People Who Feel Wrong

For some inexplicable reason my father bought 3 of those antique sword stick things. Look like standard walking sticks ( so you can deny any knowledge - "wow I'd no idea that was inside") but have a long strong pointy thing inside. Sons got one each and I had the third when he passed. Mine is kept in the bedroom just because.
 
bugmum said:
The large non-adjustable spanner used in the lab to change gas regulators is called King Dick. Because that's the name moulded onto the handle.
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When I worked in a foundry, we used to supply parts to Abingdon King Dick (the manufacturers of such items). And yes, we all used to titter. Not quite as much as we did at Fairey Winches though.
 
Swifty said:
Does it look like this one? .. it might be worth a few bob ..

(sorry for going off topic for a moment anyone reading)

https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/51986a322162ef0d38c4c3c3
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No, it looks like this:
screwdriver.png
 
I used to work with a guy, around 1992-93. He was probably early twenties, same as me and most of my co-workers. Typically there was lots of banter and piss taking but they were a friendly and basically kind bunch of guys. Once this chap, who was named Paul, I recall, had been there a few weeks the banter started to be aimed at him, in a good natured and inclusive way. However this was all met with a non plussed expression, as if he didn’t know what any of it meant.
Physically he was small and slight, and he had a blank look in his eyes if you spoke to him. He didn’t converse much but he seemed to have a slightly superior air about him, as if he was intellectually far superior. He had no knowledge of any popular culture whatsoever. Being a bunch of young-ish lads the chat was full of references to music, TV, football. Paul seemed confused and completely unaware of anything we talked about. The term ‘living under a rock’ used to spring to mind as he really didn’t seem to have a clue about anything that was happening in the world.
One day, and what freaked me out, was when I was paired up with him for a work task and he started talking about the town where we lived. But he was talking about shops that had closed many years before as if they were still trading. He said he’d been to school at the old school house that hadn’t actually functioned as a school for around eighty years at that point. And then one day he didn’t come back. It may all have just been a giant elaborate piss take on his part, but there was something that didn’t feel right about Paul.
 
nycuk said:
I used to work with a guy, around 1992-93. He was probably early twenties, same as me and most of my co-workers. Typically there was lots of banter and piss taking but they were a friendly and basically kind bunch of guys. Once this chap, who was named Paul, I recall, had been there a few weeks the banter started to be aimed at him, in a good natured and inclusive way. However this was all met with a non plussed expression, as if he didn’t know what any of it meant.
Physically he was small and slight, and he had a blank look in his eyes if you spoke to him. He didn’t converse much but he seemed to have a slightly superior air about him, as if he was intellectually far superior. He had no knowledge of any popular culture whatsoever. Being a bunch of young-ish lads the chat was full of references to music, TV, football. Paul seemed confused and completely unaware of anything we talked about. The term ‘living under a rock’ used to spring to mind as he really didn’t seem to have a clue about anything that was happening in the world.
One day, and what freaked me out, was when I was paired up with him for a work task and he started talking about the town where we lived. But he was talking about shops that had closed many years before as if they were still trading. He said he’d been to school at the old school house that hadn’t actually functioned as a school for around eighty years at that point. And then one day he didn’t come back. It may all have just been a giant elaborate piss take on his part, but there was something that didn’t feel right about Paul.
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Whoooa! He may have been autistic or brought up by much older than average parents, getting their lives confused with his through some mental disability. Makes me think of the beginning of a great short spooky story.
 
nycuk said:
I used to work with a guy, around 1992-93. He was probably early twenties, same as me and most of my co-workers. Typically there was lots of banter and piss taking but they were a friendly and basically kind bunch of guys. Once this chap, who was named Paul, I recall, had been there a few weeks the banter started to be aimed at him, in a good natured and inclusive way. However this was all met with a non plussed expression, as if he didn’t know what any of it meant.
Physically he was small and slight, and he had a blank look in his eyes if you spoke to him. He didn’t converse much but he seemed to have a slightly superior air about him, as if he was intellectually far superior. He had no knowledge of any popular culture whatsoever. Being a bunch of young-ish lads the chat was full of references to music, TV, football. Paul seemed confused and completely unaware of anything we talked about. The term ‘living under a rock’ used to spring to mind as he really didn’t seem to have a clue about anything that was happening in the world.
One day, and what freaked me out, was when I was paired up with him for a work task and he started talking about the town where we lived. But he was talking about shops that had closed many years before as if they were still trading. He said he’d been to school at the old school house that hadn’t actually functioned as a school for around eighty years at that point. And then one day he didn’t come back. It may all have just been a giant elaborate piss take on his part, but there was something that didn’t feel right about Paul.
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He was obviously coming to work from the past through a wormhole (good idea to work in the future - higher wages), I reckon he must have taken the wrong wormhole one day and got eaten by a dinosaur.
 
frankiefelix said:
Whoooa! He may have been autistic or brought up by much older than average parents, getting their lives confused with his through some mental disability. Makes me think of the beginning of a great short spooky story.
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Ogdred Weary said:
He was obviously coming to work from the past through a wormhole (good idea to work in the future - higher wages), I reckon he must have taken the wrong wormhole one day and got eaten by a dinosaur
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Ogdred Weary said:
He was obviously coming to work from the past through a wormhole (good idea to work in the future - higher wages), I reckon he must have taken the wrong wormhole one day and got eaten by a dinosaur.
Ogdred Weary said:
He was obviously coming to work from the past through a wormhole (good idea to work in the future - higher wages), I reckon he must have taken the wrong wormhole one day and got eaten by a dinosaur.
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Ogdred Weary said:
He was obviously coming to work from the past through a wormhole (good idea to work in the future - higher wages), I reckon he must have taken the wrong wormhole one day and got eaten by a dinosaur.
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Yep probably something like that.
 
If you're going down the Arnold Layn route, might I suggest Jethro Tull's Aqualung?

Sitting on a park bench
eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot running down his nose
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Feeling like a dead duck
spitting out pieces of his broken luck.
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escargot said:
There's a woman at work like that, in the sense that whatever you say to her, she's immediately off on a stream-of-consciousness tirade.

You can tell her the first part of something important, stop to draw breath then never deliver the rest because she's talking rubbish for ten minutes.
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This woman has been suspended for, among other irritations, openly threatening to kill a colleague. :omg:
The police are involved.

Curiously, she's never bothered me much. I'd get the start of a boring monologue, break wind and wander off to do my next job.
 
escargot said:
This woman has been suspended for, among other irritations, openly threatening to kill a colleague. :omg:
The police are involved.

Curiously, she's never bothered me much. I'd get the start of a boring monologue, break wind and wander off to do my next job.
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You never know who you are working with. 40 years ago I worked with a 20 something in a small office. He was very friendly and approachable, but proved to be dodgy as anything (nothing really terrible) and didn't last long. He went on to write some very well regarded works on historical events, which he had expressed absolutely no interest in when I knew him. Sadly died in his 50's and there were apparently hundreds at his wake. I would have guessed when I knew him that he would have come to a sticky end and not a celebrated author in his field.
 
PeteS said:
You never know who you are working with. 40 years ago I worked with a 20 something in a small office. He was very friendly and approachable, but proved to be dodgy as anything (nothing really terrible) and didn't last long. He went on to write some very well regarded works on historical events, which he had expressed absolutely no interest in when I knew him. Sadly died in his 50's and there were apparently hundreds at his wake. I would have guessed when I knew him that he would have come to a sticky end and not a celebrated author in his field.
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Dad used to work with this guy and he was always a womaniser and generally not very reliable. Saw him in the papers the other week for pedo offences!
 
Reminds me of a person who didn't feel at all wrong.

One of my favourite ever kids I taught. Would be in his early 30s now. He was fiercely intelligent but I taught him in a really disadvantaged (OK, dog rough) school and his mum was a bit of a crim.

For some reason, he formed a bond with me - think maybe because I found ways to make him behave that none of my predecessors (or apparently, those who taught him after me) did. He was loud and cheeky but good natured and I was always telling him that with his brains he could do anything in life, one day. My colleagues were cynical about this and said he'd end up a master criminal.

Out of curiosity one day I put his name into Google - wondering if he'd distinguished himself in any way, in adult life. He was up there as one of the most intelligent kids I ever taught. Bound to be a surgeon or a journalist or something, with that fierce intelligence. I wanted to feel my old job hadn't been an utter waste of time and of all the kids I taught, surely he'd have done something to distinguish himself.

Turned out he was all over the papers - had been done for armed robbery. But got a slightly lighter sentence than his colleagues - for being polite to the person emptying the till. I felt a weird pride in him.

He totally never felt wrong to me. Although he did to everyone else.
 
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Ghost In The Machine said:
Reminds me of a person who didn't feel at all wrong.

One of my favourite ever kids I taught. Would be in his early 30s now. He was fiercely intelligent but I taught him in a really disadvantaged (OK, dog rough) school and his mum was a bit of a crim.

For some reason, he formed a bond with me - think maybe because I found ways to make him behave that none of my predecessors (or apparently, those who taught him after me) did. He was loud and cheeky but good natured and I was always telling him that with his brains he could do anything in life, one day. My colleagues were cynical about this and said he'd end up a master criminal.

Out of curiosity one day I put his name into Google - wondering if he'd distinguished himself in any way, in adult life. He was up there as one of the most intelligent kids I ever taught. Bound to be a surgeon or a journalist or something, with that fierce intelligence. I wanted to feel my old job hadn't been an utter waste of time and of all the kids I taught, surely he'd have done something to distinguish himself.

Turned out he was all over the papers - had been done for armed robbery. But got a slightly lighter sentence than his colleagues - for being polite to the person emptying the till. I felt a weird pride in him.

He totally never felt wrong to me. Although he did to everyone else.
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Such a waste really, but possibly not unexpected given his background. I know a couple who teach in a special school and some of the pupils are very intelligent despite their other significant challenges. Some of these parents don't give a toss about their kids and it becomes apparent that they will achieve very little in their lives despite the attention they receive at the school and even go down the route of your former pupil. So sad really.
 
In the reverse, there was a boy at my school who was an inveterate bully. He wasn't physically tough but he was good at manipulation and spiteful practical jokes - such as sprinkling washing powder into your washed hair so that it took ages to get out and so on. He made the last two years of school hell for me.
When I went to a school reunion, I discovered that he was now a yoga and meditation teacher.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
He totally never felt wrong to me. Although he did to everyone else.
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I don't think he was "wrong", he just never really stood much chance. You did all you could to encourage him but if no-one else did then his chances wouldn't have been great. I am sure he still remembers that one teacher who was good to him in school.
 
Stormkhan said:
In the reverse, there was a boy at my school who was an inveterate bully. He wasn't physically tough but he was good at manipulation and spiteful practical jokes - such as sprinkling washing powder into your washed hair so that it took ages to get out and so on. He made the last two years of school hell for me.
When I went to a school reunion, I discovered that he was now a yoga and meditation teacher.
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I'd've gone up to him and said 'Wow, yoga and meditation eh? A bit different from when you were such a cunt at school.'
 
Stormkhan said:
In the reverse, there was a boy at my school who was an inveterate bully. He wasn't physically tough but he was good at manipulation and spiteful practical jokes - such as sprinkling washing powder into your washed hair so that it took ages to get out and so on. He made the last two years of school hell for me.
When I went to a school reunion, I discovered that he was now a yoga and meditation teacher.
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Two of the worst bullies in my year at school, already dead as is the class bully's "henchman" from my high school form. First I knew about one of them was seeing his gravestone as I walked the dog in my old village. Coincidentally, some time later I saw what I'd guess were his wife and grown up daughter putting flowers there (I didn't recognise the wife as anyone I'd been at school with, but you never know...) And I was so tempted to go up to her and say I'd been at school with her husband. But I thought better of it and just kept on with my mutt walking as she'd have reacted in a way that probably would have prompted me to say more and there was nothing I could say apart from the fact he was one of the worst bullies in the year above me. I managed to avoid him for my entire time at primary and secondary school but others were less lucky. So odd to see people mourning over a person you only ever knew as a shit.

I tried to tell myself, we were only kids and maybe he grew into an amazing adult. But it's hard to feel convinced that that leopard would change its spots.

I only speak to one person I was at high school with, on FB. He was my friend at school but we kept it low key as in those days boys weren't meant to be friends with girls. And he is the one who still is in contact with everyone else and passes intel on to me.

The lad who was in himself not so bad but acted like a henchman to our class bully - worst bully in my very large year intake, for context - my friend told me he became a copper. He died in his thirties, apparently, of cancer. And the girl who was the worst female bully, she died a couple years back - my mate was at the funeral. When he told me I said I can't lie, I was mercilessly bullied by her for over a year (friend had no memory of this but that first year at school we weren't yet mates). Then one day, I overheard her saying to her henchwoman she was stopping bullying me because she'd found out my mother was dead. She was nothing but nice to me for the remaining years at high school but I never trusted or liked her. I went to FB stalk her to see what sort of an adult she'd turned into. She was my polar opposite, in every way, and I wasn't surprised.

Almost no-one I knew at high school "felt right" now I think of it lol - teachers or kids - but now I'm older and wiser wonder if that's not my undiagnosed autistic tendencies that are to blame for me thinking everyone around me (apart from this friend and one or two others) were dicks. So I don't trust my judgement about people, FWIW. Pal is also startled when we chat how unhappy I was, and how much I disliked everyone as he remembers school with fondness whereas I still have nightmares and sometimes it's like we weren't even in the same room as eachother for 5 years! My perception is so wildly different, it makes me distrust my ability to read people.

Probably for the best I didn't speak to the women laying flowers at the grave of the bully from the year above, though because I tend to say what I think, and couldn't have varnished it, that he was a nightmare who everyone avoided/loathed.

ETA: FB tells me the worst bully in my year at school is now a company director...
 
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