The People in The Neighborhood

Last night I did 5 miles along the marathon course. As I was running, I started thinking about the familiar faces I often see around town and immediately had this classic Sesame Street song in my head.

In honor of this train of thought, I'd like to share with you all the people in my neighborhood - "the people that you meet each day."

The Tricycle Guy is a person in my neighborhood. He can be seen riding around the Back Bay on an adult-sized tricycle pulling a little cart behind him, with a tall flag streaming off the back. As he rides around, he makes a sort of "awooooga" noise really loudly to let people know to get out of his way. Sometimes in the summer when I have my windows open, I can hear him bombing down the street several block away. Once, I saw him on a roofdeck at a bar, dressed in a really nice purple button down shirt.

The Spare Change Guy is a person in my neighborhood. But he's EVERYWHERE. The Common, Copley Square, Fenway - you name it. He has a rather nasally gruff voice, in which he sloooowwwlly calls out "Hassss annnyyybooddyyy got any spaaaaaaare chaaaaaaange?" I once heard he wandered his way into the burbs and ended up in jail.

The Power-Walking Woman is a person in my neighborhood. She's not a local legend like the others, but I see her every time I'm out for a run. She barely reaches 5 feet tall, is often wearing sunglasses even though it's nighttime, and almost always has on a blue and yellow Adidas windbreaker that looks like a marathon jacket but doesn't have any logos on it - it's just plain blue and yellow. She always comes scooting by me like a woman on a mission, going in the opposite direction as me, and I like to imagine that back in the day she was a bitchin' fast marathon runner (BFMR) who can no longer run and has to power walk, but likes to get in a late night workout, just like she did when she was a BFMR.

The Blanket Lady is a person in my neighborhood. I'd love to know her story. I usually see her crossing the Mass Ave bridge or walking the Cambridge side of the river and she's wrapped up in several huge patchwork quilt blankets, even during the summer. It goes over her head, around her whole body and she has some sort of a dress on underneath it. The other day I saw her elsewhere in the Back Bay when I was out for a run and was surprised to see she had ventured away from the bridge area.

The So Totally Screwed Over in Life That She Had a Mental Breakdown Lady is a person in my neighborhood. The first time I saw her on Newbury Street, I thought she had just been fired and was yelling so that her former employers could hear. Then when I saw her again doing the same shtick months later in a different location, I realized whatever happened to her wasn't recent and that it pushed her to relive it every day. She's appears to be a totally normal average woman until she opens her mouth and starts yelling things like "Good riddance!! Let you do that to me... If you only KNEW what they did. If you LISTEN TO ME. You'd be protesting. You wouldn't let it to happen to your sister or daughter." She typically just mopes along the street yelling.

And THESE are the people in the neighborhood - the people that you meet each day! It certainly keeps life interesting and ensures there's never a dull moment when I'm out for a run.