If you've lived on or near Milwaukee's East Side for any amount of time, there are a few colorful kooks that are always walking (or shuffling or staggering or rolling) around. Sure, we all know "pepperoni, cannoli!" Frank Pecoraro, but here are a few seemingly ubiquitous folks who are a bit more obscure.
My all-time favorite Milwaukee enigma is Jim. Jim is an older gent with a slender build and silver hair who has looked the same since the early '90s -- at least from the curb. However, it's not Jim's astonishing anti-aging abilities that make him a city classic, rather it's the fact he rides a bike from Bayshore Mall to The Shops of Grand Avenue many days of the year. (I usually see him on Hampton or Oakland) I have chatted with Jim a few times, and he always tells the same story: that he likes to ride from mall to mall. Although his story is always the same, his bike has changed a few times in the past 20 years or so. I am not sure where or how he gets these rides, but he always has a bell fastened to the handlebars. Every time I see Jim, even if I'm in the car and have to roll down the window, I yell, "Hey, Jim!" and he always dings his bell and smiles.
Ray is another local gem who I remember from UWM, where he would vigilantly collect newspapers. I managed the 8th Note Coffehouse, and he would sweep through the place a few times a day to collect discarded papers. I think he ran for public office a few times, too.
Another UWM dweller is that creepy guy known as "the wheelchair pervert." Who knows if the rumors about him being a peeper in the campus ladies' rooms are true or not, but I know firsthand that he is somewhat of a stalker. He always addresses me by my first and last name, and brings up random stuff about my life -- like when and where I graduated from high school. Once, he referenced a poem I wrote, which I know he probably saw online, but it's unsettling to think he might have actually googled me.
Sadly, there are a couple of other likable nuts who I used to see regularly, but have disappeared. Although he could get loud and scary, Pierre -- the Army jacket-wearing drunken dude who hung out on Brady Street and always called you "brother" whether you were male or female -- was one of a kind.
Also, I was quite fond of this woman who carried a small white dog and wore a white wooden crucifix around her neck. I once saw her sitting on a curb on the corner of Pleasant and Humboldt swallowing a huge pile of string.
I love this town.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
