Were you scared/fascinated by local characters when you were a kid.?

[katyjay 5,091]

#16, yo lickle bogger, yo scarred me fa life.

[carni 10,094]

Brothers! Love em to bits though.

[banjo48 928]

Growing up near Mapperley plains as kids we were very scared of the local mr plod, we called him officer Dibble of Top Cat fame.

He was 6' 6" of mean machine riding his black Raleigh push bike on his beat. I'm mentioned here before that as young lads we used to hang out outside the library on corner of Westdale lane and as we saw him approaching we used to cringe as we knew one of us would be at his mercy one way or another, his favorite was grabbing you buy the ear and asking you in no polite terms what we had been up to.

The good thing I suppose is we knew and respected him for what he was, all that changed when the first panda cars appeared and that personal contact was lost and the fear and respect I suppose too.

Don't know how true it was but did hear later that our officer Dibble had been caught red handed with some stolen computers from the new then Digby college where some recent break inns had taken place, cannot say it was true or not but that was the rumour on the teenage grapevine.

[Guest]

Raggety was he the twiglet man?

[Blondie 1,392]

If you had a pheasant feather, that could make you a pheasant plucker.

Ive met a lot of pheasant pluckers over the years...........

[MapperleyMan 122]

Growing up in Mapperley when the hospital was still open there were a number of local characters (I mean patients of course) who would roam along Woodborough Road in either direction from the top of Porchester Road. The one I particularly remember was a quite elderly chap who only wore pyjamas and an overcoat which was usually open. He was notable because he had always peed himself. I once queued up for chips in what is now the Plains Fish Bar next to Bailey's at the Mapperley precinct and he was in front of me in the queue. It wasn't so much that he was frightening but, as a kid, I learned from the attitude of the adults who saw him and shied away from him. I'd guess he was actually quite lonely really.

[MargieH 7,613]

There was a lady, probably in her thirties, who used to wander round Woodthorpe Park around 1959-60. I think she was called Dorothy, and was very well-spoken and attractive. I always remember her wearing a deep pink coloured coat. The group I used to hang around with always used to talk to her, although some of them weren't as kind as they should have been and would ask her inappropriate questions. Most of us, though, tried to be kind to her, but I always wondered where she lived and why she was the way she was.

[Chulla 4,946]

Mrs Chulla remembers an eccentric, well-dressed lady that used to be seen regularly in the Sherwood area. She lived on Perry Road and wife thinks her name was Gillian. She remembers her from her senior school days and as late as the mid-sixties. She remembers her wearing a fur coat, but this could be in cold weather. Would be unusual to have two eccentric ladies in the same area and in the same period.

[MargieH 7,613]

It WAS Gillian, not Dorothy, now you mention it, Chulla!! Now where did I get Dorothy from? She always wore make-up and as I said, she spoke very nicely and always dressed well. Fancy someone else remembering her.....

[Michael Booth 7,364]

We know everything on Nottstalgia, Margie and to make sure, Cliff Ton will post a map for us.