Do you know of someone who could accurately be described as an eccentric?

Yes! My ex bought a TANK RETRIEVER in case one of his “toys” gets stuck in the mud. Who owns one of those?? He has no oven; he cooks on a hotplate. No stovetop. No closets. Very nice income, by the way. He had a POSSUM on his dinette table, hit it with a Vodka bottle , then said, “it ran out the door and was playing possum in the driveway.”

Aww poor ickle possum, sniffles ;¬}

Accurately? That’s pretty tricky. How are you measuring this?

I think most people I know are eccentric in some way. That includes me. Really, who is completely “normal, regular, ordinary, customary, conventional” (the antonyms of eccentric)? It’s all a matter of degree.

I don’t watch TV, have no interest in sports (except when the Red Sox are in the World Series), passionately hate to shop, and dislike talking on the telephone. Is that eccentric?

How about my friend in her fifties who is an OCD-compulsive neatnik, wears odd, funky clothes, and takes ballet and piano lessons?

How about another friend who is a clinical therapist by day and a wild denizen of the kinky scene in the dark of night?

I know a woman who wears a hat whenever she goes out, any season, any time of day, and a man who guides every move he makes by consulting his detailed astrological chart. I know a woman who is a man. Several, actually. I have a relative who has a collection of meat grinders in his garage and another who collects stamps, but only those with birds or maps on them. Any eccentricity there? What about the one who died leaving an entire cupboard full of empty glass jelly and mayonnaise and pickle jars, a whole kitchen drawer full of KFC condiments and plastic utensils, a paper sack loaded with quarters, dimes, and nickels in his car, and an envelope containing $1700 under the corner of his bedroom rug? Anything nonstandard or unconventional there?

There may be some normal, regular, ordinary, customary, conventional folks in my sphere of acquaintance, but chances are I’ll never get to know them. The characters are the interesting ones.

@ucme Well, I do “know of” you.

@lloydbird Eccentric moi? Nah, mildly wacky granted. My definition of eccentric is as follows. A guy near where I live, mind this was a good few years back, would stand in his garden in nothing but his slippers & sing God Save our Queen whilst saluting the Union Jack flag he had.Harmless old goat, but certainly eccentric.

@ucme Did you now? ;-)

Eeeeh you saucy mare, or should that be cheeky bugger.I don’t wear slippers silly.

Yes, I knew an old man who built a house in my parents neighborhood only because the land had to be developed to a certain degree in order to live on it. So there he had his nice little house, in the backyard he had a cave dwelling. Dug a huge hole and built the neatest underground fort any kid could ever dream of and he lived in it while the house stood empty. He was a cool old man, migrant worker from the Great Depression era, real Grapes Of Wrath character. Even his name seemed eccentric, his name was Ott.

@Silhouette See that’s exactly what i’m talking about.Interesting characters who stand out & refuse to conform to what society deems as “normal.” In common with the old guy I knew of, I love the guy you refer to.Long may they continue to stamp their uniqueness on us.Brilliant.

@ucme He was special, he captured our imaginations and our attention. We would gather around his fire and listen to his stories about how he survived the depression. Never was there a more rapt audience then our little group of kids. Every one of us hung on his every word.

I know a man in his 70’s who wants to buy a large second home on a lake so he can “dress up like an Indian and read to kids.” He doesn’t like kids and has never wanted any. He is going to look at it tomorrow. His second plan is to use it for a movie studio since his present home has a smaller living area. BTW; it’s 500K bucks.
To “save money” he is going to drive a new riding mower DOWN THE STREET AT MIDNIGHT to his house to avoid paying the $65 delivery charge. Why midnight? Less traffic. All this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll think of more later.