Vincent

There’s this strange guy in Chicago who always wears these brightly colored suits, stands on the bridges over the Chicago River and waves at the tour boats going by. When a tour boat full of passengers approaches the bridge, he gives a wave and does a little dance, twirling around and around.

It’s very strange, but he always gets lots of attention from the tour boat passengers.
He’s become quite a fixture over the years and a story about him was even featured in Chicago Tribune.

Iwanski pointed him out to me and mentioned that he had always seen this guy (he's hard to miss) but never knew his name.

Well, one day I decided to meet the fellow so that I could relay the info to Iwanski. I introduced myself. His name is Vincent and he’s also sight-impaired. My first impression was that he was a very likeable fellow, although a bit strange with the loud clothes and all. I looked forward to letting Iwanski know that I had met this fellow and knew his name.

It also turns out that Vincent lives in my building on the 52nd floor, just three floors above me. One day, I saw him in the elevator and re-introduced myself. After all, here was this famous Chicago-guy living in my building with whom I was now on a first name basis.

Vincent hugged me. I mean, really hugged me. Then he invited me up to his apartment and said he’d like to see me try on some of his jackets, and then added, “but I’d also like to see you out of them.”

It turns out that Chicago’s loveable character, Vincent, is actually a Dirty Old Man.

I did not take him up on his invitation, by the way.

After that, I’d often encounter him in the elevator. I guess he would recognize my voice because every time, he’d make some flirty remark like that. Or give me a hug.

I got tired of that pretty quickly so whenever I’d see him in the elevator, I’d just be really quiet.

Then, a couple of weeks ago we were in the elevator together again. As I passed him to exit, I guess he sensed that I was a big tall guy or he like the way I smelled because I heard him say, “Ooooo. Nice!”

Like I said. Dirty Old Man.

This morning, he was leaving the building and I realized that a pic and story about him would make great blog-fodder. So, I kindly asked him if he’d pose for a pic and he obliged.

Here is the notorious Vincent of Chicago. If you ever see him doing his wave-and-dance on the bridge in a brightly colored suit, you’ll know who he is.

But he’s a Dirty Old Man.

I guess I should be flattered. The day will come soon enough when my presence will fail to illicit any remarks at all from Dirty Old Men.

That will be a very sad day, indeed.