Only in Eugene.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Picture this: a sweltering August afternoon on Eighth Avenue between Willamette and Olive streets. A long-haired, tattooed guy with construction-crew biceps dressed in a faded T-shirt, heavy work boots and an attractive calf-length wrap-around floral skirt, swaggering along the sidewalk.

We've all seen this sort of thing - slices of Eugene life that attest to a fairly broad continuum of normalcy. This town provides its denizens plenty of room to maneuver.

As folks gear up for the three-day celebration of the idiosyncratic event that we call the Country Fair, we share readers' "only in Eugene" encounters.

Strangers among us

South Eugene resident Anne Todd woke up one morning to discover a stranger sleeping on her pull-out couch, which had not been pulled out when she and her husband went to bed the night before.

"The stranger had entered through an unlocked door, helped himself to putting his food away in the refrigerator, used the bathroom and was sleeping soundly," she said.

After waking him up and chatting with him, "We find out that he was supposed to be four blocks down the street at Sonja's house, not ours. He had wondered why we had been so rude as to not make up the bed for him. Before he leaves, we find out that he is in town to attend the workshop that one of us is teaching."

Not your average blue hair

Carole Biondello doesn't need reality TV shows. She's already got a great view from the front window in her downtown Eugene home:

"I see a blue-haired, barefoot man walking by in deep cell phone conversation. Tugging at the end of the leash wrapped around his tattooed arm is a large, brown dog. While the man chats, the dog stops to deposit a pile on my tiny lawn. As I'm thinking, 'Oh, brother, more poop for my friends and the mailman to step in,' the chatting, blue-haired, tattooed, barefoot man whips a baggy from his rumpled pants and without losing a beat, scoops up the waste and the two continue on their way."

Hippy haven

A double-decker hippie bus - school bus with VW microbus welded to its roof - represents quintessential Eugene to Teresa Koford. She and her husband saw it while driving on Sixth Avenue shortly after moving to Eugene in 2001.

"Just then, the bus passed an old burned-out hippie-looking guy," she said. "This guy saw the double-decker hippie bus and his eyes lit up with a fire I bet they had not had for quite some time. He broke into a smile a mile wide and gave a double thumbs ups sign to the bus as it went by.

"There are many places in the world where you could see such a bus and many places where you could see such a hippie, but only in Eugene could you see such a bus and a hippie so happy to see such a bus."

Celebrating Willie

Royd Faust has lived in the Eugene area since 1942, and points out that only here can you find bridges named after "short, strange-looking men with no discernible source of income."

"I'm not even speaking about Peter DeFazio," he said.

Here's the skinny according to Faust:

"I remember this little old man riding his bike all over town and his basket full of bottles. I especially remember him during parades. ... He had to be in his 60s, 70s, even 80s.

"The show stopper was when he pumped the pedals very hard and then did a handstand for the crowd. I was certainly impressed. He was great."

Only Eugene would honor someone like that by naming a bridge after him, Faust said.

"He is and he will always be Willie Knickerbocker."

The bridge at the southeast end of Alton Baker Park was named for Knickerbocker in 1978.

Bumper stickers, etc.

Here's a smattering of slogans seen out and about:

"Old hippies never fade away, they just tie-dye"

On a white van with Ohio plates that had obviously found its spiritual home: "Stay Human," "Gap Sucks," "Support Organic Farmers" and a sticker touting Dennis Kucinich for president.

On a mid-'80s American sedan driven by a guy who looked more like a logger than an environmentalist: "Old-growth forests: where size really does matter."

Seen side by side at a stoplight: A beater car with stickers for John Kerry and Kitty Piercy and one that read "Peace is Patriotic" next to a newer Subaru with a license-plate holder that read "Marine Mom."

Seen on Sixth Avenue on a pickup: "Springfield: a Eugene city-council free zone."

- Compiled by reporter Susan Palmer - whose favorite interview was with a comely pink flamingo outside the Country Fair gate.