If I'm lucky and a really good girl I hope to live in Portland, Oregon someday. I loved the Pacific Northwest long before the show Portlandia debuted. This is the valentine of a show starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. I love the off-beat whimsy, snarkyness, but affection in each skit. One of the skits I love kept portraying weirdos. Eccentricity is celebrated not derided.
But as I watch a couple of episodes of Portlandia on IFC tonight, I am reminded of all of the unique parts of my hometown in western Colorado that I would miss. When I was a child there was a man called Speedo Man in my town. As you could probably guess, he sported nothing but a Speedo bathing suit and tennis shoes. He rode a ten-speed bike and frequented every festival and concert. Parents and children were particularly disconcerted when he approached them, especially short children.
Once my father drove by a man standing on a street corner in an expensive business suit. The remarkable thing was the man was also eating his own necktie. And my parent's home near a local interstate highway always attracts stranded motorists with personal stories that are heartwarming and truly bizarre.
One of my favorite places in town is our library. Each visit brings a smile to my face at the cornucopia of humanity. Elderly couples fighting and exchanging profanity. A woman in a designer suit inquiring about 50 Shades of Gray and a book on Yorkshire Terriers.
Two of my closest but weirdest friends are two women who may or may not be life partners. The youngest is ten years older than me, the older is older than my parents. They own a local funky coffee shop where local free thinkers meet to discuss conspiracies and feed each other's neurosis. It is not unusual for them to gift me with a bag of clothes purloined from the local soup kitchen, or an expensive bottle of liquor (I assume they paid for it). Even when we don't understand each other, they are fun and have taught me so much.
What wonderful diversity our species contains and what surreal human lives we are living. Some days feel like I'm living in a Salvador Dali or Frida Kahlo painting, and I wouldn't wish any part away. I am reminded by the song lyrics "I love this crazy-tragic-sometimes-almost-magic, awful beautiful life."
Great slices of your town! It's these characters that make our life rich! :-)
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