Comments on: An Incomplete and Random List of Various Beloved Characters in Duluth

By: cannon crombie

cannon crombie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:45:57 +0000

Shit, Duluth is filled with nothing but characters! Hopefully someone like myself or another person will use this material to write a good book about them. If it hasn’t been done already. I’ve come across my fair share. How about that one midget? F**k ,he was one mean son of a bitch. This was circa late 1970s or 80s? You could see him often sitting on a stool at the counter in that one cafe that use to be on Superior Street. Was it called the Capri?

By: jim wilferling

jim wilferling — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:50:20 +0000

As to the ‘French Larry’ thing, Larry spent a lot of time, like alot of us, owing phone bills, magazine subscriptions, etc. half of Larry Whalen’s old mail was Adressed to ‘Larry French’. When he would return from the island, he’d call to get the phone service reconnected, and upon hearing the adress and room number, the phone co would inquire about the former tennant, Larry French, about which Larry would deny all knowledge. and git his phone hooked up. Or someting like that. At least thats what Larry told me back in the day. I remember when emerson coop was trying to railroad me out, thet trumped up some instant eviction noise complaint. To which I fired off a point by point, by-law based rebuttal letter, printed on Larry’s printer. after reading it, he exclaimed ‘Bravo!’ and made me a coffee. I think he was titillated to se the system we just set up rigorously tested. Starfire, Larry himself showed me a ‘I opened my mind to French Larry’ button. And yes, he was a professional dancer before he fried his knees. Jules Hart once referred to him as an ‘Aging Tart’.

By: baci

baci — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:00:52 +0000

I just saw loud radio guy, riding his three wheeler adult trike thing on 5th street heading east. He had on RADIO EARPHONES!

By: amy a.

amy a. — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:27:54 +0000

i work in the mall, and i see harold walking up there nearly every day.

By: Rij

Rij — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:36:40 +0000

“Five mile an hour Harold”…had that name when I was a kid in the 70’s because he drove his car around Duluth Heights, never exceeding 5 miles an hour. Most recently(the last 20 years) he can be seen walking all reaches of the city, wearing two different shoes, in all types of weather. I saw him in the last few days trekking through a road costruction site up by the mall, with a walker.

By: lojasmo

lojasmo — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:54:57 +0000

Second N8 (RIP)

And Andy Nelson, former colder by the lake actor…a true character (RIP)

If anybody goes to Steve’s video store, ask for something Jason Askelin would like. I haven’t been there in over 20 years, but I bet he’ll remember…you’ll get soem WEIRD films.

By: Chad

Chad — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:34:56 +0000

Lyle the Banana Man lives in Gary. I’ve had several encounters with him on the bus.. most ending up about smoking bananas.

Something that comes to my mind is from the 90s, I vaguely remember an old man who would would play music from his mini-van. I remember seeing him at the boardwalk and the Walmart parking lot at least. Anyone know anything more about him? I think he might have had “the music man” or something like that on his van as well.

By: Rae

Rae — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:51:11 +0000

Dizastress/ben boylan: Is Superior running man the slight build of a man with dark curly hair who runs in khaki pants and goes to every gas station around lunch time asking for old lottery tickets? I’ve seen him around quite a bit and even pointed him out to my brother the other day.

Deanie was around when my parents where younger, early 1970’s, and the legend is that he actually got into some peoples garages and blew their car engines up because he was revving the engines too much. He love engines and we always try to play into his fascination with a little engine revving teaser.

By: zra

zra — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:09:03 +0000

@ vicarious…yeah, that guy used to wander around the Plaza/Armory area.

@ goose…”red” is Dave Sorensen. Used to roast @ alakef, now bakes bread @ 3rd St.

By: vicarious

vicarious — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:04:16 +0000

Today at Sixth Ave. and Fourth St. I saw a gentlemen in colorful Zubaz with socks pulled over the bottoms, a long-sleeve sweatshirt covered by HUGE #4 Packers jersey, leather gloves, and a 3/4-size Packers football helmet on his head.