Hello Man.
Not like, "Hey Dude, how's it going".. but more literally "the man who would say hello." To five, 3-8 year olds siblings in my family the most ingenious name we could give him was "The Hello Man".

This was 30-35 years ago.

Just like all young kids would run outside to greet the icecream van as it played its Greensleeves tune and wave it by, wishing that one day it would stop and for once not be empty, we would watch the world go by from the front verandah waiting for the Hello Man to pass. Without fail, every Saturday and Sunday of every weekend of every month of the year at around 5pm he would appear - walking down our side of the street with the daily paper under one arm and a bag of groceries in the other hand.

His age would have been anyone's guess but to my 5 year old mind at the time he was ancient. Not the 30-40 years that kids typically believe to be "ancient", but proper old. Greyed hair, time-lined face, an aged but ever-clean suit and a hat that nowadays I am reminded of in the old 50's movies. Even at my age then I knew he had lived a long life. I wished a contented life. Back then I always felt him to be in his 80's. I still do.

I always considered him to maybe have lived alone. Maybe he didnt have any grand kids. Maybe his wife had passed and his weekend ritual was something that helped fill his final days.

The Hello Man would shuffle down the street toward our house and any of the five us home would rush to the veranda with cries of, "The Hello Man's coming. The Hello Man's coming," and wait. As he passed the halfway point of the property, directly at the end of the path that led to our front door, we would call out "Hello" in unison and wave frantically, with big smiles on our faces. He would *always* turn to look at us as he continued his passage and offer a kindly and sweet, "Hello" reply along with a slow and meaningful wave of his hand.

We then watched til he continued down the road then rushed back in to continue our play. This was like a routine for us and I'd like to think, for him also.

I looked back years later, many years ago to realise that this man was the closest I had ever been to any elderly person that my childhood mind had known - my family emigrated to Australia before I was 12 months old and all my grandparents had passed many years beforehand. So you could say that one of my own Eccentricities here was to see the Hello Man as my own version of my grandparents - You watch them come and go and are always excited to see them.

Now, here I could go on and say how one day I watched him pass and somehow I knew that was the last I would ever see of him. But I won't. I really can't recall either when he stopped passing by or if I simply stopped looking for him to come.

Time came to pass and all I know is that I never got to say Goodbye to the Hello man.
(Sir Jester, Mon 3 Nov 2008, 2:17, 2 replies)

You never got to say goodbye? Now's your chance!

( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Mon 3 Nov 2008, 8:05, closed)

*sniffs*
that was beautiful
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 22:48, closed)