Every neighborhood has its characters in New York City, and in my father's Queens location there is a guy I know as Wild Bill. I do not know his real name, nor do I feel compelled to find out, but WB (as some of the local kids call him) is an eccentric, slightly scary, and infinitely funny old coot who walks around in a trench coat even in the summer. I am sure he is not homeless because he is never unclean, but I have no idea where he lives. He has been spotted getting on and off a city bus with a cup of Starbucks coffee, so I figure he has some source of income to keep him in grande cappuccinos and Metro Cards.
After not seeing him for a rather long time, I ran into him yesterday and noticed the copy of the New York Times under his arm wrapped in the iconic blue plastic. I started thinking maybe he swiped it off a lawn somewhere, but the cup of java in his other hand made me think not. The best way to describe WB is that he looks kind of like Nick Nolte when he got arrested that time for drunk driving. His eyes dart back and forth over the aviator sunglasses he wears on the end of his nose, a cigarette is always in his mouth, and it seems as if he is always nervous and wants to keep moving.
On this beautiful day WB was very animated as he told me that he quit Zuccotti Park. I asked him why and he said, "Man, the pigs ruined the party for me, took away my tent, but some people are going to stay until the frost is on the pumpkin and Santa comes out of the ice and snow and brings them nothing but coal."
Okay, WB is a little creative but he is honest as far as I know. He went on to say that he had some friends there and ate very well for a long time. He didn't say whether he was committed to the OWS cause or that he just wanted free eats, but then he has told me about his "hippie past" spent in San Francisco where he protested all the time, mostly against the war in Vietnam. Later, he came here to New York "to protest everything from A to Z."
Article comments
1 - roger nowosielski
Quite a character, that WB (Hickok) and the resemblance to Nolte is uncanny.
Nice piece of writing, Victor. I suppose you're making your points in between the lines.