorway, asking the dog to please come back home.
iris lily
7-12-12, 10:06pm
You guys have some good ones here! For me, not sure if we have enough bandwidth.
There's the Dominican Friar, one of 5 Dominican guy in the friar house. He is a Leather guy at night.
There's Gene who dressed up in red silk dresses, who ran a house of ill repute offering boys back in the days when this neighborhood was full of boarding houses and prostitutes, and who killed someone in his living room and got away with it.
There's Jeff who loved antiques and knew tons about them, didn't have a dime to his name, yet somehow managed to finagle collections of cool stuff to decorate his crumbling Victorian (which he didn't even own but somehow occupied in trade for "renovating" it haha, not.) Jeff was a flamboyant decorator and my favorite thing at his house was a fabulous tented ceiling in the dining room made of gold lame' fabric. The center fabric knot was gathered with a c-o-c-k ring. So gay.
There's Mary Sunshine who was so incredibly evil and such a liar, who came here owning tons of money to workmen in New Orleans, and she pulled the same scam on all of the workmen around here, having them do work and then failing to pay them. One bricklayer went bankrupt from his bills owed by her. I once ran into her at a miniature show (of all things!) and she gave me a long story about how she'd been out of the neighborhood for a while in the hospital for a heart attack. Later I learned: one big lie, the woman had been in jail. She's now dead and none of us are sorry, but she's got a psychopath daughter who is out there somewhere...
Now I am not making any of this up, and the people above are just on one block in my neighborhood on one side of the street. We are jam packed with freaks and colorful characters.
The Angry Lady' there is a middle age woman who smears manure on her postage sized front lawn every spring and stinks out everyone. She also parks her car for about 30 minutes each time-we all parallel park as we only have street parking. But she will park. stop car, get out and inspect. Get back in car and inch forward one inch. Get out, look, get back in-I swear she gets back out and in about 10 times to inch it forward (and then, backward). THEN, she locks the door. Walks around to check all other doors. Does this again. She checks the door locks about 40 times. Then she will peer in the driver's window (not sure what she is looking for) she will then peer in all the windows-including the front window. Then she leaves only to return to do more door lock checking and window peering. She also argues with everyone
Oh my God that woman sounds like she has a horrible case of OCD. If that's what she's doing to park her car, can you imagine what's going on inside the house where no one can see?
I live in a neighborhood of eccentric people. We actually have an annual lutefisk competition.
One of my favourite eccentric neighbors, Mr Manning, passed away a while back. He was an old who was a very well respected professor at the University. He dressed in shirts down to the navel with lots and lots of gold chains and sometimes a black arm band. He always, always wore white. He always owned several white luxury cars with vanity license plates that said MLexus or MPorsche, whatever the make of the car was. He had a spectacular collection of antiquities and a very impressive bonsai garden. His girlfriend was 20 years younger than him, blonde, gorgeous, always well dressed (also in only white) and was a well respected mathematician. He was intimidating when you first met him, but underneath he was a really nice, interesting guy. I had several very interesting conversations with both of him and his girlfriend when I was a kid.
My friend Mary has an awesomely eccentric neighbor called Russian Lady. She doesn't speak English and is most likely mentally ill. Russian lady washes her car in nothing but her underthings, regularly leaves potatoes in Mary's yard and has gotten into another neighbors house. One morning when Mary had her driveway freshly paved she had to park on the street. She went out to her car and Russian Lady was laying in front of it with her eyes closed. Mary wasn't sure if she was OK or not, so she figured she'd turn the car on and see if Russian Lady moved. Russian Lady heard the car turn on, got up and waved to Mary as she drove away.
Very interesting! I love the pictures you've painted of your neighbors, especially Stella, Iris Lily, and jennipurrr.
I'm kind of with Spartana. I've always felt that if you asked my neighbors the same question, I'd be afraid they'd say us. I'm very moderate, and don't consider myself eccentric, but the family does have its dysfunctional aspects, that's for sure. My DH plays his bagpipes in the front lawn with the dog howling by his side; we've chainsawed our trees at 11pm at night. We spend a lot of time outside in our "back" yard--but our back yard is completely open to the park and houses around the block perimeter, so the whole neighborhood has been "treated" to the sounds of loud singing and guitar-playing when my kids are down. One time I couldn't decide what color to paint the house, so I had my son paint the top one color and the bottom another color, so I could decide. In my neighborhood, no one is a DIYer. So we got a few comments from the neighbors--I think they were afraid I was going to leave the house two-toned.
Love these stories! Hmm, I'll have to dig back in my foggy memory to see if I can remember any characters. Right now I am quite annoyed with one neighbor because without checking protocol with the management at my co-op, she went ahead during the heatwave and had an AC unit installed mistakenly in MY yard and ruined half my garden...grrrr..
People are so infinitely entertaining aren't they, until they annoy you somehow!
Not a neighbor but a character I see in town quite often is an 80+ year old woman, with great legs but too much tanning bed, super high heels, a short hot pink mini-skirt, mid-riff white tank top, and flaming red below the shoulder hair. This is her favorite outfit for shopping at walmart. It's endless entertainment to watch men watch her from the back side and then they quicken their pace so they can peek at the front side. Their jump back when they see her face and realize just how far out of the 'sexy 18 year old' age range she is is quite humorous.
Sad Eyed Lady
7-13-12, 10:53am
Love this post as I am endlessly intrigued by "characters", eccentrics, and those who live outside the norm. They make life more interesting. In our little town is a statue on the courthouse lawn with a civil war soldier at the top, this statue is to honor both the South and the North. We had an elderly man a few years back that walked there every day and saluted the statue. He has since passed on.
I forgot this lovely story: My brother was staying with us for a while. One day he called me at work telling me a homeless guy was in our backyard hosing off a naked baby. He confronted the guy, who rambled somewhat incoherently about how his mom needed something out of the shed and he thought he would pick a few lemons. The guy left and my brother called the police and then me.
Yes, that actually was our crazy hippie landlord. Why he did not just come out and say, "Hi, I'm Landlord," I have no idea.
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