I don't know if he was eccentric, but he was unique.
Let me tell you about Harry.

He was an old backwoods man, a native of the Adirondacks who had made good in the world and retired fairly wealthy. He was about six feet tall with a strong square jaw and broad shoulders, and looked like the stereotype of a lumberjack. He didn't speak much, but when he did it was direct and to the point. He was what Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen tried to portray.

At some point he was told that he had to give up smoking cigars, but that it was okay to smoke a pipe. His solution? He kept a cigar in his pocket and a small knife, and would cut segments of it for his pipe tobacco. To this day I can't smell a cigar without feeling him nearby.

He owned a large chunk of land that he subdivided, and sold two lots to my parents. The one they left empty was the lot between them and Harry, to give a buffer. To this day it stands empty, and that's where I spent a lot of my time as a small child. And the person who was usually there with me was Harry's granddaughter, who I'll refer to here as Lyssa.

Harry kept something of an eye on us both, as did his wife Ginny. Where he was rather hands-off and watchful, she was quite busy with us if we were in their house- she was a very driven Type A personality who had retired from a position well up the food chain in Avon Cosmetics. Where she would fuss over us until we felt the need to escape, he would generally keep back and let us do as we wished. He was the one who taught me how to properly split firewood with a splitting maul, and taught me a lot of strange bits of woodcraft and how to sail a single person boat without jibing the sail. He was the one who taught me how to read the winds by the ripples in the water and to read the clouds to see what the weather would bring.

Ginny died before Harry by a couple of years, so I never got to say goodbye to either of them- she went fast from cancer, he went more slowly from diabetes after losing both legs and wouldn't let anyone see him like that. Lyssa had moved to California by then- where she still is today- and also never got to say goodbye.

About ten years ago I tracked Lyssa down, and eventually went to visit her for Thanksgiving. One evening we discussed Harry and Ginny, and she mentioned that Harry had worked for Revlon in sales.

My jaw dropped. "Harry? Selling cosmetics?"

"Yup. He and Gran were in competition, but they made it work."

I was shaken to my core. Imagine Lee Marvin selling mascara- no fucking way. "Revlon? You're shitting me."

"No, I'm serious. He retired from Revlon. And he made more money for a while driving Cadillacs from Florida to New York."

I thought about this. "Okay, maybe I can see that, but still..."

"And the trunks of those Cadillacs were full of bootleg whiskey. He was a bootlegger."

That's the Harry I knew.

He may not have been an eccentric per se, but he was certainly one of a kind.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 31 Oct 2008, 14:16, 2 replies)

Harry and Ginny?
Is this a Potter-based pun that I've totally missed?
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Fri 31 Oct 2008, 14:21, closed)

No, it isn't.
His real name was Harry, and his wife's name was Virginia- but she went by Ginny.

In truth, I hadn't even thought about that until you mentioned it...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 31 Oct 2008, 14:43, closed)