odd job

Somewhere,in character,Humphrey Bogart said something like "You're not one of those characters are you?" & smiled such a disagreeable smile

We've probably all known some 'characters' off the silver screen. Not just
the truly individualistic,unique ones that do sparkle up the heap of our own friends and our own families,But there are those who climb higher on the "watch me,Now" soapbox for a shout in the park. Society's characters,acting out their parts.
There was this old guy, back 35 yrs. when I was in school,this old guy always in the keystone cop outfit, who was glaringly obvious in the mix of very young college students. The badbearded glassyeyed guy never said much,
likely because he was higher & drunker than the rest of us at any given time. Some of us used to imagine him persistant & lucky enough to bed some of the sillier,high & drunker girls, the last standing at the latest of nights. He went by "Buster" I think.
he seemed like an ancient unsympathetic drunken fuck to me.
I'm probably older..than he was,
tonight.
From Mt. Pleasant I went on to live in Ann Arbor. Most any alumni of U of M. from the 70's knew who the character Shakey Jake was; an indiscriminately aged black man..on any corner,armed w/his stringed instrument,working it some & trying to accompany it some.He was early chuck berryish;zoot suited pinks,whites,& Blacks. Wore baggy checks,jacket, & two-toned shoes. and a bad lid.
He was usually with a nod,toothy smile , and a hey.
probably Also got invites to party..and maybe more from the ladies.
funny how being odd can help getting creature comforts met.
for me, subtlety always trumps blatancy
like rod stewart mostly metaphored almost forty years before
"I combed my hair a thousand ways,but it came out lookin just the same"