When we decided to move out of Brooklyn and find a new place to settle down one of the aspects of North Adams that truly endeared me to it was it's abundance of local characters. A true Twin Peaks-ish charm that would make the absence of our Brooklyn subway crazies less painful.
Of these characters I have two favorites. Moped girl and Elderly Elvis.
Moped girl is a middle age woman with long ponytails. She is a bit on the large side and scoots around town on a red moped with her toddler sized doll "daughter" in an infants bike seat on the back...helmet and all. She is awesome. I love to see her at the grocery store, her doll child in the basket as they shop together. She is pleasant and kind and once in a while talks to us about tool sales or other bargains we might be interested in.
As for Elderly Elvis, I had only seen him from a distance until today. He must be in his late 60s-early 70s... trucker cap or leather cap, big gold Elvis sunglasses, leather vest and a wicked set of jet-black mutten chops framing his aging face. I had always assumed he dyed the sideburns black since the rest of his visible hair is grey, but until today I had no idea of the depth of his dedication to his hip, Elvis look. As I gazed at him across the row at our local Good Will I realized that while he DID have mighty impressive sideburns made of his own hair...a large portion of his dramatic black sideburns were actually penciled in with cosmetics! Yes, Elderly Elvis, you make me proud to live in this wonderful little town. I honestly hope that when I am in my "golden years" I still have the spirit to put that much effort into maintaining my identity and spirit.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
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