The Pink Man

When I first moved to Riverside, I encountered something very odd while enjoying the weekly Happy Hour at the Palace. It had started to rain, so the seven or eight of us left right before closing time were standing under the awning, most of us trying to finish off pitchers before heading out to dance our faces off.

Out of nowhere, up sped a man (superhero) dressed in a hot pink, spandex unitard and silver cape armed only with his unicycle. Yes. It was my first encounter with His Pinkness (although, for my friends, he was just The Pink Man and it wasn’t uncommon to see him spinning around in bars and clubs and down streets on his unicycle). And up until this week’s Folio Weekly article “Unipsycho”, I had no idea where he’d come from or what he’d done.

The Pink Man evidently has quite a history, having traveled all over the country (and to several others) “pinking” and spreading cheer and confusion to the masses. He’s a sight to behold, alright. The beauty of The Pink Man is that he can be anywhere. You can be minding your own business one minute and the next minute, there he is spinning and grinning. And then, just like that, he’s gone. And you are not sure what has just happened. Did you really just see him? Is he insane? Are YOU insane?

Anyway, it looks as though after a year and a half, my neighbor The Pink Man, has moved on to spread the pink somewhere new.

Farewell, Pink Man, farewell. You’ll be missed.