Where have all the Nutters gone?- A lament.

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dan_bo

How much does it cost to Oldham?
When I was a kid, there were plenty of people in the community that added colour to the daily drudge, and then there were the proper, copper bottomed bread and butters. A few examples;

Nitty Nora- An older Catholic Irish lady who lived in a boarded up house round the corner who used to stand at the end of our street on a Sunday morning in all weathers calling no-one in particular bastards, whores and sinners, we're all gonna rot in hell for our sins etc etc etc- this would usually carry on 'till someone chucked a bucket of water over her (which did happen on a couple of occasions)

Sideways Tommy- little old feller who walked around with a crash helmet on back to front who regularly approached people and said '3-2-1- Wowwwwwww!'. He'd also be doing this whilst sat on his todd in the pub (crash helmet removed obviously).

That bloke who lived near school who walked around in his dead mothers' dresses. He WAS a tad sinister.

Chicken George- A 1st generation jamaican immigrant who had polio as a child. Walked with a profound limp (he needed crutches or a chair really- never occured to him to get one). Really cheerful bloke- he'd walk pas you on the other side of the street, big grin on his pus saying 'OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKAY!' to friends and strangers alike.


Anyway, these people were on the whole harmless, but where have they and their like gone? They added colour and character to my childhood community, but these days as we bovinely go about our business behind our steering wheels or staring at the glowing black mirror as we walk about, we don't even seem to care.

What sez you? Any nutjob reminisces?
 

BSRU

A Human Being
Location
Swindon
I see plenty in Swindon.
 

Norm

Guest
Our own "Chicken George" ended up with an ostrich farm on the outskirts of Windsor and opposite the village cricket pitch. Many a screeching tyre was heard when unsuspecting tourist-peeps spotted an ostrich looking down on them as they admiringly drove past the otherwise gloriously traditional English summertime scene.

Richard The Pig's animals were once impounded in connection with a murder inquiry. That was about 30 years ago now but I still giggle at the thought of the coppers chasing Ratty, an agile and highly motivated JRT, around RTP's muddy woodland with what appeared to be (and was) a human bone in his mouth.

Mention of my own grandfather's name will still get local people of a certain age coughing and spluttering and unable to speak beyond monosyllabic swearing.
 

Norm

Guest
[QUOTE 1806176, member: 45"]We had a Chicken George. Lanky, skinny lad who walked like a chicken.[/quote]
"Our" George wasn't lanky of skinny, nor did he walk like a chicken, but he picked up the handle early in his life as a small-holder and changing it to "Ostrich George" just didn't seem appropriate. :giggle:
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
We had a sinister middle aged bloke who'd keep talking to kids - I hated it when I was waiting for the paper shop to open at 6am to do my paper round, and he'd come up - right weirdo. Think he got done eventually.
 
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dan_bo

dan_bo

How much does it cost to Oldham?
[QUOTE 1806207, member: 45"]Moseley, Birmingham -Pete the Feet. Used to walk around in bare feet with his toenails painted. Sometimes wearing a cowboy hat, sometimes in an orange robe.

Some say that he's still around.[/quote]


Ah you've met our Pete then.
 

Hacienda71

Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
There are still a few in Macc. One guy I see fairly often seems to talk to god with his arms outstreched to the sky. Another walks everywhere wearing a floppy black hat, a camel hair coat and carrying a plastic carrier bag. He seems to get everywhere from Congleton to Macc to Alderley to Wilmslow. He has been doing this ever since I was a kid thirty years ago. I often see him miles out in the countryside. There is also a tramp who walks around the Northwest planting vegetables on little bits of waste land and reappearing a few months later to collect his crop. Quite sensible I suppose.
 
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dan_bo

dan_bo

How much does it cost to Oldham?
I have a client in the Maudsley MH hospital in Southwark- walking reound the corridors in there you sometimes hear one guy jabbering to himself at the top of his voice- sounds pretty unsettling. Asking my client about this, he says it's one of the profs and he's got some line into work on demonic possesions, speaking in tounges, that kind of thing. Weirds me out good style.
 

Haitch

Flim Flormally
Location
Netherlands
There are still a few in Macc.


There used to be a lot in Macc until they closed the hospital. A common threat when I were a lad was to send someone to Macclesfield.

We had a Nutty Nora, hand-knitted purple hat, strong smell of wee, accosted people on the bus.
 

compo

Veteran
Location
Harlow
Visit Harlow. There are so many nutters that they have become the norm, and the sane ones are the minority who stand out as abnormal.
 

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
We've got a bloke here who used to walk 3 steps forward and then spin a circle and carry on walking for another 3 steps. Used to take him ages to get anywhere. Even in the pub, he'd stand at the bar and every now and again spin in a circle. Very strange bloke. I still see him and he's now on some medication that has stopped him having to do this. Good for him but takes some of the variety out of life.
 
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