Public Characters

My definition of a Public Character is someone who stands out from the mass of humanity, a person who is highly visible, and recognized by many who don't actually know the person.  My definition does not include people who are supposed to be easily recognized, such as politicians, media personages and community leaders.  I think you need to be eccentric in order to be a true "public character."


Public Characters in my community:


*Some years ago there were twin ladies, elderly at the time and certainly deceased by now.  They had dressed alike every day of their lives.  Although they had married, they lived near each other and had continued to coordinate their attire.  At the time I noticed them, they were widowed and still strolling around town in identical wool plaid suits with matching hats.


*Two women, who rumor had it were former prostitutes, continued to wander the streets in old age.  One always dressed in a negligee...long before pajamas in public were the norm.  The other wore a trench coat, had a terribly pock-marked face, and a head of hair like a rat's nest.


*A man who was young when I first noticed him thirty years ago.  He had thick glasses and awkward movements, often wore pink slacks, and carried a purse.  Recently I saw him, looking much the same and riding a pink bike.


*A very thin elderly woman who lives a few blocks from downtown.  For many years she could be seen walking between her home and various supermarkets all day.  I talked with someone who believed that she spent her days doing this, because she lived alone and was terrified of dying alone or becoming ill and not being found.


*Currently, I often see a middle-aged black man who always dresses totally in white.  I know nothing of his story.


*I haven't seen her recently, but a lady often traveled our streets pushing a grocery cart with a dog in it.  The dog was usually wrapped up in a blanket.  I have seen her sitting on a bench cradling the dog as though it were a baby.  I wondered if she had lost a child.


*He was probably only a public character to me, but when I taught at the local community college, everyday on my way to work, I would drive past a man I figured to be a blue collar worker on his way to a local factory.  I noticed him, because he strode along with a purposeful gait, carrying his brown bag lunch hugged to his chest and in the crook of his arm.  I imagined him to be a former football player.  I thought that he, in Walter Mitty fashion, was fantasizing striding down the field for a touchdown with his lunch substituting for the football.


*My daughter is in the process of becoming a public character.  She has reinvented herself multiple times and is currently a "hippie."  She wears long skirts and bright colors, often walks barefoot in inclement weather, and has attempted to develop dreadlocks in her stick straight brown hair.  Envision here the previously mentioned "rat's nest," except that she has incorporated string, beads, locks of other people's hair and I'm-not-sure-what-else. I did not see this, but it has been reported to me, that she inserted herself into the town's holiday parade last November, walking barefoot in the cold and carrying a sign.


Am I a public character?  I was startled one day as I left a local store and headed for my car.  A woman, who I did not ever remember meeting, passed me in the parking lot and blurted out, "Oh...I know you!  You're the lady who ice-skates so beautifully!"  
This was surprising in multiple ways....I am not a great ice-skater.  All I do is go around in circles at the ice arena....nothing fancy.  I do not consider myself to stand out on a rink full of people.  Before even thinking, I said, "How do you know that?" 
"I've seen you at the arena, and I wish I could skate as well as you."  
This interchange surprised me so that I never came up with any response except a smile.  I thought afterwards that I could have said that I hadn't learned to skate until I was an adult, and that I was sure if she kept at it, she would skate well someday too. That is what I say if someone comments to me while I am actually skating. But, my brain had been shocked into a temporary shutdown by the notion that I was recognizable in public.  I expected a certain loss of anonymity after participating in an ad for television, but certainly not for just going to the ice rink for some exercise.  I later chided myself for not coming up with a gracious reply.


Public characters add color to our world.  We think we  "know" them, but we can only guess at the reasons behind the distinguishing characteristics that draw our attention.