Characters you have met ?.

We have all met some characters in our life,Who are the ones that stick in YOUR mind ??.

I remember a Skipper who cycled from Scotland To Baltimore,Virginia and back..
This Skipper Had an Exercise bike fitted onto the Lookout Deck on the bridge of the Ship.
With his hat on,back to front,he would spend hours on this bike. He Would Bark orders to the mate and helmsman on watch in the Wheelhouse, when he wanted Tea/Coffee/Rum or whatever.
His Cabin was like a Botanical Garden with Potted Palm House plants and various other potted plants. When I entered his cabin I could hardly see him with all the Flora in the Cabin.
This Skipper had been the Skipper of this ship for years and this was his Adopted home,and my god he let us know it was his home and we did what Daddy Told Us .
He Wouldn't Let Us Ashore For 4 days when we dropped Anchor In The States Awaiting Cargo. He Was A Right Old Booger !!!.
I could use much Stronger words to describe him,but I'm Fed Up Planting treetreetreetrees.

(Another Character) Nickname , Jimmy The Thingummy.

This Character used the word-Thingummy all the time when talking,trying to Describe something or someone,and my god he could talk ,when he started you couldn't shut him up.
EXAMPLE-- " You Know That John-Um-Thingummy, From Scott Street-In Um-Thingummy". He used to drive me ' Nora Batty '. When I Left his company, I think I developed a Nervous Twitch In My Eye,and had lost the will to live. :D.

 

in my youth, as an apprentice I was placed with 2 mentors, both of whom were memorable.
1. As a War veteran, following a Tank accident where his headphones ripped off part of his skull, this guy was fitted with a metal plate in the skull.
A very intelligent chap he was a font of knowledge and I benefitted greatly, however he was prone to severe reactions in wet weather (I don't know why) and would take to violently throwing about objects he was working with. That wouldn't be so bad but - we worked regularly in a Screened Cage (8' sq.) working on benches on Radio sets that weighed about 30kg.
Needless to say I was often seen legging it out of the cage.

2. This chap is a different tale. At the time we were working on Radio equipment that were Valve based.
In a promotion interview he was asked for his thoughts as to the future benefits of Semiconductors, for example transistors.
His response was they were a fad and wouldn't catch on.

Sorry if the info causes glazed eyes. I'm sure Armandii and some others will identify with the analogies.

 

All of my grandparents were a great influence on me, but my paternal grandfather never drove anywhere without his shotgun! If he saw a fox, it didn't matter where it was he filled it with lead!
Grew a Mango from a stone that he bought back from India after the war, and was almost in tears the summer of '76 when it fruited!
He used to lay bets for me too. Taught me that racism was not acceptable (in the days when Love Thy Neighbour was still on national tv).
Funniest of all though was how we had to be very quiet when we went crayfishing at one in the morning! It was years before I realised that he was fibbing about not scaring them away!!!

 

Like most of us I guess, I've met loads of 'characters' over the years, but I suppose it's those you meet in childhood which perhaps leave lasting memories, particularly if they did something different from what you thought of as 'the norm'.

When I was small there was Alf who worked for my Grandfather. Alf was ancient (even then) and lived alone, every lunchtime he would go to the pub, drink at least 6 pints and then go back to work, every evening after 'a bit of tea', Alf would repair to the same pub where we would regularly down at least 12 pints, unless he met 'a pal', in which case they'd easily get through 15 or even more each. Not once did Alf ever turn up for work incapable of doing his job, nor was he ever seen unsteady on his feet, let alone drunk.

The other was, Ted, the man who had the butcher's shop next door to my Grandfather. Ted also lived alone, and his self-confessed perfect Christmas Day was to spend it in bed. As a small child I remember feeling exceptionally sorry for him because of this, only years later did I realise that without freezers and often fridges, he would open his shop early on Christmas Eve and remain open until the early hours of Christmas morning as his customers would come in throughout the night to pick up their meat orders. No wonder he wanted to spend Christmas Day in bed!