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Strange person around Pewsey, or am I just misunderstanding local etiquette?


Thomas C King

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This is going to sound like a 101 to human interaction, but, does anyone know of a strange person knocking on boat doors around Pewsey, and is it anything to worry about?

 

Yesterday: He knocks on our boat door and asks if it was just me living there, I said no but my partner was out. He said that he wanted to speak to both of us. I ask what he wants to speak to us about, and he says he can't say unless we are both there. Eventually I wrangle my way out of the conversation saying I have to get back to work. He says he lives in a tent in case I want to pop around for tea, and that the people on the boat moored near us previously were more talkative.

 

Today: He knocks on our door again. He says that there is line going from Stonehenge to somewhere else, and being on that line is the place to be. However, he doesn't want to take his wheelbarrow there and asks if he could get a lift by our canal boat. I explain that we're working. He says it's only twenty minutes, and I explain we don't even have that time. So he says, "London is that way" and that we're in this area (Pewsey) and it's not really okay to be an "alien" around here.

 

Does anyone happen to know this guy/heard of him? He has a beard and wears a lot of tweed (or tweed-like material, I'm not an expert). I've lived most of my life in cities or towns, one year on the canals where the vast majority of conversations have been normal (to me, maybe others felt differently lol). Something seems off to me but it could be lack of experience/we're being massive p***ies.

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Sounds like one of many "characters" one meets in life. 

 

Probably damaged in some way if he's living rough (ducks to avoid incoming).

 

I'd just humour him, chat or what ever you want to do.  But don't do / promise anything you don't want to.

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1 minute ago, jake_crew said:

Sounds like one of many "characters" one meets in life. 

 

Probably damaged in some way if he's living rough (ducks to avoid incoming).

 

I'd just humour him, chat or what ever you want to do.  But don't do / promise anything you don't want to.

 

Fair enough, thanks, his manner seemed odd (he also stared at my partner as she walked past yesterday, before we'd spoken). Just don't want retaliation for his perceived slight. I'd imagine there's something not quite right, but he actually looks presentable, even with the beard. I was thinking maybe just autism/aspergers spectrum (which doesn't worry me) because of the vacant stare and manner of speaking.

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Wiltshire, Vale of Pewsey, what do you expect?

Did he look mostly normal? There have been a lot of sightings of aliens and flying saucers in that area.

 

..............Dave

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If you are near enough to visit local shops or pubs you could perhaps mention him. He may be a local character, known to all as a bit eccentric but no harm meant. There used to be a chap who went round our 3 local pubs selling raffle tickets for a non-existent raffle. All locals knew just to say ‘No thank you, Michael, not today.’ Visitors were not wise to him and often bought tickets just to get rid of him. He’d then toddle off happily to the bookies...

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Probably on about ley lines so a bit "new age" and he may have the best of intentions in wanting to speak to both of you within his own beliefs. A bit like Jehovah Witnesses.

 

:giggles:Did we not have a well known member who moored around there :giggles:

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33 minutes ago, Thomas C King said:

 

he actually looks presentable, even with the beard. 

That may not endear you to a fair proportion of our members.

But seriously, he sounds like an example of the Great British Eccentric, a harmless species which, regrettably, is under threat. Canalsides are one of their remaining habitats.

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2 minutes ago, Athy said:

That may not endear you to a fair proportion of our members.

 

I also have a massive beard, just seeing how long it can grow. But I look a bit scruffy :)

 

2 minutes ago, Athy said:

But seriously, he sounds like an example of the Great British Eccentric, a harmless species which, regrettably, is under threat. Canalsides are one of their remaining habitats.

 

:lol:

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We had a slightly odd encounter the other week on the T&M, cruising into the outskirts of Rugeley. Bloke walking on non-towpath side asked me for a bottle of water. Seemed unusual but anyway I said “sorry, can’t get into the side there” (it was pretty shallow) but he said “I’ll cross over the bridge” (that we had just passed under) so he did, I got Jeff to wash out a bottle of juice and fill with tap water, pointed the bow into the towpath as he approached. I was all set to race to the front if he tried to board us but he just took the water, said “thank you” and carried on walking along the towpath (in the opposite direction from when we’d first seen him). I was a warmish day but not hot and he wasn’t running. So nothing wrong with any of that, but definitely unusual!

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2 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Tell him that the ley line is in the canal/river and push the daft bugger in to look for it. I don't tolerate nutters anymore, they become a pest if you mollycoddle them.

I think it's called "care in the community", a potential money saver but I doubt if even the hardest hearted cost cutter set out with the intent of leaving mentally ill to live in tents and bother people on towpaths. At some point, you'd expect someone to declare that particular experiment a failure.

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19 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I think it's called "care in the community", a potential money saver but I doubt if even the hardest hearted cost cutter set out with the intent of leaving mentally ill to live in tents and bother people on towpaths. At some point, you'd expect someone to declare that particular experiment a failure.

But it isn't. No-one set out with the intention you suggest, the intention was to save money, so it was a resounding success.

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Did anybody meet the bloke who used to sleep under the canal bridge just above Stone a few years ago? A very religious  well spoken and well educated man, possibly of some wealth, who had taken to homelessness to protest about something or other than Tony Blair had done?

He offered to take me out for a drink one night (not sure who was paying) but I declined as I suspected a not very relaxing evening.

 

...............Dave

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I think we met him at Meaford locks perhaps? He was in a sleeping bag, with headphones on but awake. As I walked past him I said ‘Are you ok there?’, he said he was and I carried on walking to the next lock. As OH passed him on the boat he also asked him if he was ok. I imagine he was trying to listen to some music or interesting radio programme, thinking ‘I would be fine if people would stop asking me whether 

I’m ok!’

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Community care was about saving money and trying to deinstitutionalise the asylums.  We now have people living in less than ideal ‘supporting people’ flats, isolated from others due to their social dysfunctional behaviours visited by the overworked mental nurse or social worker.  Are their lives any better?  At least this chap has some social contact with boaters like (y)ourselves.

 

Mostly impoverished lives 

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When we were moored in Stoke there was an odd but harmless chap kept saying hello to us. He disappeared one day and we found out he'd fell into the canal and drowned. I did think maybe we should have taken a bit of time and talked to him. Trouble is you can get sucked into their problems and become their new best friend. It's a tough call.

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5 hours ago, midnight cowboy said:

Community care was about saving money and trying to deinstitutionalise the asylums.  We now have people living in less than ideal ‘supporting people’ flats, isolated from others due to their social dysfunctional behaviours visited by the overworked mental nurse or social worker.  Are their lives any better?  At least this chap has some social contact with boaters like (y)ourselves.

 

Mostly impoverished lives 

There are two sides to this. Some of the asylums were huge and there was no doubt that many of the inmates had been institutionalised. There was a powerful “Who do you think you are” programme with Ruby Wax finding that her ancestors with basically the same issues as her had been in asylums.

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