Two personalities stand out from my younger days working/hanging out in the vicinity of Bowen and Park Row. One was a lady, who appeared to be mentally ill/homeless, who came in and out of all of the shops and stores down there more or less every day...I recall she had a little dog with her that looked as dirty and fleabitten as she did. I was working in the Radio Shack near that intersection then, and shed come in every day or so and empty the ashtrays (tells you how long ago THAT was) The scuttlebutt was that she was Mrs Jacobs, wife of the Jacobs of Fox and Jacobs homes, and that, after shed gone off the deep end, so to speak, her husband had provided an apartment for her somewhere around there and paid the police to keep an eye on her to insure her safety. Never did know if that was true or if that was just a rumor, but I definately remember the woman and her little dog. The other person I remember was someone everyone simply called The Cowboy....he hung out at the Braums near Bowen and Park Row, camping out for most of the day in one of the booths toward the back. An older man, he had what must have been a closet full of pastel colored western-cut suits, each with a matching pastel-colored cowboy hat, and wore a different-colored ensemble every day. He always greeted customers and was always friendly, never intrusive, and became a beloved fixture there. I remember reading that he went regularly to a hair salon nearby to get his hair -- what there was of it -- dyed red. I believe that when he died, there was an elaborate funeral for the man who no one really knew, but whose presence, appearance and kindly demeanor had nonetheless made him a beloved figure.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 21:12:30 +0000