The punk
I just remembered this one. Not my story, but one I rather like.

Anyone who lived in Manchester in the late 1980's/early 1990's will probably remember the punk beggar. He was a big bloke, both tall and muscly, and he'd use his size to be intimidating. Interestingly, he was also apparently deaf and dumb, so he'd come up to you and grunt menacingly in your face whilst holding up a card saying which read '50p for bus'.
It worked pretty well for him; people were scared of him enough to hand over the demanded 50p, and when he'd got enough he'd be off down to the Salisbury and the Banshee to spend it all. (He certainly got money out of me - I was scared shitless of him).

And then there was Andy. Andy was a copper who didn't like bullying much, and didn't take well to a six-foot-odd punk menacing old ladies for fifty pence peices which should have been going in their gas meters, so he took to carrying a notebook with him when he was off duty. Sure enough, one day, Punk came up to him and leaned in menacingly and held out his card, Andy pulled out his pad and wrote '"Which bus do you want to catch? Where are you going?', and handed over the pen.
A certain amount of to and fro got punk to admit he wanted to go to Northenden (the middle of nowhere), so Andy gave one of his mates a quick shout on his radio and out of the kindness of his heart got him driven all the way there, for free, in the back of a cop car.
(davywavy, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 14:01, 5 replies)

His 'name'...
...was Deafhead, subtlely enough, and he was indeed profoundly deaf (probably still is). A punk who'd never heard punk music, but found a subculture who didn't care about his disability. He was about as intimidating as my nan.
(Udidin is chuffed to have made the newsletter, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 14:32, closed)

.
yeah but she's fuckin scary.
( browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 14:45, closed)

I used to see him in the Banshee; I always kinda assumed that even though deaf he must get something out of the bass vibrations?

Naturally I apologise if I misjudged him, but I wasn't very big or brave when I lived in manchester and I was genuinely afraid of him, as were most of my rather weedy roleplaying pals.
(davywavy, Wed 8 Jul 2009, 16:06, closed)

His name was Simon
He was a friend of mine and a decent chap. We'd see each other at the Star & Garter etc in the late 90s but I've not seen him for about 8 years.

The last time I heard anything about him was through a mutual friend. Sadly his eyesight had started to fail.

I'm not sure but I think he has since died (I don't really see any of the old punks anymore, apart from Rob)

www.fotothing.com/stuboy/photo/d58750c495a864d48fb848deafd83a56/ this is him.
( SpikeyPickle wishes he was mabazaritchie, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 16:16, closed)

I remember that guy, yeah!
I used to see him all around Manchester.

He waved his sign at me once, but I politely declined.

That's my interesting addition to the story ;-)
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 16:37, closed)