He always called himself ‘the wanderer’ because he could not seem to sit still too long in any one place without going mad with boredom. He seemed to have a disregard for modern convention, simply because it did not suit his taste. Whenever he left his home, he wore the most brazen of outfits, some of which seemed practical but most of which seemed fanciful. Those who knew him well, which were surprisingly many, always got the impression that he was constantly looking for something or someone. He had many nicknames including: the Riddler, Vas, Porkchop, Jasodin, but mostly he was known as Old Crazy Man Pickett!!. He was called this for a variety of reasons but mainly it was simply descriptive of the man. He was old, with a long grey fork beard, and a sliver of a shave down the chin to ensure the fork-like quality of it. He was crazy, but that of course is what the story will describe. He was a man... and he figured they always put that in there for metre to the nickname. And of course, he was Pickett, this above all things was true for he was christened such a name upon his birth into the world, that is ‘Jason David Pickett’ He knew all of these nicknames well and he knew too, that he deserved them all, but somehow this did not displease him. In fact he seemed to nurture this last nickname all he could for he was every day growing older, that could not be helped. Additionally, he seemed to become crazier daily, he would simply add on to those quirky habits that made folks raise their eyebrows at him.
Old Crazy Man Pickett!! was a man who was known to wear the most obnoxious of outfits that would ostracise anyone else, were they so audacious to try their hands at his wardrobe. Generally speaking, Pickett would leave his hut of a house every morning wearing his derby hat, round gold framed spectacles, long grey hair and beard, black sweat pants, wellington boots, peasant’s blouse, over which was his union jack vest, replete with a thick golden chain leading to his pocket watch, and finally his flowing forest green cape on his back. He would wear other things of course, depending on his mood, and his mood was most obvious by the clothes he wore out. Sometimes he would dress in period appropriate costumes, but appropriate to which period was another matter. Sometimes he would wear his hair in a pony tail and braid his beard. Other times he would charge out of the house with a broad brimmed wizard’s hat, bearing a staff in one hand, and what appeared to be a bluish-grey sort of robe and cape, exclaiming “Where am I gonna sit?! Where am I gonna sit?!” and in an obvious hurry to what seemed to be nowhere to sit. Sometimes he appeared to wear normal clothing, but never without a hat it seemed. His hats varied tremendously too, for it seemed that certainly favoured his bowler, but he would often wear a satin top hat, or a fedora with a full scale zoot suit. On occasion, he would even come outside wearing only a loin cloth and t-shirt, he seemed to do this one particularly to get on people’s nerves.
Our adventure begins with Pickett wearing his most typical suit, the bowler, green cape, sweat pants, vest and wellington boots. It was the beginning of Spring and Pickett was excited as he was sitting alone in his hut. He jumped up and said “Hot damn, lilacs!” and burst through his front door exclaiming “Eat my dust, loo-sers!” The few people who were outside paid him little mind as these outbursts were far too common for them to be really worth taking notice of. He ran down the street, or rather walked briskly crying out “Lilac time, la la la, lilac time!” But by the time he had gotten to the end of his street he found no budding purple flowers that he had hoped to find. He was a bit mystified as one of his eyebrows raised in slight annoyance and puzzlement. He opened his watch and read the date ‘22 MAR’ it read, then he threw up his hands (after tucking the watch back into its sheath) and said “Ahh, of course they don’t just pop out at ya because Spring just started... damn it!” And he rushed back inside his hut.